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]

You could have transitional locations - locations strongly tied to this or that element which exist in both the Prime and the Elemental plane simultaneously. So, some sort of shore town for elemental water, a volcano or desert for fire, mountain top for air (?) and underground for earth. Traveling a "certain direction" from the town leads deeper into that elemental plane which becomes obviously harder and harder to survive on.

Similar to Gaiman's Starlight Stardust, although there, they were just traveling from Wall into Faerie.

 

[Incenjucar]

The Shallows could be an expansion of the Border Ethereal concept. You could find yourself drifting through the Ethereal Plane until you find the ground beneath your feet, slowly calling you down to walk upon it. As you go forward the mists of the ethereal start to thin around you, until you see stars emerging from the mists. You continue you on, the mists finally giving way, and you realize the "stars" are glittering gems and minerals of the Plane of Earth, lit by the fires of a haze-cloaked settlement that lies between you and the cavernous darkness of the plane itself.

 

[Ixal]

The fine one - there big import taxes - makes utter sense. All sorts of trade hubs do similar things. Very common.

Are they? Import taxes are mostly used to discourage trade which seems to be the last thing the Radiant Citadel would want with no industry of their own.
Why would any trader come there when they have to pay tarrifs and a guessing game entry fee? If they absolutely have to go there all business will be conducted outside the walls with a shanty town and warehaouses springing up all around them (unless the Radiant Citadel intervenes, but with their utopian outlook that is questionable). If its possible to go through the portals and not be in the city.

There are also other things that look rather questionable like how food is limited but everyone is guranteed food and a basic income.
There is a fine line between a believable utopia (Star Trek thanks to replicators, but even that strains believabiliy sometimes) and unbelievable fairy tale settings. Radiant Citadel seems to fall squarely in the latter category.

 

[Hussar]

Are they? Import taxes are mostly used to discourage trade which seems to be the last thing the Radiant Citadel would want with no industry of their own.

That is very much incorrect.

 

[Marandahir]

Similar to Gaiman's Starlight, although there, they were just traveling from Wall into Faerie.

You mean Stardust?

 

[Ixal]

That is very much incorrect.

I should have specified high import taxes. Some taxes are of course required to get some wealth out of trade, but high taxes sound counter intuitive. Especially if its possible for traders to go from jewel to jewel without entering the city.

 

[Hussar]

I should have specified high import taxes. Some taxes are of course required to get some wealth out of trade, but high taxes sound counter intuitive. Especially if its possible for traders to go from jewel to jewel without entering the city.

That would be why you are incorrect. You cannot just roll up into random towns and start selling your goods. Borders do exist. Roll up into a town without a government, and it's every bit as likely that you will be killed for your goods. Or, you'll be selling your goods at the absolute lowest prices because you are a criminal smuggler avoiding taxes.

Traders go to trade hubs despite having to pay taxes for any number of reasons. Not being murdered for your goods probably one of the better ones.

 

[Ixal]

That would be why you are incorrect. You cannot just roll up into random towns and start selling your goods. Borders do exist. Roll up into a town without a government, and it's every bit as likely that you will be killed for your goods. Or, you'll be selling your goods at the absolute lowest prices because you are a criminal smuggler avoiding taxes.

Traders go to trade hubs despite having to pay taxes for any number of reasons. Not being murdered for your goods probably one of the better ones.

Places with high tariffs do not become trade hubs though.

And the Radiant Citadel not only needs trade to make money, trade is literally its life blood as it hardly has any natural ressources to exploit except for the magical properties of the crystal.
One question is when the entry fee is required. When stepping out of the portal or when trying to cross the bridge of the passage. If its the latter then traders could simply switch portals to go somewhere else, cutting out the Citadel completely.
And if its the former then making this vital fee a guessing game is a very bad idea.
And even when traders have to pay the entry fee to use other portals the question still remains why they would sell anything in the Citadel instead of using another portal to a completely different realm where they can sell their "exotic" goods for a higher price or lower taxes?
That would work for anything except basic goods you could get everywhere like grain or (common) wood. But even then, how could a trader make any money of them when the taxes are so high and they have to pay a guessing game entry fee? That would only make sense when the prices are so high that they still make a profit. Which directly clashes with the citadel providing those goods for basically free to their citizens through basic income. So you have a loop where the citadel must raise taxes on trade (main source of income) which leads to traders raising prices, requiring more money for basic income which requires for higher taxes.

WotC simply made the Citadel too much into an utopian paradise so that its obvious that it would not work as presented. Remember the line from Matrix. The first instance of the Matrix was a paradise but people did not accept it.
The same thing happens here. Its too perfect compared to other mega hubs like Sigil, Waterdeep or Sharn.

Frankly, it would have been more believable if they just said that the connected empires are bankrolling the city instead of trying to make it a compassionate trade hub with no industry, high tarrifs and universal basic income.

 

[Alzrius]

Borders do exist.

I suspect you're overstating how these borders function in a quasi-medieval world, even one with magic.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You mean Stardust?

Yes, sorry. Brain no worky good.