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Tales From Woodcreek is a new way to play Dungeons & Dragons

Deborah Ann Woll reveals how she transformed an entire village into a D&D escape room

Image: Dungeon Dudes

Renowned Dungeon Master Deborah Ann Woll has once again proved she’s a major pioneer when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons actual play.

Even before Dimension 20 went full set-design and Critical Role built an entire soundstage, Woll’s 2019 actual play series Relics & Rarities introduced immersive set design and bespoke physical artifacts and puzzles for celebrity players. With her latest series, Tales From Woodcreek, Woll has taken it one step further and transformed an entire historic village into a bonafide D&D escape room. The first episode aired Oct. 31 on the Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel, with new episodes dropping every Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Generations ago, a witch cursed the village of Woodcreek and its four founding families. Many years later, their descendants — and a few special guests — return to put an end to the curse and restore Woodcreek to its former glory. Co-created with Ed Gass-Donnelly (also a longtime DM), Tales From Woodcreek fuses the unscripted TV format with D&D — all filmed on location at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto, Canada.

Black Creek is a real historical site that regularly hosts paranormal investigations and ghost tours, along with more traditional educational programming. That means you get plenty of creaking floorboards in the Victorian schoolhouse and dirt paths connecting it to the rest of the village.

In a group phone call with Polygon, Woll and Gass-Donnelly described how the production developed into this bespoke, sprawling escape room set across the entire town — and how the setting itself influenced the storytelling.

“We really wanted to mix up the idea of how you play D&D,” she said, noting how custom, handmade props became a fixture for the experience that resonated with the historical setting.

“A battle map can be a chalkboard. Your table can be school desks,” she said. “You’ll see in each episode, we really try to redefine how you can play this game in different settings with different materials.”

Gass-Donnelly said he and Woll had been brainstorming ideas for a “spiritual successor” to Relics & Rarities when he came up with the idea to tour Black Creek. At that point, Woll already had the loose idea of Tales From Woodcreek in place as a series of “fairytales for adults.” The thing about fairytales, though, is that they’re often pretty terrifying.

Image: Dungeon Dudes

“We just instantly started getting excited by the possibilities and got so inspired by the place,” Gass-Donnelly said, describing a particularly creepy staircase they found on a tour that they integrated into the story. “A big part of it is about getting people up on their feet and creating the immersion and interactivity.”

Gass-Donnelly, who has a background in theater, said he loved the idea of the “magic and theatricality” of it all mixed with “a bit of sleight of hand.”

That energy shows in the finished product. After three days of prep, the entire first season was filmed in just four days, with one adventure segment consisting of two episodes per day. That “razor-thin timeline” forced them to build, write, and improvise late into the night.

“We were up till 2 to 4 a.m. every night doing calligraphy and building things because something had shifted,” Woll said. “Even as tired as we were, it was this wonderful moment of — we’re doing this to delight four of our friends tomorrow.”

Tales From Woodcreek stars three core cast members: Monty Martin as paladin Victor Gravesong, Kelly McLaughlin as bard Valentine Gravesong, and Anjali Bhimani as shapeshifting warlock Victoria “Vix” Stong — all descendants of the four cursed founding families of Woodcreek. Martin and McLaughlin, longtime D&D aficionados, run the Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel that hosts the series. Each two-episode arc brings in a celebrity guest: Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel) in episodes 1–2, Jessica Henwick (Glass Onion) in episodes 3–4, as well as Shaun Majumder and Wil Wheaton later in the season.

Image: Dungeon Dudes

“It was so amazing being on set, knowing that you guys were working through the night until the crack of dawn because the vibe on the set was so exciting and positive and full of energy,” Bhimani told Polygon on the call. “And I don’t know how you did it, because the energy never let up once we started.”

Each two-episode arc balances lore, exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat in equal measure. And along the way, there’s Woll herself leading the way as a feeling-first storyteller who prioritizes immersion and player agency.

“Deb has this glimmer in her eyes that lets you know, yes, there’s a scary ghost teacher floating in the air — but it’s still her,” said Bhimani. “You’re safe, even while you’re terrified.”

That balance of handmade horror and real joy defines Woodcreek. The premiere arc features locked-room puzzles, an animatronic spellbook with a blinking eye, a cursed library, and a surprise shift into cosmic horror. Everything is grounded in real physical space. Doors open. Lanterns flicker. Staircases groan. Players jump. And sometimes they scream.

“It’s about surprising the players,” Gass-Donnelly said. “The minute they think they know what’s happening, we change the rules.”