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​

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Have they mentioned slavery since the 2018 run up to soft reboot? Honestly don't know.

 

[Mournblade94]

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.

Honestly I don't know why this is a surprise. People like what they like. I saw synopsis of these adventures being about genrational trauma (my wife explained to me the same thing Encanto was about, shes probably right), and then the first adventure being made with streamers in mind. So I greatly respect Ajit George work against poverty by educating young girls in poverty, but I can't see from the synopsis on Gizmodo I read that there is anything here to excite me.

Just like I don't watch Romantic Comedies because I have no interest them, I am not really interested in Iron Chef competition adventures, Coffee Shop adventures, or D&D Adventures set up this way. I alway manage to add the other pillars on my own.

Nothing about the plot lines of the adventures I read excites me. Theres nothing wrong with that. If this book gets attached to supporting Shanti Bhavan though, if any proceeeds go to that I will buy it to support Shanti Bhavan. But these types of adventures are not the direction I would like WOTC to go in.

 

[Umbran]

Well, I've never had that kind of relationship with my gardner, but you do you.

What, a deep and close friendship that could carry you to the end of the earth and back?

 

[Redwizard007]

What, a deep and close friendship that could carry you to the end of the earth and back?

I can't get the bum to trim all my hedges, let alone carry me through Mordor while I whine about how tired I am.

 

[Mournblade94]

deleted irrlevant

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Sure, and that's fine. Folks should be allowed to like what the like.

However...

Does the adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," ring a bell? Maybe, I dunno, wait until there's more solid information about the content before you decide you will or will not partake of that content?

It does. And having done that a few times consecutively I am disappointed. Given the art and my disappointment had been correlated in consecutive offerings from one company, I think my pessimism is not totally uninformed.

I imagine there will be something to like in a book this size. I am not guessing it will be enough for me to make the purchase.

if I am wrong, I will admit it.

 

[Mournblade94]

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.

True.

Personally, I'm not against darker and more cynical media in general, but I do think there needs to be more sources of aspiration and positivity in pop culture to balance it out.

Im not sure what your situation is but I live with an 8 year old girl... trust me there is plenty of positivity for them. Enough to make me scream

 

[Bitbrain]

Some more teases of component adventures and their cultural roots:

It’s official. Even if I don’t buy this book (I’m more interested in the Spelljammer campaign guide which is likely to show up later this year), my dad certainly will.

His home setting is Forgotten Realms’ Sword Coast, but reimagined as a fantasy China. If nothing else, he’s VERY interested in the Buried Dynasty adventure.

 

[Mythos Enthusiast]

Ugh. I'm still surprised folks use the "marketplace of ideas" as an excuse for people to say lies, racism, and all the other awful things the internet can spew.

Whats your alternative? What could be more intuitive than just not participating or interacting with content you don't like?

 

[Mournblade94]

Part of my knee-jerk reaction against this is that I don't like comedy or whimsy put in my sci-fi/fantasy. Growing up when I did, it was hard enough for my hobby and interests to be taken seriously. Seeing someone making a joke of it sours me. (Too many memories of bullies making fun of me, having to fight my parents to play games and read fantasy novels.) I don't read Douglas Adams or Terry Prachett, et al.
Reading a book with a cover like this at a local store, coffee shop, etc., and I'd get laughed at. Or at least, I would feel like I would be getting laughed at. This is why I don't like the aesthetic. (The short adventure format doesn't seem especially useful to me either from a practical standpoint.)
To address those who would say "dark times require levity in our escapism," that can be true, but where did we turn after 9/11? Dungeons & Dragons the Movie? No, it was Lord of the Rings.
And why did The Hobbit films fail? I think a contributing factor was the humor.
I have a hard time feeling satisfaction encountering displacer beast kittens or baby gnome mind flayers.
While I may not be the audience Wizards is trying to reach, I (and I assume many others) want a game where we can explore mature themes with other adults. Having the baseline of an adventure being a joke almost ensures that isn't going to happen.

Yep this was my primary reaction. I 100% agree. Plus this has departed from the medieval tropes and is cutting much closer to the modern tropes, see Iron Chef inspired first adventure.

WHen I want to explore concepts like these I'll use other systems. For D&D I know exactly what I want.