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​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What do you mean handwaved?

I mean, and I think you know that I mean, that ENWorld doesn't have other discussions derailed by "OMG THERE ARE TAXES" when there are explicitly taxes in pretty much every setting.

I've seen basically Good-aligned parties get into running battles with the Purple Dragons because of the taxes and the enforcement of various idiot laws in Cormyr.

You all are running some D&D games that would never occur to me, but this is good grist for the next time someone claims that D&D getting political is a new thing.

Taxing every individual a vague and undefined amount which you can be punished for guessing wrong on is absolutely unique to the Radiant Citadel.

Of course, that's not what the book actually says.

Again, here is the section entitled "Taxes & Taxation" in its entirety:

Taxes are progressive to help reduce the gap between the most affluent and the poorest. High tariffs on imports keep the public coffers full, but the Speakers lower or remove tariffs for civilizations in trouble. Similarly, visitors to the Radiant Citadel pay a toll to enter. Those who come with nothing except good will pay no fee. Those with big pockets and big hearts give more according to their conscience rather than risk the rebuke of the city’s guards. Rich and poor alike can instead offer something unique that might be to the liking of the Incarnates, such as a lost song, a secret tale, or a rare piece of art. Those who choose this option may present their gift to the Dawn Incarnate of their choice. If their toll is accepted, the visitor is allowed to stay in the Citadel.

Could and probably should the authors have included more detail on what the standard fee is? Yep. But they were so limited on space that they had a day one DMs Guild PDF expanding the book (all of it on the other settings visited in the campaign, not the citadel itself, apparently based on the interest of each individual author).

But the idea that the guards are playing "guess a number" is one that's been invented on this thread. With other settings, we can concede that "yep, that's underwritten." (Strixhaven is underwritten, not magically lacking in things.)

Let the DM set whatever makes sense for the game. If it were me (and it's about to be, next month), I'd say 10 gold for admittance is a reasonable fee for people seeking refuge from the Ethereal Plane. It's a real amount of money according to the PHB and DMG, but nothing experienced adventurers would care about. And for those who object, there's always Leomund's Tiny Hut out in the Ethereal.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's like why can't they be up front about it?

For the same reason that the Spelljammer set was light on detail. For whatever reason, WotC is insisting on just sketching out setting detail rather than being more comprehensive, as they were even earlier in this edition. Nearly all of Strixhaven's setting info requires reading through the individual adventures to find it, for instance.

To quote Hanlon's Razor, this is incompetence, not malice.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Very little is well-explained. This is like something you'd write if you were intentionally trying to cause a problem

It's a 5e, 'natural language' book. It's a given.

Apparently it's a feature and not a massive bug in the core design philosophy.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

1) Anyone can choose to try and pay by coming out with some kind of song or whatever. Not just poor people.

It has to be special. A historically relevant song, piece of art, or secret story pertaining to one of the cultures at the Radiant Citadel. It makes that pretty clear.

3) People who aren't dirt-poor have to pay, but it's entirely unclear how much, it very much appears that you don't know how much, and you "risk the rebuke of the city's guards", if you get it wrong. What that even means? Absolutely unclear.

And this is a problem how? The book doesn't explain the tax brackets or sales tax of the Radiant Citadel. Unless I'm mistaken, the book assumes that the party is starting in the Radiant Citadel, which would mean that they wouldn't have to pay the gate toll.

Nothing is explicit here. Very little is well-explained. This is like something you'd write if you were intentionally trying to cause a problem, especially when neurodiverse people get involved. I think that's a bit ironic given the supposed good intentions of Radiant Citadel and the writers - they created a situation likely totally screw over neurodiverse people (which very much includes the players, here) and people who have trouble with social cues.

Oh, come on. I'm neurodivergent (Autism and ADHD), and I can easily come up with some price at my table. This really isn't a problem, and saying it will hurt the neurodivergence is a bit extreme. Any DM can and should be able to come up with a random price like that because the books don't list the prices of a bunch of random junk the PCs might want to buy. Anyone that freaks out over not having a listed price for everything the PCs might want to buy probably shouldn't be a DM.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But the idea that the guards are playing "guess a number" is one that's been invented on this thread. With other settings, we can concede that "yep, that's underwritten." (Strixhaven is underwritten, not magically lacking in things.)

