D&D 5E The Next D&D Book is JOURNEYS THROUGH THE RADIANT CITADEL

We peered, poked, squinted, flipped, and enhanced the teaser image that WotC put out last week, and it turns out we got it right -- the next book is, indeed, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

Wraparound cover art by Evyn Fong​

Through the mists of the Ethereal Plane shines the Radiant Citadel. Travelers from across the multiverse flock to this mysterious bastion to share their traditions, stories, and calls for heroes. A crossroads of wonders and adventures, the Radiant Citadel is the first step on the path to legend. Where will your journeys take you?

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is a collection of thirteen short, stand-alone D&D adventures featuring challenges for character levels 1–14. Each adventure has ties to the Radiant Citadel, a magical city with connections to lands rich with excitement and danger, and each can be run by itself or as part of an ongoing campaign. Explore this rich and varied collection of adventures in magical lands.

• Thirteen new stand-alone adventures spanning levels 1 to 14, each with its own set of maps
• Introduces the Radiant Citadel, a new location on the Ethereal Plane that connects adventurers to richly detailed and distinct corners of the D&D multiverse
• Each adventure can be set in any existing D&D campaign setting or on worlds of your own design
• Introduces eleven new D&D monsters
• There’s a story for every adventuring party, from whimsical and light to dark and foreboding and everything in between

Slated for June 21st (update - I just got a press release which says it's June 21st "in North American stores"; I'm not sure what that means for the rest of us!), it's a 224-page adventure anthology featuring a floating city called the Radiant Citadel. The book is written entirely by people of colour, including Ajit George, who was the first person of Indian heritage to write Indian-inspired material for D&D (in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft). Around 50 POC writers were involved in total in various ways.

The Radiant Citadel is on the ethereal plane and is carved from the giant fossil of an unknown monster. A massive gemstone called the Royal Diamond sits at the core, surrounded by a bunch of smaller Concord Jewels, which are gateways to the Citadel's founding civilizations. DMs can link any world to the citadel by placing a Concord Jewel there.

The Citadel, unlike many D&D locations, is more of a sanctuary than a place of danger. The book's alternate cover features a Dawn Incarnate, a creature which is the embodiment of stories and cultures.

D&D 5E - Here's Radiant Citadel's press release

Dropped in my inbox a short while ago, if you want the official announcement. It's the same info as in the news article on the front page. Dungeons & Dragons Invites You to Explore the Radiant Citadel Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is a new collection of short adventures set in wondrous...

www.enworld.org

The adventures are as follows:

• Salted Legacy
• Written In Blood
• The Fiend of Hollow Mine
• Wages of Vice
• Sins of Our Elders
• Gold for Fools and Princes
• Trail of Destruction
• In the Mists of Manivarsha
• Between Tangled Roots
• Shadow of the Sun
• The Nightsea’s Succor
• Buried Dynasty
• Orchids of the Invisible Mountain

UPDATE -- the press release contains a list of some of the contributors: "Justice Ramin Arman, Dominique Dickey, Ajit A. George, Basheer Ghouse, Alastor Guzman, D. Fox Harrell, T.K. Johnson, Felice Tzehuei Kuan, Surena Marie, Mimi Mondal, Mario Ortegón, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Terry H. Romero, Stephanie Yoon, and many more."

Regular cover by Even Fong

Alternate Cover by Sija Hong​

 

[Parmandur]

This book also has no less then 3 Gazeteers, one for the Radiant Citadel, one each for the new lands. So I think the book will be bigger then Candlekeep, were talking no less then a hundred pages of Gazeteers, plus like you said roughly six pages of monsters, and 13 adventures.

It's 224 pages: severely doubt the Gazateers will be 100 pahes.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Man, you stick one cute creature on the cover and everyone assumes the whole book is Pokémon or something.

Still you are right saying to wait and read the inside. But it would be naive to say that the illustration in a TRPG doesn't set the mood of the product.

 

[Parmandur]

That's not a lot of space for 3 Gazeteers, 13 adventures, and 11 Monsters.

13-14 pages on average for each Adventure and Gazeteer.

 

[OblivionDrive]

I think that was a stand in for whinging about a word that rhymes with "bespoke."

People always gotta find ways to weasel around forum rules, amirite?

 

[Weiley31]

FYI: all D&D books are $30 on D&D Beyond. The dead tree version will be $50 like the rest.

GameNerdz has them priced as $39.99. That has been the number one place I've ordered all my DND 5E books from.

Used to be Minature Market as well but lately, Minute Market has been having the Alt Covers and what not as their $49.99 price. So GameNerdz has yet to fail me in that regard.

 

[Vaalingrade]

As for the optimistic tone, I think at least a certain portion of Gen Z and Millenial creatives have just suffered from doom & gloom burn out. Science fiction in particular has been mostly bleak and depressing for as long as I can remember (I'm thirty-three), but you can look back at the early days of sci-fi and see a lot of hope for the future and humanity. Cynicism in media came about as a reaction to optimism but also resulted in a dearth of aspirational works. It's not surprising that more optimistic and aspirational works would be created as a reaction to a prevailing trend of cynicism.

Let's not forget how the rise of GRRM and the lose of Adams and Pratchett combined into a Megazord of Spec-fic swinging toward interminable sadness.

 

[Parmandur]

Hey! I feel like I should be offended at that, but I'm not sure why.

~ Grumpy Californian

It's super annoying, isn't? "California" gets treated like a curse in the Hinterlands...sometimes as a Californian my relatives back East will cause me to roll the eyes into the back of my head.

 

[Weiley31]

It goes a bit farther than that. There's this from Minsc and Boo.

"Together the two of them were able to rebuild and modify the wrecked ship which they named the Kraken’s Folly. The name was inspired by the ship’s most unique addition, a magical steering wheel (stolen from the lair of a kraken) that allows the ship to sail between worlds."

Captain Boo and his First Mate Minsc!

 

[OblivionDrive]

Doesn't it though? Why introduce TWO planar city books that basically fulfill the same function?

This may not put Spelljammer to bed but I'd def say there is a lot less of a chance of a Planescape book when this new book fills the exact same role.

People also argued that after Ravnica that Sigil was redundant too - “Oh a huge city plane dominated by factions? Well, there goes any hope of Planescape!”

I do worry it might push any possible Planescape release back some but it doesn’t kill the possibility of it. The Citadel is far more limited in scope than Sigil and PS is also MORE than just Sigil, lest we forget.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

As for the optimistic tone, I think at least a certain portion of Gen Z and Millenial creatives have just suffered from doom & gloom burn out. Science fiction in particular has been mostly bleak and depressing for as long as I can remember (I'm thirty-three), but you can look back at the early days of sci-fi and see a lot of hope for the future and humanity. Cynicism in media came about as a reaction to optimism but also resulted in a dearth of aspirational works. It's not surprising that more optimistic and aspirational works would be created as a reaction to a prevailing trend of cynicism.

Maybe yes, but still this aspiration has not to end in childish way of representing the real or fictional world. I do not argue about the subjects but to the color choices, the general tone. Don't know how to say... One thing is to be optimistic, the other is "all fairy and unicorns". I hope present generation understood that the good is made with hard work and not by painting everything fluo.