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​

 

[Scribe]

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?

They added Alignment back....so thats a yes?

 

[darjr]

Oh, and my players that saved that whole village?

They later came back and realized the folk had noidea what joy was. They were faking it because that was their soulless empty lot. They desperately wanted to know joy but couldn’t.

That crushed my players.

In a good way of course.

 

[Hussar]

Oh, and my players that saved that whole village?

They later came back and realized the folk had noidea what joy was. They were faking it because that was their soulless empty lot. They desperately wanted to know joy but couldn’t.

That crushed my players.

In a good way of course.

It's always interesting to me to see how different people view different works. I was in this thread taken to task for not finding the ending of LotR particularly uplifting. @doctorbadwolf is now taking everyone else to task for wanting a more nihilistic campaign in Ravenloft and then insisting that their specific interpretation is the only possible one.

Open minds are a much better way to go. Surprisingly enough, conflicting interpretations of a work can and do exist. No single interpretation is ever the "right" one.

 

[darjr]

It's always interesting to me to see how different people view different works. I was in this thread taken to task for not finding the ending of LotR particularly uplifting. @doctorbadwolf is now taking everyone else to task for wanting a more nihilistic campaign in Ravenloft and then insisting that their specific interpretation is the only possible one.

Open minds are a much better way to go. Surprisingly enough, conflicting interpretations of a work can and do exist. No single interpretation is ever the "right" one.

Of course?

I think you’ll agree our judgment of other peoples reactions are also our own. Fair or not.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's always interesting to me to see how different people view different works. I was in this thread taken to task for not finding the ending of LotR particularly uplifting. @doctorbadwolf is now taking everyone else to task for wanting a more nihilistic campaign in Ravenloft and then insisting that their specific interpretation is the only possible one.

Open minds are a much better way to go. Surprisingly enough, conflicting interpretations of a work can and do exist. No single interpretation is ever the "right" one.

Ya know what, I’m tired of your insistence on mischaracterizing the behavior of people who disagree with you, and on playing the victim when someone makes a counter argument in response to your poorly thought out statements.

 

[Hussar]

Of course?

I think you’ll agree our judgment of other peoples reactions are also our own. Fair or not.

Oh absolutely. That’s totally fair. But just like the earlier “this thing sucks” point where it’s usually someone trying to dress up their preferences as objective vale’s, very often it gets lost that multiple interpretations are perfectly fine.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Every single NPC in every single game of D&D is a "prop". Literally all of them are story devices used by the DM to propel the plot/story of the game.

I think that what you're complaining about is actually how this could potentially ruin the players' willing suspension of disbelief while playing the game.

That definitely isn’t what bothers the people I game with about that setting element.

The fact that the characters aren’t literally real isn’t particularly important. I mean…you gotta know that everyone is aware of that already. People care about the nature of the worlds in which they’re playing.

The soulless aspect of Ravenloft is something that would ruin the setting completely for a lot of people if it wasn’t easy to ignore because of the nature of D&D.

It’s also weird to add to all domains of dread, because it makes all of them fundamentally the same kind of horror.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It’s also weird to add to all domains of dread, because it makes all of them fundamentally the same kind of horror.

But it makes sense. The Dark Powers created the demiplanes for all of the Domains of Dread. It makes sense that there would be shared aspects of the setting across all of the Domains.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

So why did they do it then? I'm fine with making my own reasoning, but I'm inclined to reject the idea and I'd like to know what they were thinking it was good for.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

Can someone explain to me what the point of being excited about the book is? I mean, what's the point of any of this? You might as well just post the press release and then close the thread.