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​

 

[MonsterEnvy]

And you are completely, utterly wrong that there is no other market. The next market is just one quick jewel ride away as they can plane shift at will and also fly.

The Jewels explicitly only go between one World and the Radiant Citadel and only certain locations.
So your ideas don’t work.

 

[Ixal]

The Jewels explicitly only go between one World and the Radiant Citadel and only certain locations.
So your ideas don’t work.

Which is why in every post that came up I said that they need to change portals/jewels.......
Its also less of a problem if the merchants travel to the Citadel in other ways as it is left open how people wanting to come to the Citadel are picked up.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Which is why in every post that came up I said that they need to change portals/jewels.......
Its also less of a problem if the merchants travel to the Citadel in other ways as it is left open how people wanting to come to the Citadel are picked up.

Who says they can change the Jewels. They seem to just be an automatic thing.

Also I assume the Jewels normally operate on a schedule, where they go to from the Citadel to the material plane and back. The Jewels are very large and always go back to the same areas.

 

[MichaelSomething]

What WOTC needs to do is provide free economic education to all of it's writers! That's solve the issue of in world economies not making sense to us!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.

It's how I intend to run it. I'm basically going off the "Replicators" discussion in The Orville.

As Arthur C. Clarke so nearly said "Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science fiction".

 

[Ixal]

Who says they can change the Jewels. They seem to just be an automatic thing.

Also I assume the Jewels normally operate on a schedule, where they go to from the Citadel to the material plane and back. The Jewels are very large and always go back to the same areas.

?
They land in front of the entrance/passage, you get off, you wait till the next jewel arrives and you go on again?

 

[Arilyn]

This is a book presenting adventures inspired by non Western tropes. It's the stories that are created at the table that are important, not whether the Radiant Citadel is economically viable. If your players are going to become hyper focused on this to the point that they want to wreck the society, or complain constantly that the citadel makes no sense, then play a different setting.

The vast majority of D&D settings make no sense socially or economically. Why is this one under attack? Because it's a utopia? I like that aspect. I like the Star Treky feel. I presume the player characters won't be hanging around the citadel discussing economic theory and grumbling about tarrifs any more than they'd be wondering how adventurers' gold isn't destroying local economies.

Since when is D&D, of all games, supposed to give us a glimpse into realistic societies?

 

[Ixal]

Why is this one under attack? Because it's a utopia?

For me, because the book puts a focus on it by describing its income and spending practices and economic situation. When you do not want to spend effort on getting it right, simply don't mention it and instead focus on something else like describing the culture in the city more, especially as culture is a big theme of the entire book anyway.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is a book presenting adventures inspired by non Western tropes. It's the stories that are created at the table that are important, not whether the Radiant Citadel is economically viable. If your players are going to become hyper focused on this to the point that they want to wreck the society, or complain constantly that the citadel makes no sense, then play a different setting.

The vast majority of D&D settings make no sense socially or economically. Why is this one under attack? Because it's a utopia? I like that aspect. I like the Star Treky feel. I presume the player characters won't be hanging around the citadel discussing economic theory and grumbling about tarrifs any more than they'd be wondering how adventurers' gold isn't destroying local economies.

Since when is D&D, of all games, supposed to give us a glimpse into realistic societies?

Star Trek puts more effort into making their utopia seem plausible. Have the Citadel invent a low energy cost magical replicator, and we'll talk.

 

[Irlo]

For me, because the book puts a focus on it by describing its income and spending practices and economic situation. When you do not want to spend effort on getting it right, simply don't mention it and instead focus on something else like describing the culture in the city more, especially as culture is a big theme of the entire book anyway.

It's hardly a focus. The setting is not deeply detailed in any respect, and the descriptors of the economics barely rate a couple of paragraphs, if that. Yes, it's true, there is no mention of regulation of the movements of travellers and cargo using the jewels. You seem to take that to mean that there is no regulation, which leads to implausibilities that you describe. Don't assume that there is no regulation of travel, and you'll eliminate a large part of what your objecting to.