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​

 

[Remathilis]

It's funny how people find Ravenloft bleak and pointless, because that's EXACTLY how I feel about Dark Sun. Imho: at least Ravenloft has respite, Dark Sun is about people who would slit your throat for a drop of water in a place where hope is dying quick because dehydration is a terrible way to die.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It's funny how people find Ravenloft bleak and pointless, because that's EXACTLY how I feel about Dark Sun. Imho: at least Ravenloft has respite, Dark Sun is about people who would slit your throat for a drop of water in a place where hope is dying quick because dehydration is a terrible way to die.

Yeah Dark Sun definitely feels more bleak to me than Ravenloft. You can't even leave, and at least with Ravenloft when you beat the Darklord you can flee the cursed place.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Absolutely, and one I don't think I should be part of. I'll leave that to people whose opinion is less likely to hurt feelings or make anyone genuinely angry.

And now you can't even save individuals. It went from eye-rollingly bleak to absolutely pointless on every level.

That level of "no happy endings" can be enjoyable in a Stephen King book, but I'm not playing a character in a Stephen King book. If I want to be a character with no genuine agency within the fiction, I'll play a game that is actually built from the ground up to do that, not a game that is built to let you play a heroic character with genuine agency, made by a team that mostly builds relatively optimistic game elements for a game of heroic fantasy where you can actually make a difference.

I mean, yes you can (save individuals with souls)? There are a lot of examples throughout the book of individuals with souls being able to escape the Domains. Even Curse of Strahd has examples of how you can set characters with souls free.

I get you don't like the theming, but it doesn't seem like you've read the material. These seem like assumptions based upon other people's summaries.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didnt they specifically call this out in the Guide to Ravenloft? That the baseline premise of 5e doesnt quite match up with it?

Or was that just forum conjecture.

It does, and it doesn't. A good chunk of the book is about how to run horror, but it definitely isn't ALL GLOOM ALL THE TIME like @doctorbadwolf says. There's literally a piece called "Cultivating Hope."

Cultivating Hope
In Ravenloft, the Dark Powers control reality, the Mists foil escape attempts, and terrifying Darklords can appear at any moment. What hope do heroes have against such overwhelming evils?

The nature of Ravenloft provides powerful tools to craft tales of terror. Shifting reality, inescapable danger, and foes with shocking powers are useful for creating horror adventures (a topic further discussed in chapter 4). As a balancing factor, use these tools judiciously and occasionally, in the characters' favor. The Dark Powers delight in tormenting villains as much as they do innocents, the Mists equally confound both predators and prey, and Darklords frequently exhibit hubris or other exploitable flaws. Use Ravenloft's nature to sow dread but also to inspire hope. Relentless despair gradually beats characters down and takes the fun out of adventures. Punctuate your horror tales with moments of relief, comedy, and fortuitous coincidences. These moments of hope help characters push through the dark to the thrill of dawn.

 

[Jer]

It's funny how people find Ravenloft bleak and pointless, because that's EXACTLY how I feel about Dark Sun. Imho: at least Ravenloft has respite, Dark Sun is about people who would slit your throat for a drop of water in a place where hope is dying quick because dehydration is a terrible way to die.

I like both settings actually, but I do find Ravenloft to be more hopeful than Dark Sun. Dark Sun is post-apocalyptic with a world that has been destroyed and no real hope to revive it. Even for a post-apocalyptic setting it's pretty bleak.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didnt they specifically call this out in the Guide to Ravenloft? That the baseline premise of 5e doesnt quite match up with it?

Or was that just forum conjecture.

Kinda, though not explicitly, as such.

I mean, yes you can (save individuals with souls)? There are a lot of examples throughout the book of individuals with souls being able to escape the Domains. Even Curse of Strahd has examples of how you can set characters with souls free.

The fact that there are a few people in the entire setting who are actually real doesn't change the general point.

I get you don't like the theming, but it doesn't seem like you've read the material. These seem like assumptions based upon other people's summaries.

And with this nonsense, we are done.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Ravenloft is not about a "plague control" against undead hordes, but the conflict between the faith&hope against the despair. And the horror is about you can suffer for the rest of the eternity the consequences of your actions.

Even if the players know about that "spoiler", the characters shouldn't know, and if somebody can't be saved, they should feel guilty, without excuses about "life is only an ilusion". Allowing the suffering of innocent people could allow to be tainted by the dark powers. It is as when you are get used to see violence in the movies, and later to see real violence in the TV news.

* Radiant Citadel souns like a new mini-setting. Why not? If this works in the sales, we could see more books about this place.

 

[Parmandur]

Ajit George on hope:

 

[Micah Sweet]

There's a difference between "I didn't like it" (spoken as a subjective opinion) and "it wasn't good and will likely never be good again" (spoken as a fact).

From the perspective of an in-person conversation, I don't see much of a difference. That person must have known that was an opinion. If I were the fan in that situation, I would have tried to convince them otherwise; failing that, I would have let it go. What does their opinion have to do with my enjoyment?

 

[darjr]

My players saved a whole village of soulless folks in Ravenloft because they saw the potential for joy in them.

They beat to mush a lot of undead to do it too.