Deborah Ann Woll Details Tales from Woodcreek Season 2

Deborah Ann Woll and filmmaker Ed Gass-Donnelly did not plan to make a Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in a haunted colonial village. When they visited Toronto’s Black Creek Pioneer Village with a loose idea, the pair grew fascinated by the weathered schoolhouse, creaking staircases, and historic buildings. The location inspired the fictional town of Woodcreek, and Tales from Woodcreek began.

“We just got so inspired by the place,” Gass-Donnelly told Polygon shortly after season 1 began airing. “Because this was a site-specific place and show, we really tailored a lot of the adventure to the location,” Woll added.

The 2025 series followed three adventurers played by Anjali Bhimani, Monty Martin, and Kelly McLaughlin as they investigated a centuries-old witch’s curse over Woodcreek. The show blended traditional actual play elements with exploration of historic buildings at night, handmade props examined with blacklight Lanterns of Revealing, and environmental puzzles.

Guest stars rotated through each two-episode mini-arc across the eight episodes, alongside confessional interviews with the cast. Tales from Woodcreek combined actual play, escape room mechanics, and reality television.

Woll and Gass-Donnelly planned the series as an anthology, initially choosing a second season inspired by the golden age of Hollywood. The campaign took shape after they found a mysterious 1920s to 1930s mansion in Canada whose location they keep secret.

“Our basic pitch was Clue at the Overlook Hotel,” Woll tells Polygon, referencing the haunted hotel from Stephen King’s The Shining. “We think we found our Overlook Hotel.”

Gass-Donnelly described the location as a sprawling mansion restored by an architect over 26 years. Hidden passageways and architectural details inspired puzzles before writing began.

“Even just some of the wording that was written around the house, we were like, ‘This feels like an escape room,'” Gass-Donnelly says.

Woll spotted unusual symbols in a bathroom and immediately thought of a puzzle.

In early July, the pair released a black-and-white teaser trailer for season 2 featuring Woll in a flapper dress talking to the camera about a party at the estate of motion picture moguls known as the Bickell Brothers. The trailer confirmed a Kickstarter launch on August 11, with production expected to begin in the winter.

Puzzles began early. After the trailer release, the author received a brown envelope containing weathered and burned papers, a burlap sack with a key, and a 1929 letter from Woll with a cipher. That cipher led to bickellbrosstudios.com, where a Caesar cipher opened the account of receptionist Ms. Green and revealed suspicious activity involving the Bickell Brothers.

Subsequent Kickstarter updates showed that actors working for Bickell Brothers Studios had disappeared, turning the campaign into the opening act of season 2.

The latest update connects to the Dungeon Dudes channel, Ginny Di as a new core cast member, Legends of Avantris, Theatre of the Unaligned, DnD Shorts, and Taylor’s Tavern Tales. These channels will release clues as part of an augmented reality game leading into season 2.

Gass-Donnelly wanted the crowdfunding campaign to function as an extension of the show.

“If we’re going to do a Kickstarter, how can we actually make the idea of the Kickstarter campaign a campaign in and of itself?” he says. “Even if they don’t give us the money, they can still play.”

Woll noted that the augmented reality game establishes the setting’s history before filming begins.

“We could begin to build the lore of this location so that through supporting the Kickstarter and unlocking all of these little bits of history of this place, you’re actually preparing yourself to have a deeper experience once the show is created,” Woll says.

The approach aims to preserve the handmade identity of the first season, which Woll and Gass-Donnelly built using craft supplies and practical effects. Season 2 will use funding to pursue more ambitious ideas and compensate contributors.

“We will never not be scrappy,” Woll said. “But we just want to continue to evolve. Can we have bigger, more intricate props? And some of that has to do with just time. And time requires paying people for their time and their energy and their creativity.”

Gass-Donnelly noted that the first season relied on “sweat equity and generosity,” pushing resources to the limit with overheating cameras and tight practical effects.

Woll still wants to handwrite letters without working until four in the morning. Gass-Donnelly emphasized that season 2 keeps the tabletop game at its core.

“We never want the show just to become LARPing,” he says. “Some of our favorite episodes are still, at the end of the day, players sitting at a table. It’s just a table in a really cool location.”

The 1920s setting reinterprets D&D classes, spells, and mechanics through period technology and occult culture. Magic might stem from analog machinery rather than traditional wands, utilizing early photography, phonographs, electricity, and séances.

“You can make this anything you want,” Woll said. “If you like old folk horror, if you like 1920s séance fodder, then you can make this anything you want it to be.”

Bhimani, Martin, and McLaughlin return for season 2 alongside new regular player Ginny Di, who joined during a promotional Session 0. Rotating celebrity guests will also appear.

Woll described the series as an anthology shifting genres and locations while connecting back to Woodcreek, where at least one missing actress claims her hometown. Gass-Donnelly compared it to expanding from a town into a county.

 

Source: Polygon