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]

Darksun is a nightmare in this current political environment. You'd absolutely have to advance the time line to free all the slaves, and play in the post slavery Dark Sun. We all know how well 4e Forgotten Realms was received by fans for the time jump.

I've heard this repeated hundreds of times, but it's just not true. Wizards of the Coast is absolutely not afraid of including slavery in their products. As long as it's made clear that the slavery is bad, it's okay to include it, and WotC knows this. They still have Drow, Mind Flayers, Duergar, Neogi, Aboleths, and tons of other monsters and races that enslave other creatures/peoples. They are absolutely fine with including slavery in a D&D product. Out of the Abyss starts with the PCs escaping from a Drow Slave Camp, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes talks at length about slavery amongst the Duergar, Drow, and Mind Flayers, and plenty of other official 5e products do the same thing.

This is just not true. Slavery is obviously evil in Dark Sun. WotC knows that it can include slavery in official products if they reinforce that slavery is evil. If Dark Sun ever comes to D&D 5e, I absolutely expect them to keep slavery in the setting. People that think it will be removed are fundamentally misunderstanding both WotC and most people's complaints about slavery in various medias.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The TTRPG are like the tools by the artist, you create you want. With the same ingredientes two cooks can different recipes, and even when they cook the same recipe, you can notice the difference between both when you have tasted several times.

Of course the psionic handbook will have to be published before DS, and not this year yet.

* I don't imagine the radiant citadel as a place within in the Ethereal plane, but it can be found in the Astral Sea, and also in other places, for example in the Faewild. Other idea is Sigil suffering a light retcon. The original Sigil would be the same, but his has got "mirror universe", once of them ruled by Vecna, but (almost) nobody knows it, other is more like and post-apocalyptic underground labyrintic dungeon, other an urban version of Neverland, populated by little feys, the "lost boys". Other more steampunk. The fun is in some "clone demiplanes" the faction war can continue, because it is the "punishment space", and others these are totally neutral zones, even when the Lady of Pain doesn't appear at all.

 

[Mournblade94]

There was all that controversy with the freelancer PanzerLion. It could've been the writer with sour grapes, but it doesn't seem like the freelancers have much freedom in design. Which I understand, but it does show that creativity isn't valued in these endeavors.

Candlekeep Mysteries Author Accuses D&D Publisher Of Adding "Colonialist Language" To His Work

Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast has come under fire by one of the contributors of the recently released Candlekeep Mysteries.

www.thegamer.com

Panzer Lion is a reasonable dude from everything I read from him. I doubt he'd be causing a storm if it wasnt warranted.

 

[Redwizard007]

Darksun is a nightmare in this current political environment. You'd absolutely have to advance the time line to free all the slaves, and play in the post slavery Dark Sun. We all know how well 4e Forgotten Realms was received by fans for the time jump.

This tired argument again? It must be Wednesday.

"Slavery is bad," was a pretty standard view when Dark Sun hit shelves the first time. That hasn't changed. DS never glorified slavery. It didn't sugar coat it. It didn't romanticize it. The portrayal of slavery in Athas meshes perfectly with modern ideals, and actually gives players that want to take down a system of oppression the chance to do so. When it is released for 5e, I will have Rage Against the Machine albums on shuffle for ambiance.

 

[pemerton]

LotR is uplifting? Really? Completely depressing ending where magic dies, elves leave, The Shire is in ruins and Frodo, our Ringbearer, is so destroyed by the ordeal that he can't ever go home again.

Your definition of uplifting is different from mine.

As Gandalf says, not all tears are an evil. I wouldn't say the conclusion of LotR is light and breezy, but it's uplifting in the sense that providence works through to its completion, with the kingdom restored, the Shire (as a sort of microcosm of the wider world) restored and more wonderful than ever, and evil suppressed. The wrongdoing and wickedness that Melkor began with his corruption of Feanor comes to an end, with Galadriel reconciled with the Valar, Sauron overthrown, the lines of Elros and Elrond being reunited, and the Elves returning from their exile.

Fundamentally it affirms the place and the power of hope in providence. (In that sense it's radically theistic. If you read it through, say, a REH or even mainstream D&D lens then it will come across quite differently.)

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I've heard this repeated hundreds of times, but it's just not true. Wizards of the Coast is absolutely not afraid of including slavery in their products. As long as it's made clear that the slavery is bad, it's okay to include it, and WotC knows this. They still have Drow, Mind Flayers, Duergar, Neogi, Aboleths, and tons of other monsters and races that enslave other creatures/peoples. They are absolutely fine with including slavery in a D&D product. Out of the Abyss starts with the PCs escaping from a Drow Slave Camp, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes talks at length about slavery amongst the Duergar, Drow, and Mind Flayers, and plenty of other official 5e products do the same thing.

