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​

 

[Hussar]

True. But I am primarily DMing via Beyond/AboveVTT/Discord. Getting WotC books via Beyond that integrates with sheets etc is very much preferable to 3PP.

My current campaign is morphing into Spelljammer territory. I've found some pretty good 5e conversions on DM's guild and have the old books as pdf, so things work. But having 'jammer integrated in Beyond would be so much easier.

That's why I even bother to advocate for WotC 5e Spelljammer on forums. For me and my players there is a practical difference between WotC stuff and 3PP, even though the options certainly are there.

"AboveVTT"? THat's a new one. Hadn't seen that one before. Cool. Since I run on Fantasy Grounds, and there's a mountain of stuff for FG from 3pp, I don't have this particular issue.

Doesn't Beyond have 3pp? I don't use it at all, so, I have no idea.

 

[TheSword]

Are you seriously asking "Why is someone labeled a grouchy, gatekeeping grognard just because they complain about the mere existence of new things that aren't catered towards them, that other people enjoy, and constantly whine about how the older stuff was better?"

Like . . . seriously?

Saying that you want something new is acceptable and normal because . . . literally everyone likes certain things and asking for something that you like that has never been made before is 100% valid. Saying that you don't want something to exist because it wasn't specifically made and catered to you is selfish and the very definition of "exclusionary".

That's like asking "why am I labeled a nerd, just because I play Dungeons and Dragons, read fantasy and sci-fi books, and play video games?"

Like, that's literally the definition of the thing you are talking about.

I am utterly baffled that this is a question you felt the need to ask.

I’m wondering why the need for the hyperbole and the extreme reaction to a little genuine criticism. Mainly couched in terms of “I’m a bit disappointed”, “shame they couldn’t cater to the old and the new”. I literally used the phrase ‘not my cup of tea’.

I didn’t say it shouldn’t exist. I asked for these kinds of releases to be interspersed with a good old Forgotten Realms reprint. You know those kinds of books that built 5e into what it is now. You can have your talking humanoid rabbits as long as I get an adventure set in Myth Drannor. Why is that an unreasonable thing to request?

The only folks saying books shouldn’t exist are those saying that they wish the Forgotten Realms was canned, and how dare 5e do reprints.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In a circumstance where the thing you're talking about is subjective and there are other people that enjoy it, "it wasn't my cup of tea" is always a better thing to say than "this thing is sucks".

Like . . . I don't like Friends, Harry Potter, the WWE, Downton Abbey, the DCEU, or Jane Austen's stories, and I'm not going to apologize for disliking them, but I also don't routinely call them garbage, crap on their fanbases, and say that they never should have existed. I just say "they're not for me". I am not the kind of person that these stories are catered to, and that's okay.

And I expect the same thing of others. I don't care if someone else doesn't like Brandon Sanderson's novels, the MCU, Percy Jackson, Star Wars, or 30 Rock, but I do care when people claim that they're garbage or insult the people that like them.

It's just a common courtesy generally expected in society. A very basic social contract that people are supposed to learn throughout their lives. It's a standard that everyone should be held to. Just basic politeness. I'm honestly baffled that this needs explaining.

I didn't hear anything in the example that insulted the fan who liked it. He just said that he liked it a while back and hasn't liked it since. It was the other guy who called him a jerk.

 

[TheSword]

Like . . . I don't like Friends, Harry Potter, the WWE, Downton Abbey, the DCEU, or Jane Austen's stories, and I'm not going to apologize for disliking them, but I also don't routinely call them garbage, crap on their fanbases, and say that they never should have existed. I just say "they're not for me". I am not the kind of person that these stories are catered to, and that's okay.

If there was only one company that made Friends, Harry Potter, WWE Downton abbey, and your favourite TV shows and was only able to make two or three shows a year, with little recourse to other options… and they made nothing but Downton Abbey and Jane Austin for two years… you might be justified in raising your voice a little in dissent. No matter how the Downton Fans tried to shout you down.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I’m wondering why the need for the hyperbole and the extreme reaction to a little genuine criticism. Mainly couched in terms of “I’m a bit disappointed”, “shame they couldn’t cater to the old and the new”. I literally used the phrase ‘not my cup of tea’.

