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​

 

[Parmandur]

Which difference? Are you saying it's like I6 because I am really not seeing that at all lol.

VGtR starts from the basis of Curse of Strahd as the source of truth, and builds out from that cherry-pickign elements from older Ravenloft as a Setting material...but the preference is to the Hickman style, not the 2E style.

I'm not a 2E Ravenloft fan, but that's how it looks to me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The sad thing, is that if a world like that was actually fleshed out and done properly instead of in a snapshot featurette I would be absolutely stoked. Unfortunately here we will have unconnected vignettes that will only ever offer a glimpse. Believe me if this book was split into three chapters each in a different cultural setting or had continuity from the cultural settings in Candlekeep I think that would be awesome.

This book is almost definitely allowing all of these settings to be opened up on the DMs Guild, which will allow the authors of these adventures to expand upon their worlds after it's published.

I personally don't care about having 15 fully fleshed out worlds in a single adventures book. The little tastes of it that we've been told will be contained in these adventures will probably be enough for me until their creators expand upon them on the DMsGuild.

I think you’re flattering us all if you think our threads have impact on the overall success of WOCs books.

I've seen people on this site post in threads discussing certain WotC books about how this site either encouraged them to buy a book or made them not buy one.

I'm not saying that we have a huge role in the success of the books . . . but we still have a role. That was the important part, to me.

It’s great that artists come on here. I’ve personally thanked one of the writers of Ubersreik Adventures when he replied to one of my posts. With all due respect it’s not sensible to come into a forum if you don’t want to hear other peoples opinions.

"This book sucks because they're newer writers" isn't an opinion. It's a falsehood. "This book will be all fluffy, happy funtimes, and this direction is ruining D&D" is not an opinion. It's a falsehood. "The writers of this book were only chosen because of their skin color" is not an opinion. It's a bigoted falsehood.

I've seen all of those and more posted in this thread and others like it. They aren't "opinions", they're inaccurate statements posted to dissuade people from buying this book.

"I don't like adventure compilations" is an opinion. "I would prefer a different book to this one to be published" is an opinion. "I don't like the art style" is an opinion. All of those (and more) are valid. I'm not complaining about those. As I said before, I am absolutely okay with people not buying this book because it's not for them. I am not okay with people lying about it and trying to get people to boycott this book because it wasn't specifically designed for them. (I have seen both happen in discussions about this book.)

You mistake some of the criticism here as being towards the writers/creative work when in fact it’s a criticism of the structure of the book and it’s place in the schedule which is down to the editorial/project team/exec.

• Saying you don’t like short unconnected adventure anthologies is not bigoted.
• Saying that you want another element of D&D selected is not bigoted.
• Saying that you want some continuity between these adventures is not bigoted.

Claiming it is, really doesn’t help the situation. It’s a method of trying to shut down disagreement by imputing some pretty nasty qualities.
If this was a Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the adventures built on each other there wouldn’t be the complaints. I have a major issue with WOCs decision to publish anthologies with a tenuous link to a location that they then leave behind that location to go to totally different places. In my opinion that is a valid criticism. You may not think it matters. You are free to ignore.

I never said any of that nonsense. Stop misrepresenting my position. As has been pointed out, there have been bigoted people trying to keep people from buying this book in not only this thread, but similar ones. I never called people that don't like adventure anthologies, that like interconnected adventures, or would prefer another book bigoted. I never said any of that BS.

 

[Scribe]

Stop misrepresenting my position. As has been pointed out, there have been bigoted people trying to keep people from buying this book in not only this thread, but similar ones.

Granted, I skim a lot, but I havent seen anyone trying to keep people from buying a book.

Not sure how one would even do such a thing anyway...

 

[TheSword]

Why? Because by saying you prefer more of the same or the way things were, you're making that statement from a position of privilege - the privilege of having your desires already met, of having already been catered to. I might agree it's nice to have focus rotate around a bit - legacy product, new idea product, legacy product, new idea product, etc. but by chiming in on just the description of a new idea product, without even getting a chance to look through it, you come across as excessively reactionary.
There may be a place for being skeptical about new directions, particularly if it affects the foundation of the game or significant behavior within the rules, or even complaining once you've had a chance to review them and found them wanting. But that seems particularly out of place with an entirely optional adventure supplement, particularly one sight unseen (other than a little bit of promo art).

So while I have some sympathy with that position. It’s worth pointing out that adventures are consumable. If you have a stable group you can’t re-use them, as such it isn’t like accumulating property or sports cars sitting in your largess living the life of Riley. You need the next hit to slake the thirst.

