Where the Wheat Grows Tall

2/3/2022

Where the Wheat Grows Tall

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The Basic Crawl
00:00:21 - Overview
00:02:26- How have we used this in our games?
00:02:49 - Things we liked about this adventure
00:15:46 - Questions we had about this adventure
00:19:50 - Chain Lightning Round

The Expert Delve
00:21:28 - Folk horror in tabletop roleplaying games.

Companion Adventures
00:38:53 - RPGs
00:39:59 - Film
00:43:04 - TV
00:44:36 - Literature

Linda Codega article on Dicebreaker: https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/feature/folklore-rpgs-fresh-perspectives-cultures

4 Comments

Jenx

2/16/2022 07:27:41 am

This was a really fun episode! My experience running Where the Wheat Grows Tall definitely made the module feel like it needed a bit more clearer indication on where this was all going, and there's a bunch of other conflicts that, while interesting, seemed kind of irrelevant to the central one (the crows and the ghost soldiers for example. Siding with each one gets you an ally...but an ally that is utterly unconcerned with the Noon Lady or the Midnight Maiden or really anything going on in the wheat field. So what's the use?)

As for folk horror, last month I watched a really good, 3 hour long documentary that you can rent on youtube called Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A history of Folk Horror and it delivers a very thorough examination of the genre, worth a watch if you haven't seen it already!

Marcus F

2/23/2022 11:34:04 am

Loved, loved, looooved this episode and scenario! I'm a fan of the Folk Horror genre and wanted to 2nd Shudder's documentary "Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched"!
I think a good example of Urban Folk Horror is "Candyman"
Thank you both for a great episode!

Steve Dempsey

3/27/2022 07:09:18 am

Folk horror is very much my wheelhouse, suffusing much of what I've published, in horror, fantasy and occasionally SF. For a relatively recent, and film focused, definition of Folk Horror, Adam Scovell is the originator and you can read his 2014 presentation here: https://celluloidwickerman.com/2014/09/25/the-folk-horror-chain/. There are three parts, landscape -> isolation -> beliefs.

I would also contend that one can improvise Folk Horror, that's what my recent Fearful Symmetries campaign setting is all about.

Once you understand the themes and the pressures to apply to the characters, the scenarios build themselves. You need to keep feeding them titbits of weird and scary information, even if you don't know how they all add up. The players will add them up, and you need to agree with them, but also, at some point, confound them. And finally, a difficult choice, one which can't easily be solved by magic or thumping, is a good end point. Like in the excellent Where the Wheat Grows Tall.

Steve Dempsey

3/27/2022 07:15:25 am

Dark Depths is available on BGG here: https://boardgamegeek.com/files/thing/108781.

Talking of inspiration, much of the Nigel Kneale oeuvre borrows from Folk Horror, even in the SF crossovers, and in particular the excellent Quatermass series, especially the last one Quatermass IV, with hippies chanting in stone circles.

Fear of a Black Dragon

Where the Wheat Grows Tall

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