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​

 

[Parmandur]

So, the discussion has moved from how overly optimistic this hopeful Setting is, to how bleak the horror Setting Ravenloft is...?

 

[eyeheartawk]

To some of us, that's a feature.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Now THERE's a proper cover (and title) for a D&D book!

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Puts on Planescape hat

Would you perhaps be interested in joining the Bleak Cabal?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

But both are true. It's just a matter of if you see them as positives or negatives.

I can certainly see why some players feel very threatened by Critical Role: It showcases a particular style of play at the expense of others. I happen to like that style, but for people who have been happily tactically skirmish wargaming for 40 years, it comes as a shock to discover they suddenly need to take acting lessons and do funny voices!

I don't disagree. My point is largely that I do follow a lot of TTRPG people on social media, and CR definitely gets its share of criticism and praise. Some of it deserved, some of it not really.

There are few other topics that I see come up that are as polarizing; most others fall decidedly into a "Most people like/dislike this thing." For example, this book that the thread is about has fallen into a "Most people are really happy with this," zone.

I follow a mix of people btw, mostly TTRPG writers and artists. I think they probably trend old-school, or old-school revival (not actually from the older generation but like Mork Borg for some reason). So it makes sense there's a love-it-or-hate-it CR reaction there.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One time at an LGS, an obvious Whovian asked me how much I liked the new Dr Who season at the time. I said "The impossible Astronaut season was amazing, and I feel like every season since, I've wanted it to be that good again, and it just hasn't been and probably never will be." He looked at me quietly for a beat, then said "Wow. You're a jerk."

Of course this is nothing like what actually happened in this thread, but some people like to take vociferous disagreement on a statement they make as some sort of personal attack, even when it clearly isn’t.

Apperently explaining what is nonsensical about a thing one has said equates to treating the person like they’ve “kicked puppies”.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There's a storyline in the Marvel tv show "Agents of SHIELD" where our heroes are trapped in a magically enhanced computer simulation and given new lives and new memories. As they struggle through the story, they come to realize that their families, friends and loved ones in this simulation aren't real . . . and it becomes tragic, horrifying, and a bit philosophical about what makes a person "real". When they finally break free of the computer sim, it is destroyed, along with all of its inhabitants. It's the darkest storyline of the tv show, and one of the darkest storylines in the MCU. One of the characters has a daughter in the computer simulation, who is lost along with everyone else in the sim, and it really messes with him long after this storyline is wrapped.

The heroes in the show wrestle with these questions. What's real and what isn't? What makes a person real? Do we struggle to save someone who is generated by an advanced computer algorithm? How should we feel about losing someone who isn't "real"?

That would have been a great thing for the text to explore. I lived that storyline. Too bad the book didn't bother making their idea interesting.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My suggestion is to send the message "Don't worry, we are opening new doors for new players to enter, but some day the old doors will be not locked forever, but they will be reopened again, here everyone is wellcome".

I suspect the ethereal plane could suffer a retcon, becoming something more like the Penumbra from "World of Darkness". Maybe recycling Ghostwalk and borrowing some ideas from the lore of "Wraith the Oblivion" and the spirit realm with their "kamis" it could become an interesting place, and more if this can be used by powerful spellcasters to create demiplanes as secret lairs.

* How the radiant citadel can defends against possible attacks by planar raiders?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

While the idea of fake people in Ravenloft actually does predate Curse of Strahd, in every other particular and sentiment I agree wholeheartedly with this, to the point where I honestly don't understand why this isn't more of a problem for people. Does no one care that their heroism is meaningless now?

Yeah on this we can agree. At least in CoS only some of the people were animated husks with no souls, and it was only implied that Strahd might come back after the PCs leave.

If nothing can be accomplished, nothing matters. It’s the Danger Room.

No one cares how cool you looked doing a fastball special in the danger room.

Now, I think why people don’t care that much is that they simply have no intention of actually using that element of the setting. I think most people don’t give a damn what the “canon” is.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

* How the radiant citadel can defends against possible attacks by planar raiders?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there's a vicious storm surrounding the Radiant Citadel, so perhaps it's located in the "eye" of an Ether Cyclone.