D&D 5E Ajit George Talks About Radiant Citadel's Creators

Project Lead Ajit George shared a post on social media about the development of and creators of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

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...

www.enworld.org

Hi all,
I'm so unbelievably excited and proud to tell you that I have conceived and co-led the first book written entirely by people of color in Dungeons & Dragons’ 49-year history: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel!

In June of 2020, I pitched the idea to Jeremy Crawford and Wes Schneider at the D&D Studio for a book written by Black and brown writers. The idea was to create new places and lands based on our cultures, histories, myths, and lived experiences. To my surprise and joy, they agreed and asked me to co-lead it with Wes Schneider!
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is an anthology of 13 compelling adventures that introduces 16 new locations, along with characters and monsters. The first location, the titular Radiant Citadel, was created and written by myself. You have never seen anything like it in D&D before.

There is so much we've accomplished with this unbelievable book:

• I am the first-ever PoC Project Lead for a D&D book.
• This is the first D&D book conceived, created, and written entirely by PoCs: Sixteen writers in total.
• This is the first D&D book where the cover art and alt-cover art were both created by women of color: Evyn Fong and Sija Hong.
• The co-Art Director is a woman of color: Emi Tanji.
• The Marketing Lead is a woman of color: Sara Chan.
• Two of the rules developers are PoCs: Makenzie De Armas and Taymoor Rehman.
• One of the editors is a PoC: Jessica Ross.
• Three cultural consultants are women of color: Nivair H. Gabriel, Jaymee Goh, and Carmen Maria Marin.
• Almost two-thirds of the artists were PoCs and they created more than two-thirds of the art for the book.
• One of our narrative design consultants (and also my wife), is a woman of color: Whitney Strix Beltrán. She was with me from the very first day to the very last. I am eternally grateful for all she's done.
• Additionally, half of the writers are women and several writers come from the LGBTQIA+ community.

More than 50 Black and brown people came together to work on this book and support its creation. I am overwhelmed by the scope of our accomplishments.

The sixteen writers for the book are: Justice Ramin Arman, Dominique Dickey, Basheer Ghouse, Alastor Guzman, D. Fox Harrell, T.K. Johnson, Felice Tzehuei, Surena Marie, Monidipa Mondal, Mario Ortegón, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Terry Romero, Stephanie Yoon and myself.

I am also grateful to everyone in the D&D Studio who made this book possible including Ray Winninger, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Steve Scott, Amanda Hamon, James Wyatt, and of course my partner through it all, Wes Schneider.

And to friends who helped with so many different ways, especially John Stavropoulos (who was the system and narrative design consultant) and Jess Ross (who was one of the editors). Both were there from the start in leadership meetings and helped with so many parts in the first several months.

Finally, I want to thank my talented and capable wife Whitney Beltrán. I juggled my full-time job and leading this project and she supported me every day. She was also my narrative design consultant and weighed in or saw everything I did. This book is brilliant in part because of her.

I genuinely believe Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is one of the finest books ever to bear the D&D logo. It is a layered book that hits upon complex and powerful themes. You can play it at the surface and have a lot of fun, or you can delve deeper with the questions it asks of you. Either way, it will offer hundreds of hours of incredible gameplay and new stories.

I can’t wait for it to be released on June 21st and to share it with the world!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some times to fight the racism we have to face the fear, one of the roots, and this needs more diplomacy, empathy and social skills. We need to create a good felling, good vibes, and here everybody has to make an effort for a mutual trust. This can't be demanded, but we have to get it.

Apologies for the past may be necessary but also we have to ask to learn to forgive, to say no against the resentment.

Do you remember Robin Hood's stories about the conflicts between saxons and normands, and who minds about this now? After the fall of the Roman empire Visigoths arrived to the Iberian peninsule and became the rulers. The relations between Hispanolatins and Hispanogoths weren't too good. Both had got different legal codes, and mixed marriaged was forbidden. Step to step this started to be allowed, and in the end both communities became one, the Spanish people. Two thousands years ago the Latins were the supreme power, and the blond people with blue eyes from the North Europe were the barbarians, the "third world".

If D&D should have taught us is about to cooperate as team, accept the difference, and be open-minded. If WotC wants to publish titles based in no-Western cultures, they are wellcome, I only ask to be a good product. And also we should understand some offenses are accidental and unintentional, more when they are by teenagers who haven't learnt yet enough social skills.

I don't ask about the revival of Kara-Tur+alQadim or if Greyhawk will add a new continent inspirated in jidaigeki+xuanhuan fiction, but if the lore of those lands will allow space for new type of classes (psionic, martial adepts and a reboot of incarnum soulmelding).

When people went to the cinema to watch "Kung-fu Panda", they only asked a fun movie, they didn't mind by who or where was produced.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Racism is a big, and growing, problem in the UK too.

your sadly right lots of the quite systemic stuff for a while and the load stuff is becoming common again

 

[Alzrius]

If you walked into public building this January in Atlanta, in the midst of the Omicron surge, you were required to wear a mask.

But not a hat and sunglasses, let alone pass out handwritten notes saying you wanted large sums of money.

Saying it out loud, so that everyone in earshot knows that you are about to have $12K in cash on your person, sounds like a recipe for getting mugged.

If only there was some way of talking quietly, so the people around were less likely to overhear you. Or better yet, speaking with someone ahead of time, perhaps from home, using some sort of telephonic device. Maybe one day such things will be invented, preventing this sort of thing from ever happening again. Though I suppose I can see being worried about being mugged between leaving the bank and getting into the car where two of his friends were waiting with the engine running.

Apparently, in order to avoid "misunderstanding", he's supposed to put himself in danger of covid and robbery. And by "misunderstanding" we really mean, "calling the cops on an African American man," which isn't notoriously safe, either.

Clearly, the safer option was to enter a bank with his face completely covered (darn that hat and sunglasses mandate), and hand over a note saying he wanted a large sum, and for the teller to do it quietly. Because there's nothing notorious about that, no sir! And to think they thought the people waiting for him in the vehicle outside looked like a getaway car, tsk!

EDIT: Or maybe you could listen to the actual person of color telling everyone that the situation isn't as clear-cut as you seem to think it is.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Racism is a big, and growing, problem in the UK to

The sudden mass shifting of people has that affect. One can observe same in nature or when one brings a new pet to a home with existing pets.

 

[Morrus]

Guess I picked the wrong couple of days to leave town. This thread is definitely getting closed.