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​

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe not today but in a future some gamers could to start to question the demography and economy of the dark domains after their experencies with videogames about survival, farming and stronghold management. You need a lot of time and work to grow vegetables and to keep a farm, and cities need a lot of food. Even with highest bith rates the population can't stand for a long of time if there are too many supernatural predators. And these can fight each other for the hunt zones. Have you played "Ages of Empires"? You know what happens when after a raid you have lost too many peasants and you have to start again, and before the next attack. You need a lot of time to gather enough recouses, and these are spent too fast for a perpetual fight.

I don't reject the new Ravenloft but some times I miss the conflicts and conspirancies between the dark lords, and the metaplot how could continue.

Maybe in the future we will see a new conjuction of domains creating a cluster or even a continent, but without a geography too "square".

 

[Faolyn]

Is it actually ever 'word of god' covered what the Dark Powers are over the history of the setting?

VGR gave a few possibilities to consider (gods, powerful Shadowfell Entities, vestiges), but there's never been a definitive answer to my knowledge. I personally go with the idea that whatever the Dark Powers are (which isn't actually important), the Mists are a completely separate entity (or entities) with their own goals and reasonings.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Exactly. Ravenloft domains aren't a coherent setting. They're windup toys, or plays waiting for the main characters to enter stage right. The only real motive energy is the swirl of the puppets around the few real souls actually trapped within the various domains.

Again, the specific idea that only a few people have souls came from CoS.

 

[Yaarel]

"A soul, Aristotle says, is “the actuality of a body that has life,” where life means the capacity for self-sustenance, growth, and reproduction. If one regards a living substance as a composite of matter and form, then the soul is the form of a natural—or, as Aristotle sometimes says, organic—body. An organic body is a body that has organs—that is to say, parts that have specific functions, such as the mouths of mammals and the roots of trees."

I wanted to revisit this post. The citation exemplifies how the ancient concept of "soul" has nothing to do with "ectoplasm". The soul is something that a material body is.

Nevertheless, for D&D. A material body entangles the infinite consciousness, to form a unique consciousness, namely a soul. This soul is a conscious mind. The mind exerts a telekinetic influence. This force is element of ether. So, in D&D, a virtual body, aka ethereal body, spiritual body, can be made out of the mental force, typically in the same form as the living body that formed the soul.

 

[Micah Sweet]

<shrug> I will continue to do what I've always done: take what I like and ignore or adapt the rest. "Adopt, adapt, improve." That's why I like VGR. It gave me new ideas to use.

It does have some good ideas. But what it mostly did for me was tell me that the people who make the game I love think that parts of its past which really resonated with me are stupid and need to be replaced. Of course I know they're just a company, but I took it personally and I haven't seen WotC the same since.

It's my issue, but I'm still angry about it.

 

[Faolyn]

Again, the specific idea that only a few people have souls came from CoS.

If that one specific idea bothers you, change it. None of the actual domain write-ups rely on the idea of a limited number of souls, and the books themselves specifically say it's up to the DM to decide who has them.

 

[TwoSix]

Again, the specific idea that only a few people have souls came from CoS.

To my mind, it works best a slider for the individual DM to use. If you want to up the horror level, have everybody be "souled" and figure out why each domain is trapped and doesn't really progress.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It does have some good ideas. But what it mostly did for me was tell me that the people who make the game I love think that parts of its past which really resonated with me are stupid and need to be replaced. Of course I know they're just a company, but I took it personally and I haven't seen WotC the same since.

It's my issue, but I'm still angry about it.

Which part do you believe WotC thinks is stupid? You've probably said this before, but this thread got really derailed by the whole "SOULS" thing.

 

[Faolyn]

It does have some good ideas. But what it mostly did for me was tell me that the people who make the game I love think that parts of its past which really resonated with me are stupid and need to be replaced. Of course I know they're just a company, but I took it personally and I haven't seen WotC the same since.

It's my issue, but I'm still angry about it.

OR... they didn't think the ideas were stupid, but wanted to include something new, because why would the older fans buy the book if it were just a rehash of the older books with updated stats? I know I wasn't going to. And the newer fans aren't going to care as much.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Phenomenology is pretty recent, but breaking the linkage between "conciousness" and "life" is reverting to the historical norm.

I teach phenomenology: ^^^ this is exactly right.