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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...

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.

journey_citadel.jpg

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.


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."

citadel_cover.jpg

Regular cover by Even Fong

citadel_alt.jpg

Alternate Cover by Sija Hong
 

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This thread is great example of the disconnect between two different communities of gamer.

For a lot of people, and Crawford has talked about this, time is an extreme premium. Being able to play solid one-shots or short campaigns of a few sessions is what a lot of people across all age groups want, and also a product needed to bring new players into the fray. WotC has, and I am a huge critic of them normally, made the smart decision to create an adventure book that doesn't require you mastering the entire book to run for your friends.

Seriously, its hard for a lot of people to pick up these meaty adventures like Curse of Strahd or Tomb of Annihilation and run. New DMs get almost no guidance in these books as to how the run the game, and the DMG is very scant on advice as well. So, for a growing commnunity of games without a lot of time on their hands, and are potentially new to the game, what do you release?

A tight anthology of short, flavorful, thematic one-shots with some background to tie them together or have a baseline. Its an embracing of the episodic campaign structure, and is far more accessible then the non-anthology adventure books. By making it interplanar, they have also opened up the market of people who do not use the premade setting or have a lot of time to fully flesh out their own.

Of course, do I think the Radiant Citadel will contain everything it needs? Probably not. But its a smart business decision, and one I'm glad to see.

A lot of people here are more used to the traditional campaign method, with a lot of journeying and this that and the other and these sandboxes or narratives that sweep many sessions, often years. But that isn't realistic for everyone, and isn't accessible or everyone, so I don't think it should be the baseline anymore. Getting one meaty adventure, one easy-to-use anthology, and then setting or idea-expansion books is the best set up we have for evergreen D&D content.
 

Yep, plus it's interesting that Planescape is a setting where the geography is literally shaped by alignment, yet the setting products actually de-emphasize alignment by showing how morality is really a lot more complicated and open to multiple interpretations than that.
There's honestly a pretty straight line between Planescape being my favorite D&D setting in high school, and the multiple degrees I earned in philosophy afterward.

Shakes fist angrily at Zeb Cook That's how they get you!
 

darjr

I crit!

Jer

Legend
Supporter
Yes but can’t buy it yet

I'm amused that it's still listed as TBA but they have the picture up there now.
 



Hutchimus Prime

Adventurer
I’m trying to keep an eye in it to capture sales rank. I know, I have silly hobbies.
Yes but can’t buy it yet

You can preorder it now
 

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