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​

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Possibly. But plenty of stuff was made for 3rd ed that didn't invalidate the setting material in 2nd ed, at least in a significant way. Not everything of course, but broadly speaking D&D tried to keep the story of their settings going. Even 4e's Realms, for all the changes it made, made them forward. Nothing was "re-imagined".

 

[Scribe]

But plenty of stuff was made for 3rd ed that didn't invalidate the setting material in 2nd ed, at least in a significant way.

We need to remember that was over 20 years ago. Its a completely different world in terms of pretty much everything.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

I mean, it's not just ancient: again, the world's largest religion believes and teaches that today, and they aren't alone...

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.

Yeah, D&D Metaphysics don't bear much weight if thought about too hard.

 

[Parmandur]

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

It's good stuff: I didn't get my philosophy degree in grad achool, but I learned to be Stoic about that failure.

 

[Parmandur]

Cycling back, I wonder if the Radiant Citadel is going to be a more blended/melting pot community or will it be a piecemeal setting with the rural south, ancient China and North Mexico just being neighbors, metaphorically speaking.

It sounds like the 15 Settings are going to be on different worlds entirely, with the hub being a cosmopolitan set-up seperate and with a hands off relationship.

 

[Guest 7034872]

It sounds like the 15 Settings are going to be on different worlds entirely, with the hub being a cosmopolitan set-up seperate and with a hands off relationship.

Yeah, that's the most initially attractive thing about it for me. What I most love about Sigil--and there's a lot--is its role as a neutral ground hub for all sorts of planar travel and commerce; kind of a Babylon Five for the universe of ideas. From the recent descriptions, it reads to me like the Radiant Citadel is going to do something similar for the Deep Ethereal, but with specific focus on the indefinitely many Prime Material universes. I love that idea.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, that's the most initially attractive thing about it for me. What I most love about Sigil--and there's a lot--is its role as a neutral ground hub for all sorts of planar travel and commerce; kind of a Babylon Five for the universe of ideas. From the recent descriptions, it reads to me like the Radiant Citadel is going to do something similar for the Deep Ethereal, but with specific focus on the indefinitely many Prime Material universes. I love that idea.

What a great way to look at it!

 

[Demetrios1453]

It sounds like the 15 Settings are going to be on different worlds entirely, with the hub being a cosmopolitan set-up seperate and with a hands off relationship.

I think they were asking is how the hub will be set up - will each group have its own exclusive neighborhood, or will it be completely mixed, or somewhere between the two?

 

[Faolyn]

Possibly. But plenty of stuff was made for 3rd ed that didn't invalidate the setting material in 2nd ed, at least in a significant way. Not everything of course, but broadly speaking D&D tried to keep the story of their settings going. Even 4e's Realms, for all the changes it made, made them forward. Nothing was "re-imagined".

The 3e stuff wasn't written by WotC, however. It was all 3pp, and a lot of it was written by people who had been actively making fan content previously over on Fraternity of Shadows and other fansites (like the Books of S___ series). They likely wouldn't have wanted to make radical changes, and even if they had wanted to, they may not have been able to and still keep the license.

I can't speak to 4e or the Realms, since I don't care much about either.

By 5e, they seem to have realized that not every gamer, even the long-time ones, cares about, likes, or even keeps up with meta-plots. I for one hate meta-plots, and it was incredibly annoying when all of a sudden Darkon is called Necropolis and the Core has been rearranged and I didn't know because I almost never buy adventures (I bought Dungeon magazine for a while back in the 2e days, and three 5e adventures, and those are the only adventures I have bought in 30+ years of gaming). I really like the Eberron model, where it's always the year 998 YK unless your table says otherwise.

The problem with these meta-plots is it makes it really hard for new players to join in. It's like starting to watch a TV show that's been on for a few seasons, or trying to get into a particular comic book by reading issue #578.

Only it's worse, because RPGs are very dynamic and each table is automatically going to have a different experience than any other table. If I had run the various adventures in the Grand Conjunction series (haven't read them) and my players somehow managed to stop the Hykosa prophecies or whatever they are from coming true... too bad, because the meta-plot must go on.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my Ravenloft, they all have souls, and are stuck in the Domain with Strahd, living over and over again. More coherent, more horrific.

It also allows for more kinds of stories in the world. Like permanently killing Strahd and dealing with the consequences of that.

Dream come true for Strahd

How so? He is still being tortured for eternity in an endless cycle he can neither escape nor change.