The text supports that idea incredibly strongly. I just quoted it dude. There's no getting away from the fact that the text we have both supports and strongly implies that the guards are playing "guess a number".

That's criminal levels of underwritten. Just don't even put in an element that is that underwritten!

I'd say 10 gold for admittance is a reasonable fee for people seeking refuge from the Ethereal Plane. It's a real amount of money according to the PHB and DMG, but nothing experienced adventurers would care about. And for those who object, there's always Leomund's Tiny Hut out in the Ethereal.

Sure, but that runs hard AGAINST the text, which implies that you have to give according to your means OR ELSE.

Personally I'd just ditch that element and let it run on import taxes. Rule 0 and all that, but like, newbie DMs with good hearts will getting this setting/adventure book and absolute chaos is going to ensure.

You all are running some D&D games that would never occur to me, but this is good grist for the next time someone claims that D&D getting political is a new thing.

Define "political". My experience is that regardless of the real-world politics of the players involved, all D&D-style adventurers are hardline libertarians when it comes to strangers trying to enforce weird or oppressive-seeming laws on them, even if they have very different attitudes to laws from their "own" lands/churches/knightly thotherhoods etc.

But really have you been taxing the PCs and they've just been fine with it? Because I think your group is the odd one out here. This is one of the few unbending rules of D&D I've ever come across and most D&D comic strips refer to it a fair bit.

To quote Hanlon's Razor, this is incompetence, not malice.

Uh-huh. It's an unacceptable level of incompetence, though. Just don't include an element if you can't do it justice.

I mean, and I think you know that I mean, that ENWorld doesn't have other discussions derailed by "OMG THERE ARE TAXES" when there are explicitly taxes in pretty much every setting.

This is a valid question but the reason is pretty straightforward and why Cormyr is the exception.

In the vast majority of settings, taxes are just vaguely referred to, usually as things that merchants or land-owners have to pay. We don't know how much, we often don't know the structure of how they're collected, nor the frequency, and so on. So it's essentially just something vaguely mentioned in worldbuilding or that features in some adventures and is entirely arbitrary. I can't even think of the last time a setting decided to try and tax adventurers. This is especially the case because nomadic adventurers are outside the typical medieval structures whereby taxes are levied. In older-school stuff it seemed like taxes were included in various upkeep costs for castles etc.

Cormyr, which is over-detailed as hell, unfortunately has a lot of its laws and some specific taxes (IIRC, certainly "charges") laid out with actual (extremely high) numerical values. Further at least one edition of Cormyr basically insisted you had to enforce this.

With other RPGs you sometimes see tax-like stuff, or protection rackets (which very akin to tax in many situations), but it's usually used to drive conflict, like in Vampire when some courts required you to tithe to the Prince.

(As an aside I'm an extremely pro-tax person IRL but I'm realist when it comes to D&D adventurers and trouble. Don't start none, won't be none.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Oh, come on. I'm neurodivergent (Autism and ADHD), and I can easily come up with some price at my table. This really isn't a problem, and saying it will hurt the neurodivergence is a bit extreme. Any DM can and should be able to come up with a random price like that because the books don't list the prices of a bunch of random junk the PCs might want to buy. Anyone that freaks out over not having a listed price for everything the PCs might want to buy probably shouldn't be a DM.

I'm talking about forcing neurodivergent players to play "guess the number" or be punished. That's literally a nightmare for some of us. The text strongly implies you are to play "guess the number". If that's not the intention it's appalling writing.

Like, I read that text, and it genuinely alarmed me. Is that kind of dumb and babyish? Maybe. But as someone with severe ADHD, being put in situations where it's like "guess the right amount to tip" or everything thinks you're a jerk is a literal nightmare. And here it's even worse, if you can't work it out, or you don't just wildly throw money at the problem, you won't be let in.

It has to be special. A historically relevant song, piece of art, or secret story pertaining to one of the cultures at the Radiant Citadel. It makes that pretty clear.

Sure, I agree, sorry for oversimplifying, I guess? But the PC won't really know for sure about that beforehand. It's rolling the dice.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm doubting that the vague tax laws in Radiant Citadel are upending campaigns.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The text supports that idea incredibly strongly. I just quoted it dude. There's no getting away from the fact that the text we have both supports and strongly implies that the guards are playing "guess a number".

