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​

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Or that comedy and whimsy weren't in D&D from the beginning?

Seriously, half the material components for spells are jokes or puns. Dragonlance has three "comedy" races in it, and even if they're obnoxious today they were supposed to be fun. Spelljammer was basically built on comedy and whimsy. Monsters like flumphs, nilbogs, modrons (especially once tony DiTerlizzi got his pens on them), and more. Half the old D&D Gazetteers were designed to be silly ("Top Ballista"). Heck, Zagyg was the god of comedy.

Exactly. While D&D 5e products definitely have their fair share of goofy/comedic content (an awakened singing fish trophy from Rime of the Frostmaiden, the Giff vs Jiff debate from the Spelljammer UA, tiny elemental-fey that always wear masks and can give people magical snowballs that harm people with cold damage if they get hit by them, gnome mind flayers, etc), earlier D&D products had at least the same amount of comedy in them. Reading any of the earliest monster compendiums proves this.

 

[darjr]

Or that comedy and whimsy weren't in D&D from the beginning?

Seriously, half the material components for spells are jokes or puns. Dragonlance has three "comedy" races in it, and even if they're obnoxious today they were supposed to be fun. Spelljammer was basically built on comedy and whimsy. Monsters like flumphs, nilbogs, modrons (especially once tony DiTerlizzi got his pens on them), and more. Half the old D&D Gazetteers were designed to be silly ("Top Ballista"). Heck, Zagyg was the god of comedy.

For Ex: Beholder.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Comedy in D&D?

Giant. Space. Hamsters.

 

[Maxperson]

This and Sigil are only tangentially comparable—Sigil, a hub at the center of the Outlands at the center of all the outer planes that leads to all planes. This, a hub in the deep ethereal between civilizations of 13 prime material planes.

13 or at least 13?

 

[JEB]

Yeah, the microSettings feel like they could be spun out into entire campaign by themselves.

As a mechanism to get new settings in front of people and see what they'd like, this is a good approach.

I've been mildly annoyed that Wizards has been doing nothing really new since 4e ended and here they're planning to drop a whole book of potential settings on us.

There are supposedly two entirely new, non-MtG setting books in the works for next year, so we might see some of that in the near future.

Came to this conclusion myself, but also note:

2 represented by some kind of Gazeteers instead

Our two new settings may have already been decided upon, and are sitting there in plain sight.

EDIT: Amended because I missed that I wasn't the first to propose that this product might be a testbed.

 

[Maxperson]

Comedy in D&D?

Giant. Space. Hamsters.

And of course from Castle Greyhawk, Solid Gas Spores, Crettins, Minitaurs and more.

 

[Guest 7034872]

This and Sigil are only tangentially comparable—Sigil, a hub at the center of the Outlands at the center of all the outer planes that leads to all planes. This, a hub in the deep ethereal between civilizations of 13 prime material planes.

Initially, I wasn't sure if I was going to take an interest in this book or not: I had no real opinions yet because I had so little information. But the idea of populating the Deep Ethereal with something visitable--I quite like that. I guess I'm a sucker for fleshing out the various planes, you know?

I'll buy this thing once it's on the shelves.

 

[overgeeked]

I don’t care what else is in it. I’m here for that Día de Muertos vibe.

 

[Parmandur]

13 or at least 13?

Precisely 15 known.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Comedy in D&D?

Giant. Space. Hamsters.

And Miniature Giant Space Hamsters, which are totally not just normal hamsters.