This is just not true. Slavery is obviously evil in Dark Sun. WotC knows that it can include slavery in official products if they reinforce that slavery is evil. If Dark Sun ever comes to D&D 5e, I absolutely expect them to keep slavery in the setting. People that think it will be removed are fundamentally misunderstanding both WotC and most people's complaints about slavery in various medias.

This. I think the lack of a coherent vision for psionics is far more of a barrier to getting a 5e Dark Sun than any supposedly "unpublishable" aspects of the setting.

 

[Mort]

Good grief, anyone who thinks Candlekeep mysteries are light and fluffy isn’t paying attention.

Entire village razed by creatures that drive everyone insane. A ghost that causes you to murder your friends, so horrible that you get locked in until you kill the ghost or die. Just to name two.

And let's not forget the high level adventure, with the bleakest conclusion of any module I've seen:

Spoiler

to defeat the villain, you have to convince the lich's living phylactery, a sentient good and nice faerie, to commit suicide - yes really.

Anyone calling that light and fluffy hasn't even glanced at it.

 

[Mournblade94]

I've heard this repeated hundreds of times, but it's just not true. Wizards of the Coast is absolutely not afraid of including slavery in their products. As long as it's made clear that the slavery is bad, it's okay to include it, and WotC knows this. They still have Drow, Mind Flayers, Duergar, Neogi, Aboleths, and tons of other monsters and races that enslave other creatures/peoples. They are absolutely fine with including slavery in a D&D product. Out of the Abyss starts with the PCs escaping from a Drow Slave Camp, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes talks at length about slavery amongst the Duergar, Drow, and Mind Flayers, and plenty of other official 5e products do the same thing.

This is just not true. Slavery is obviously evil in Dark Sun. WotC knows that it can include slavery in official products if they reinforce that slavery is evil. If Dark Sun ever comes to D&D 5e, I absolutely expect them to keep slavery in the setting. People that think it will be removed are fundamentally misunderstanding both WotC and most people's complaints about slavery in various medias.

The Main character, the psionicist hero of the Verdant Passage kept slaves. 5 novels. He freed them after they did a peaceful revolt. Slavery was not just done by the sorceror kings. Slavery was a trope in Dark Sun. It was not clear it was evil.

Plus one class you pretty much were a slave from the start. Its repeated hundreds of times because in Dark Sun it is not the same case as Drow or the evil monsters keeping slaves.

 

[pemerton]

There's an adventure in an angel-ruled city, I believe. If you don't have one of those in your campaign setting, it will be less than useful.

I wouldn't say that an angel-ruled city is exactly crazy stuff from the perspective of mainstream D&D.

There's one adventure which is, to quote the author 'questions that arise from a nation finding its feet after liberating itself and becoming an independent nation'.

Doesn't Eberron have this sort of thing in it? Or even some of the lands of Greyhawk, like Almor or various former tributary states of Keoland. Again, it doesn't seem like it's particularly unusual for the history and political geography of fantasy worlds.

This is a book, as far as i know, in which PoC writers have specifically tried to incorporate aspects of their ancestral cultures into the material they've put forward.

JRRT was trying to do something like this with Middle Earth. And REH, to an extent, with his Conan stories. And D&D fantasy is still heavily influenced by both these authors.

The adventures seem to be intended to be ABOUT culture, or with culture as a central theme. And I am entirely 100% on side with that. But it does inevitably makes them less easily transportable to other settings, because the cultural assumptions may not fit. And the reverse is also true. Many D&D adventures are easily transportable from Greyhawk to FR to wherever simply because they share a lot of the same old bog-standard quasi-European setting assumptions. A Forgotten Realms adventure will probably be less likely to translate directly to the Mughal or Mesoamerican-inspired settings in this book too, for the same reason.

<snip>

it does make the book perhaps less functionally useful to someone whose group plays in an old D&D world or homebrew which lacks places where its setting assumptions don't have a place to be.

To me, this seems closer to the point. "Too cultural" means not European in focus. So if that's the issue, let's just say that.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Main character, the psionicist hero of the Verdant Passage kept slaves. 5 novels. He freed them after they did a peaceful revolt. Slavery was not just done by the sorceror kings. Slavery was a trope in Dark Sun. It was not clear it was evil.

That's something from one of the novels. All of the extremely problematic content from the various Dragonlance novels didn't stop WotC from making the new Dragonlance Unearthed Arcana. What a character in the novels does absolutely does not prevent WotC from publishing the setting.

Plus one class you pretty much were a slave from the start. Its repeated hundreds of times because in Dark Sun it is not the same case as Drow or the evil monsters keeping slaves.

It's not the same, but it also doesn't prevent the setting from being published. Yes, Slavery on Dark Sun has the added ickiness of how the Mul are "created", but that really isn't that different from the Mind Flayers and how they'd experiment on their slaves (poor Grimlocks and Derro), which has been included a ton in 5e.