I honestly don't see what you're seeing. The only time you have to guess whether something is acceptable is if you're making non-monetary payment. Otherwise, there's a payment (we know this because paying nothing without approval gets you the boot) and if you have more, you're expected to pay more.

But "rebuke" just means you get sneered at by some guards. They don't even use Vicious Mockery to back up their roasting of cheap-ass characters.

Like how much taxes adventurers have to pay in non-Luskan cities, what that amount is, is left undefined. That doesn't imply that it's not a set number.

Define "political".

"Our players are taking up arms in order to not pay taxes they agree with" is political by any definition of the word. As you might recall, it was brought up as a major complaint back in 1776.

But really have you been taxing the PCs and they've just been fine with it? Because I think your group is the odd one out here. This is one of the few unbending rules of D&D I've ever come across and most D&D comic strips refer to it a fair bit.

My campaign recently had characters arrive in Ptolus and the level nine characters were told there was a fee of a few gold they had to pay in addition to having all of their identification papers checked and logged. No one batted an eye.

I'm not busting out the green eye shade and doing hardcore accounting -- I have no interest in worrying about non-abusive encumbrance, much less how many copper pennies everyone has -- but yes, the characters do periodically get told to deduct money to ride on a ship or that they can only afford X weeks staying in the inn before they need to make some more money or seek cheaper accommodations. That feels like a pretty standard level of abstraction.

I'm actually toying with picking up the Blue Rose 5E PDF and using their narrative wealth rules, though, because I get bored with worrying about gold in an edition where it has little value for anyone other than wizards or would-be fantasy landowners.

Uh-huh. It's an unacceptable level of incompetence, though. Just don't include an element if you can't do it justice.

I don't remember if I was posting here when it was published, but I have a similar complaint about not having a straightforward and complete gazetteer for Strixhaven and its larger world. This is a weird modern WotCism.

In the vast majority of settings, taxes are just vaguely referred to, usually as things that merchants or land-owners have to pay. We don't know how much, we often don't know the structure of how they're collected, nor the frequency, and so on. So it's essentially just something vaguely mentioned in worldbuilding or that features in some adventures and is entirely arbitrary.

That's my feeling about what's going on in Radiant Citadel. They give just enough detail to explain why the citadel isn't still an empty hulk floating in the ether. The amount of money involved for PCs doesn't matter, because it's not an amount of money that should matter in games, unless we're playing Tax Havens & Tarrasques.

We were about 80 pages into this thread before someone decided that the paragraph on taxes in the Radiant Citadel was important and even setting-defining. I maintain that's an extremely weird thing to focus on.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'm talking about forcing neurodivergent players to play "guess the number" or be punished. That's literally a nightmare for some of us. The text strongly implies you are to play "guess the number". If that's not the intention it's appalling writing.

Like, I read that text, and it genuinely alarmed me. Is that kind of dumb and babyish? Maybe. But as someone with severe ADHD, being put in situations where it's like "guess the right amount to tip" or everything thinks you're a jerk is a literal nightmare. And here it's even worse, if you can't work it out, or you don't just wildly throw money at the problem, you won't be let in.

My reading of this is that DM is the one that determines the money and would have the guards tell the players the appropriate amount, not that the players would be playing the Price is Right with the guards. Which I could see being a problem if the players forces the players to guess, but that's what I read from the text. My reading was "there is a standard that people of different wealth groups would normally pay, but if you can contribute something to the society that is historically applicable or are too poor, you get in for free". But I could see how you'd read that from the text and that it could be a problem. It's definitely poorly worded, I just don't think it's a huge problem and that no DM that knows their players have issues with that kind of thing would force them to randomly guess the price.

 

[Remathilis]

For the same reason that the Spelljammer set was light on detail. For whatever reason, WotC is insisting on just sketching out setting detail rather than being more comprehensive, as they were even earlier in this edition. Nearly all of Strixhaven's setting info requires reading through the individual adventures to find it, for instance.

To quote Hanlon's Razor, this is incompetence, not malice.

Huh. I thought the prevailing attitude was that settings like Forgotten Realms was lore heavy, dense and cluttered with minutiae that stifles a DMs ability to tell stories while keeping within the lore and timeline. By contrast, "light sketch" settings like the '84 Greyhawk or Nerath were lauded as giving DMs a starting point rather than burdening them with overdevelopment and allowed the DM to make the world their own.

I guess I was wrong...