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​

 

[pemerton]

just taxing traders is not enough to finance buying from said traders as every tax you levy is just added to the price of the product.

This is obviously not true as it stands. You seem to be assuming that the traders have no market for their goods other than the residents of the Citadel, but given that it is a trade hub it seems obvious that that is not the case. The principal market for trade goods will be other traders, who then take the goods that they purchase to other markets where they sell them to their final consumers.

Suppose that a given trader in the Citadel generates 50x of turnover on goods that cost them 30x for purchase and transport, and then pays 10x in tax (ie a 20% tax on the deemed sale value of the goods) and thus retains 10x profit. One way to pay that tax is by giving the city one fifth of their goods. If there are a large number of goods, that may be enough to support a reasonable number of people in the city.

Increase the number of traders, and the population that is supported will grow. Change the posited figures, and we get different necessary ratios of goods sold to city population. As @Hussar posted, no D&D product goes into this sort of mathematical detail. It's enough that we can think up solutions in our imaginations.

 

[Ixal]

This is obviously not true as it stands. You seem to be assuming that the traders have no market for their goods other than the residents of the Citadel, but given that it is a trade hub it seems obvious that that is not the case. The principal market for trade goods will be other traders, who then take the goods that they purchase to other markets where they sell them to their final consumers.

Suppose that a given trade in the Citadel generates 50x of turnover on goods that cost them 30x for purchase and transport, and then pays 10x in tax (ie a 20% tax on the deemed sale value of the goods) and thus retains 10x profit. One way to pay that tax is by giving the city one fifth of their goods. If there are a large number of goods, that may be enough to support a reasonable number of people in the city.

Increase the number of traders, and the population that is supported will grow. Change the posited figures, and we get different necessary ratios of goods sold to city population. As @Hussar posted, no D&D product goes into this sort of mathematical detail. It's enough that we can think up solutions in our imaginations.

You too simply assume that the Citadel will be a trade hub, but it will not. The not-portals allow traders to directly planeshift to other major cities where they can sell directly. No need for a intermediary trader in the Citadel with its entry toll and high taxes.

 

[pemerton]

You too simply assume that the Citadel will be a trade hub, but it will not. The not-portals allow traders to directly planeshift to other major cities where they can sell directly. No need for a intermediary trader in the Citadel with its entry toll and high taxes.

I'm not assuming it will be a trade hub. My understanding is that the book stipulates that it is one.

To me it doesn't seem that hard to imagine why that might be so. Are there no translators, or other cultural obstacles, to selling directly to consumers on the other side of the portals? I don't know, but given that overall theme of the book that seems like a possibility.

Do those other markets have rules forbidding foreign traders, meaning that a neutral place for trade is essential? I haven't heard anything that rules out this sort of possibility.

Are there obstacles to just using the "not portals"? I haven't read the book, but @Whizbang Dustyboots has, and so has @Irlo I think, and they both seem to believe that there are obstacles in this respect.

It just doesn't seem that hard to fill in some rough and ready details by using one's imagination.

 

[Ixal]

I'm not assuming it will be a trade hub. My understanding is that the book stipulates that it is one.

To me it doesn't seem that hard to imagine why that might be so. Are there no translators, or other cultural obstacles, to selling directly to consumers on the other side of the portals? I don't know, but given that overall theme of the book that seems like a possibility.

Do those other markets have rules forbidding foreign traders, meaning that a neutral place for trade is essential? I haven't heard anything that rules out this sort of possibility.

Are there obstacles to just using the "not portals"? I haven't read the book, but @Whizbang Dustyboots has, and so has @Irlo I think, and they both seem to believe that there are obstacles in this respect.

It just doesn't seem that hard to fill in some rough and ready details by using one's imagination.

• No, all speak common. The book even calls out how prevalent common as language is
• The book mentions that the diplomatic relations between the Citadel and the other nations are not always good (and specifically mentiones disagreements about the tariffs). So its unlikely that the Citadel enjoys a special status for trade unless they flat out refuse traders to pass and force them to sell through the Citadel. But that does not fit will with the egeleterian vibe of the Citadel (unless you think "stick it to them" is also part of it).
• There is no restrictions mentioned for the use of the jewels. There is a group of operators who control them, but they are state employees so to speak and not their own guild and no tarifs or taxes for them are mentioned or any other kind of restriction. Its even unclear if changing from one to the other involves entering the city, thus paying the fee, or not as all of them dock at the same area before the gates.

 

[Irlo]

Yes, if we read a short summary of the trade system of an interplanar nexus connecting dozens of disparate civilizations on dozens of worlds, we can find omissions that, if left unfilled by our imaginations, lead to absurdities.

There's a reason that farmers rent stalls at the farmer's market in my neighborhood rather than travel door to door selling fruit.

 

[Ixal]

Yes, if we read a short summary of the trade system of an interplanar nexus connecting dozens of disparate civilizations on dozens of worlds, we can find omissions that, if left unfilled by our imaginations, lead to absurdities.

There's a reason that farmers rent stalls at the farmer's market in my neighborhood rather than travel door to door selling fruit.

Except the correct analogy would be the farmers instead renting the stalls on the other farmer's market across the street where the stalls are cheaper and customers do not need to pay an entry fee.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now that we've solved this, can we talk about how dungeons are far too large to make sense and everyone in them would suffocate long before they realized the inability to remove waste products from them would also be deadly?

Also, dragons couldn't possibly fly and the energy required to fire off a breath weapon even once would require them to raze the countryside for miles around just due to the calories involved?

And "magic" and "psionics" aren't the answer, since both are clearly nonsense under even a basic understanding of thermodynamics.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, the multiverse can't work that way, as physics and math both clearly show.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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.

Historically saying that is a complete and utter nonsense. Virtually every successful trading city levies significant but not extortionate taxes on trade. There's a limit but it's easily enough to provide the city with a lot of money. Some, like Venice, even managed to do taxes which were pretty much extortionate! Venice's entire vast wealth came primarily from trade taxes. The reason you go there is usually for the good position it holds and the protection it offers, which is exactly what the Radiant Citadel provides.

Places with high tariffs do not become trade hubs though.

Absolutely they do. Especially if they're the only place for a large distance. You're just talking pure anti-facts here. This isn't "disputed" or "questionable", this is stuff there are entire books on!

The idea of trying to trade in a shanty town outside the Radiant Citadel is extremely funny at least.

Except the correct analogy would be the farmers instead renting the stalls on the other farmer's market across the street where the stalls are cheaper and customers do not need to pay an entry fee.

There is no other market here. That's what you're profoundly failing to get.

It's like suggesting people will just go another large safe-harbour port on some coast where there's literally only one large safe-harbour port for hundreds of miles. The free market isn't magic, dude, it can't spontaneously manifest new locations for trade.

 

[Incenjucar]

I strongly encourage anyone who is looking at this as impossible as-written to focus on suggestions on how to make it possible with the fewest changes, since the specific goal was to present a setting.

Let us also keep in mind that we're talking about magical multiverses here, where economics can work in thousands of different ways never seen before. Heck, D&D has had monsters that can Create Soft Goods like pillows as a basic magical ability.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Radiant Citadel doesn't need to be a well visited trade hub when it had druids dishing out goodberrys on every street corner.

Fantasy trumps real world economics.

Does it say that's what happens?

I would actually LOVE to see a setting that leans all the way into the mechanics of D&D. I suspect it would little resemble what we've had for the last 50 years.