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​

 

[Azenis]

I'm getting the vibe you can't fathom a setting where people wouldn't attempt immediately to exploit, deceive or subjugate their neighbors in a bid for power or wealth. It honestly reminds me of several political arguments about different -isms we can't discuss here. As such, I will leave the thought at this: the difference between the Radiant Citadel and a place like Sigil or Sharn is the difference between leaving a bowl of candy out on Halloween with a "free take one" sign and installing a working vending machine on your front porch.

Still missing the point. This is a commercial product. It's supposed to appeal to a wider audience and considering it's an Adventure Setting it is a product meant to assist the purchaser (the DM) facilitate adventures. Despite having tons of potential elements to make an interesting setting, the author of this section kneecaps that potential (nothing ever bad happens here, just because)...it just a waiting room for PCs overall (making it a waste of page count, they could have done with same thing with a 1 page description & a map).

The funny bits I see is how my PCs would actually play in it...they'd think something evil & nefarious was at work. One or two run ins with the 'law' (I have players that will get into trouble;-) would likely piss them off if I somehow get them invested in something in it so they just don't walk away. It's why I'm considering running it 'as is' for that payoff.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The funny bits I see is how my PCs would actually play in it...they'd think something evil & nefarious was at work. One or two run ins with the 'law' (I have players that will get into trouble;-) would likely piss them off if I somehow get them invested in something in it so they just don't walk away. It's why I'm considering running it 'as is' for that payoff.

Which is fair enough. A self-serving party can expect to run into difficulties in a lawful good society. They would have the same issue visiting a dwarf city.

 

[Alzrius]

That reminds me of the fantasy land of Griffonstone. Where they don't work together; at all...

Funny, I thought of that time the Punisher ended up in Riverdale.

 

[Azenis]

Which is fair enough. A self-serving party can expect to run into difficulties in a lawful good society. They would have the same issue visiting a dwarf city.

Oh they're very charitable (at least some of them) and probably do more things pro bono and give away more in wealth than would ever be demanded in taxes by the RC. That's their choice...being told they have to do that...well that would rub them the wrong way straight off (and whoever wrote the Shieldbearer code I suspect really doesn't have much experience actually playing the game;-). But a sticky finger halfling or after a barfight seeking barbarian start have encounters with local authorities....fun (if I can keep them there).

Dwarves have development of why certain things are the way they are and unlike RC there are still 'bad' dwarves, criminals, crimelords, cultists...tons of adventure seeds. The RC section would past muster of why it's so useless in this regard if it was in an aligned plane (LN or LG...maybe LE;-) or had another factor in play like I mentioned.

 

[Remathilis]

Still missing the point. This is a commercial product. It's supposed to appeal to a wider audience and considering it's an Adventure Setting it is a product meant to assist the purchaser (the DM) facilitate adventures.

Not all products appeal to everyone. Some people find Ravenloft's artificial nature bleak to the point of "why bother" since you can never actually improve things. Darklords come back. People are soulless husks. Death doesn't even release you. Yet others fight against that nihilism and find that making things just a bit better is worth it. Ymmv.

But that doesn't make it a bad product. Just one that doesn't fit your tastes. Ravenloft is a grimdark setting. Radiant Citadel is a hopelight one. One isn't inherently better than the other, just different. I don't like Dark Sun, but I don't begrudge WotC if they make a setting book one day.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Dwarves have development of why certain things are the way they are and unlike RC there are still 'bad' dwarves, criminals, crimelords, cultists...tons of adventure seeds. The RC section would past muster of why it's so useless in this regard if it was in an aligned plane (LN or LG...maybe LE;-) or had another factor in play like I mentioned.

As established in D&D, "bad" dwarves are not tolerated within dwarven societies, which are canonically highly lawful. You might find a dwarven crime lord, but not in a standard D&D dwarven society.

And there are places in the real world where crime rates are very low (the Isle of Man for example). Not everywhere is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Still missing the point. This is a commercial product. It's supposed to appeal to a wider audience and considering it's an Adventure Setting it is a product meant to assist the purchaser (the DM) facilitate adventures.

It's the hub for the adventures in the book.

And maybe the 'wider audience' is tired of dystopias all the freaking time.

Can't like one place -- one single location in the overall setting -- ever be nice and clean and not fraught with hamfisted 'lessons' on human fallibility? Not everything has to be all edge, no point and be very good at cutting cheesy Italian delicacies.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I thought the next D&D book is supposed to be called Shadow of the Dragon Queen? What did I miss?

 

[Alzrius]

I thought the next D&D book is supposed to be called Shadow of the Dragon Queen? What did I miss?

The date on the first post of this thread, apparently.

 

[Azenis]

It's the hub for the adventures in the book.

And maybe the 'wider audience' is tired of dystopias all the freaking time.

Can't like one place -- one single location in the overall setting -- ever be nice and clean and not fraught with hamfisted 'lessons' on human fallibility? Not everything has to be all edge, no point and be very good at cutting cheesy Italian delicacies.

It's a waiting room. A normal city is not a dystopia. They do have a swath of adventure seeds you can do in them. Like I said, as is, a waste of page count generally for something they could have just glossed over with a map & a page description and just added more to the anthology of adventures in the book.

Just to add on the dwarven city thing....name one Dwarven focused setting commercial product (that's a campaign hub so more than a scant 1 or 2 page description) where there is no potential for 'bad actor' dwarves. I have quite a few across multiple rpgs (Thoral one of my favs), Role-aides Dwarves, Races of Stone had a nice write-up, Krynn had at least one, Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, 4e's Hammerfast and up to & including 5e compatible stuff like Stone Rift. All of them have more going for a DM to flesh out to an encounter to adventure than what RC wasted page count provides.