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​

 

[JThursby]

All the complaints are exactly why WotC ignores all of us.

I don't believe this is correct because it implies WotC is taking community feedback beyond their surveys, or really showing any kind of initiative with their brand and IP. They aren't ignoring us specifically in their plans, they're ignoring everyone that Jeremy Crawford doesn't communicate with. The only things visible to Jeremy Crawford are people who have professional connections to him and Twitter. So unless you've worked with Jeremy Crawford in the past or are Matt Mercer, your only other option to influence the direction of D&D is to try and convince the Twitter hivemind your ideas are great (good luck).

 

[Faolyn]

Ooohhh sneak peak? Yes please!

"inspired by the writers' connections to real-world cultures and folklore"

If so, I'm definitely interested. I don't know if I'll pick it up right away, but I'd love to see more non-D&D-European culture and folklore used.

 

[Yaarel]

Not really. Planescape was more "all those alignments are as bad as each other, what you really need to do is drop out and tune into philosophy".

But Sigil is a setting in itself. If you made it the nexus there wouldn't be any room left in the book for adventures.

Heh, so, Planescape is a setting that coerces draconian alignment ... in order to prove that the alignment system is stupid?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This business can't sell only updated remakes, but also new things have to be offered. If you want lore then you can search the fandom wikis, and you will have enough, and completely free in legal way.

I suppose there is a good reason for the delay of the return of Sigil and they are working in a secret metaplot, and Sigil will be one of the most important zones. Maybe the team of screenwritters have started to work in the videogame "Planescape 2", at least in the phase "storm of ideas".

Maybe the factions will be retconected, because after 25 years there is an evolution of point of view. Today Hasbro can hire a bigger team of screenwritters, and this means a lot of new ideas to be added.

Somebody wants hopepunk stories with cute antropomorphic animals, and others grimmdark horror stories with some touchs of tragic epic.

* I imagine the Radiant Citadel as a domain of delight within the Feywild. Maybe WotC could allow a "clone demiplane" as a friendly "mirror universe".

* In my opinion cosmopolitan sounds better than multicultural.

* Why not a future sourcebook using as source the inspiration the manga+manhua+manhwa?

 

[Undrave]

I’ve seen so many people grouse about how D&D doesn’t do anything but encourage solutions through combat and that the other pillars of gameplay are underrepresented in a mechanics sense. The second we start seeing moves to address that more, OTHER folks get mad that there’s less than 100% “killing people solves every problem” in a new book. It’s just weird to me honestly. I would love to see more books offer solutions that don’t just involve a combat slog. Then again, I would also like to see more classes festooned with “ribbon” abilities that do more than just enhance combat too.

I think their idea of 'non-combat resolution' is to just use a spell to null an encounter.

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

the CalArts of tabletop RPG?

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, possibly even contributing to a lack of hope for the real world and humanity. It's not surprising that more optimistic and aspirational works would be created as a reaction to a prevailing trend of cynicism.

That's a damn good point. Players today might have watched the twin towers fall in elementary school...naughty word's not going well out there.

 

[Faolyn]

So, a Planescape for Zoomers, which is supposed to be magical and otherworldly but seems largely similar to California in the current year?

Well, at least they are not ruining Sigil like they have ruined Ravenloft and making an umpteenth attempt to create an off-brand interplanar metropolis, I'll give them that.

Ruined for you, perhaps, but not for everyone. I really like a lot of VGR and can't want until I my players finish with CoS so they can explore the rest of the setting. And I speak as someone who loved Ravenloft in 2e and 3e as well.

 

[Undrave]

Harry Potter was a Mary Sue. Didn't like him much either.

Harry Potter was a trust fund jock who became a cop while getting tons of praise for stuff he barely did.

 

[Nikosandros]

The illustration shows a bustling marketplace full of activity. That sets the mood plenty for me. It doesn’t show kittens frolicking on a giant bean bag chair.

What do you have against kittens frolicking?? I would be totally on board for a full campaign of nothing but kittens frolicking. My players might not agree though...

 

[Parmandur]

So does this rule out Sigil/Planescape/Spelljammer happening for 5E, or can this coexist with them?

No, Spelljammer is getting q book later this year.

 

[see]

Help me out here, fellas, but this is new right?

Like, there isn't an existing city that is central to a bunch of planar travel, right?

The City of Glass? Union? Dis? The City of Brass?