I didn’t say it shouldn’t exist. I asked for these kinds of releases to be interspersed with a good old Forgotten Realms reprint. You know those kinds of books that built 5e into what it is now. You can have your talking humanoid rabbits as long as I get an adventure set in Myth Drannor. Why is that an unreasonable thing to request?

The only folks saying books shouldn’t exist are those saying that they wish the Forgotten Realms was canned, and how dare 5e do reprints.

Yeah, I too think that's a little extreme. I like older stuff, by and large. When they release something I don't like, I wish they'd instead released something I do, and say so. I think that's pretty normal behavior. I don't specifically wish things I don't like didn't exist, I'd just rather they did something else. I suppose I should just wait to post until I have nothing but positive things to say about any given topic.

In this particular case, I think the art a little wonky on the cover for my tastes, and was hoping for something that wasn't another anthology, perhaps something with mechanical bits I can steal. I have no doubt that this will make a lot of people happy, however, so I wish them all the best.

 

[Scribe]

Depends on how one defines victory, I guess. Is it a victory for the protagonists to win, if the protagonists aren't much better (or often, better at all) than what they're fighting?

This is why I like the genre, as I like the question.

 

[Hussar]

If someone says to me "this thing sucks," then I take it that they are claiming that the thing itself sucks (and is therefore intrinsically unlikable), not that they personally don't like the thing or it's not to their tastes.

And, frequently, when you question people on it, they double down and insist that "This thing sucks". And then get all shirty when you ask them to show how it sucks and you don't immediately fall in behind them to chant how "this thing sucks".

Then, when it becomes glaringly obvious that "this thing sucks" doesn't actually carry any water, they fall back on "Well, I was just saying that I didn't like it. I'm allowed to not like something. It's just my opinion."

And then the circle starts right back up again, but, this time with an extra chorus of "well, people just don't want to listen to me, they just want to shut down conversation".

It's a very transparent rhetorical tactic that you see all the time.

I just assume now that any time someone says "this thing sucks" they just mean, "I don't like this." and then pretty much ignore everything they say after it.

 

[Hussar]

See now, if they had brought up those ideas as a justification of why they decided to make the NPCs empty soulless husks, that would have been some traction. But instead, they just put it out there and made you come up with a reason why it was "a good thing".

I'm sorry, but, isn't 5e the edition that's all about DM empowerment? Isn't that like one of the biggest selling points?

So, aren't they pretty much doing exactly what you are supposed to do with D&D material - make it your own?

 

[Hussar]

Heh. It's kinda funny. The first WotC 5e book I bought after the core 3 was Dragonheist. Why? Because nothing that came before particularly appealed to me. I backed the Primeval Thule Kickstarter and ran that instead because that appealed to me.

I find it absolutely baffling to go into threads about new products and then proudly proclaim that you will NOT buy this. What is the point? What do people think they're going to accomplish with this? Or is this simply the same sort of mindset that grinds edition wars where they figure if they can get enough "me too" folks to bitch and complain, they'll be catered to yet again?

Good grief, there's SIXTEEN WotC adventures for 5e. Most of them are pretty much traditional D&D fare. Maybe three or four of them aren't? Just how much do people want the game to cater to their tastes?

I guess my question is, why should I possibly give the slightest rat's patoot that someone isn't going to buy this book? The only thing I owe anyone is my complete and utter indifference. That's all I expect in return. So, can someone explain to me why anyone should care in the slightest that someone isn't going to buy something?

 

[darjr]

See now, if they had brought up those ideas as a justification of why they decided to make the NPCs empty soulless husks, that would have been some traction. But instead, they just put it out there and made you come up with a reason why it was "a good thing".

Have you read the section on souls and shells? It’s rather amazing. I just went back and read it again and I think your whole comment is empty and soulless and fades away after the mists have gone.