Where the Tall Wheat Grows

By Camilla Gree, Evlyn Moreau
10d10 Toads
OSE
"Low Levels"

Upon which is agreed, An old stone wall separates the family farm from a field they say is cursed. Deep within the wheat, two forgotten idols once balanced the spirits of the crops. One has been destroyed and bal- ance is gone, The Noon Lady rises and the crop spirits grow cruel. The Polotnikovs have disappeared into the field and their farm is soon to follow..

This 42 page adventure, HEAVY on folklore,  uses about twenty pages to describe about twenty locations around an old farm and field with fey about. Very nice folklore elements, but a kind of aimlessness to the adventure that feels like it belongs to neither the old world of the OSR or the new world of plot.

Head Up. I like folklore in my adventures. And this adventure is stuffed full of it. Done well. And, yet, I am not seduced by its charms. Of the adventure, that is. Because I AM drooling over a one-eyed witch in a hut in the woods who lets her steaming eyes cool in a pie plate on her windowsill. 

And that IS the strength of the adventure. The folklore. The witch swapping in eyes. The house spirit whimpering in the oven. Child-like murder goblin fey, violent in gangs but cowardly; sleep in one big pile in crop circles. Wow. Nice. Easy to scare off; will return. Love food easily distracted connoisseurs. That’s a wonderful picture of some slavic farm fey. Or the witch, previously mentioned,  that “Swaps between three eyes from her human skin satchel. “ The old soldiers spirits in the fey field, scared of the congress of crows that will take them to the afterlife and needing the hanging gallows, where some met their deaths, taken care of. That’s some good ghost spirits of vets and nicely integrated crows! Time after time after time the folklore elements of this hit and hit and hit. The theming is strong. The folklore comes through. These things FEEL right. They feel like something that has been a part of you and your history forever. (Then again, I’m from Indiana…  Hmmm, I wonder if the folklore from the eurotrash plains is as recognizable to the Argentine crop plain as it is to the middle west?)   The creatures here are great. The way they interact with the (missing) family and the party is great.

Hey, also, the art here is great. I don’t really judge art. I would LUV for all art in all adventures to enhance the adventure. And it almost never does. But, here, it does a great job of helping communicate the vibe. 

I don’t really have anything else nice to say.

The premise here is ok, I guess. Basically the entire family is missing. But how that premise is worked in to the players and their characters is rough. There are some standard throw away hooks. Hired blah blah blah, family member, etc. The best is probably that a treasure map the party found says there’s a treasure in the field. This being the generic OSR/1e version of “you were hired.” But there’s nothing but the farm and field here. No village or neighbors. No integration. And I’m not saying every adventure needs that, but, here? I think that would be one way to solve the problem of motivation. I guess, right now, you’re just doing it because the family is missing. IE: some kind of plot/hero thing. But, then, the rest of the adventure is essentially a dungeoncrawl with few to no plot points. That don’t match that motivation. And there’s no oracular thing going on, or anything to motivate the players. Hence the appeal of the treasure map hook to me. But, then, I don’t really give a shit about the family, just the loot. This is what I mean when I say the adventure is aimless. I THINK you’re supposed to be finding the family. But it’s not set up that way. It feels like a dungeoncrawl to find the five red keys. Which in this case all have the same last name. 

It all feels off. Like you are just wandering around experiencing things. Not All WHo Wander Are Lost blah blah blah. Maybe not, but the adventure is leaning a little hard there. If I don’t give a shit then …? And I don’t think I’d give a shit in this adventure. There’s no real motivation to find the family and no real treasure/power hook to motivate the character advancement. And this extends to the fields. While the folklore elements are here, in the creatures and how they act, the field of wheat is almost an afterthought. I’m not even sure it gets a description. Just a quick note on how to judge the party wandering between the rows. Turnip Head Jack may be great, but the fields, and their vibe, are just not very present in the adventure. Even though the adventure TAKES PLACE IN THE FIELDS. (However, we do cover burning the fields down, which I appreciated.) 

I’m disappointed by a few smaller points. The lack of an overview for characters surveying the farm and fields. A missing farm implement on the farm implements chart (central to the adventure). But, those are trivial editing things. It just feels not done. Like the families background not really being integrated in, even though it is clearly supposed to be a major thing. 

I love each of the individual encounters in this, and each individual creature and person, but they just don’t fit together well at all. Wander down the path Meet/fight the weird slavic folklore thing. Wander down another path and do the same thing. It just all feels so hollow. And I think that’s an unfair criticism, but I’m going to make it anyway. Would I make this criticism of an exploratory dungeon? I suspect not? Would I make it of a plot based adventure? Maybe? And, as I posited earlier, I think that’s the problem. Neither exploratory or plot. A beast with no home. I don’t know. If I were playing this … it’s not BAD. I’m not frustrated with it for the usual reasons of not being able to find things or it being boring or lacking interactivity. It’s full of interesting things and opportunities. Maybe its that the various situations feel disconnected? But, again, is that a valid criticism appearing for other adventures? 

This one is close.

This is $8 at DriveThru. The preview four pages, and pretty worthless. It would have been nice to get a preview that shows you some of the adventure so you know what to expect.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/384352/where-the-wheat-grows-tall?1892600