That said all I ask for is one product in 3 to be my cup of tea and I’m happy as a pig in muck. One campaign a year keeps me in the game. I totally get where folks like @Retreater are coming from when they get disheartened when they aren’t even inspired by one product in three.

In my case, doubly disappointing as I loved and bought almost every hardcover product WOC brought out up to Candlekeep, then just hit a brick wall after buying that on Roll20 and really
Not thinking much to it.

 

[Parmandur]

Thank you! That's good to hear. Pity re: Dark Sun but once we knew Dragonlance was on the way, it was more or less a done deal that one of Dark Sun or Planescape were out of the picture.

I do feel this slightly boosts the still-wild Planesjammer theories though given where it's located. And if we did get Planesjammer, there'd still be room for DS. I believe this is what children today refer to as "copium" lol.

Well, I don't think a Planesjammer product is in the works...but I do think that the default metasetting that WotC has going on has a "Unified Field Theory" going on. But interstellar adventure and the Outer Plane are both big enough topics for their own book.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

VGtR starts from the basis of Curse of Strahd as the source of truth, and builds out from that cherry-pickign elements from older Ravenloft as a Setting material...but the preference is to the Hickman style, not the 2E style.

I'm not a 2E Ravenloft fan, but that's how it looks to me.

I guess I'm just not seeing what it rejects from 2E, but accepts from I6? I'm not super-familiar with I6 but it looks very like it's derived from the 2E material, which let me be clear, is also not that different from any earlier material I'm aware of, so Hickman/Weis objecting to it in the florid terms you've described seems very much a case of "the smaller the stakes, the bigger the fight".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not sure how one would even do such a thing anyway...

By lying about it. By saying that the book will be all "fluff" and that WotC is only making "D&D for kids" now. By saying that the writers aren't talented because they're newer. By calling the book garbage before it's even released.

All of that has happened in this thread. Whether or not they explicitly say "don't buy this book", it's pretty obvious what the goal of those saying that nonsense are trying to accomplish.

 

[Scribe]

By lying about it. By saying that the book will be all "fluff" and that WotC is only making "D&D for kids" now. By saying that the writers aren't talented because they're newer. By calling the book garbage before it's even released.

My man, you need to be able to cut the wheat from the chaff a bit, in a forum.

None of that is going to keep people from buying a book, its just people venting their personal frustrations with either tone, art direction, style, or content, which we see in near every thread regarding a new product.

 

[darjr]

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

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

Now he’ll have an endless supply of his own source of joy and food

 

[TheSword]

This book is almost definitely allowing all of these settings to be opened up on the DMs Guild, which will allow the authors of these adventures to expand upon their worlds after it's published.

I personally don't care about having 15 fully fleshed out worlds in a single adventures book. The little tastes of it that we've been told will be contained in these adventures will probably be enough for me until their creators expand upon them on the DMsGuild.

I've seen people on this site post in threads discussing certain WotC books about how this site either encouraged them to buy a book or made them not buy one.

I'm not saying that we have a huge role in the success of the books . . . but we still have a role. That was the important part, to me.

"This book sucks because they're newer writers" isn't an opinion. It's a falsehood. "This book will be all fluffy, happy funtimes, and this direction is ruining D&D" is not an opinion. It's a falsehood. "The writers of this book were only chosen because of their skin color" is not an opinion. It's a bigoted falsehood.

I've seen all of those and more posted in this thread and others like it. They aren't "opinions", they're inaccurate statements posted to dissuade people from buying this book.

"I don't like adventure compilations" is an opinion. "I would prefer a different book to this one to be published" is an opinion. "I don't like the art style" is an opinion. All of those (and more) are valid. I'm not complaining about those. As I said before, I am absolutely okay with people not buying this book because it's not for them. I am not okay with people lying about it and trying to get people to boycott this book because it wasn't specifically designed for them. (I have seen both happen in discussions about this book.)

I never said any of that nonsense. Stop misrepresenting my position. As has been pointed out, there have been bigoted people trying to keep people from buying this book in not only this thread, but similar ones. I never called people that don't like adventure anthologies, that like interconnected adventures, or would prefer another book bigoted. I never said any of that BS.

There was one person who said something dumb about POC writers very early on, then shut up about it quickly.

Retreater mentioned that a book full of new writers wasn’t what he was looking for. Which would be a totally exceptable opinion in any other form of media consumption. But apparently is outrageous when it comes to TTRPGs.

Some folks objected to some of the direction as childish and cutesy in a lot of areas and not liking the increasing amount this is appearing in products.

You however replied to my posts with scathing disbelief, when all I have ever objected to is the editorial choice of unconnected anthologies. An objection shared by many other posters in this thread.

A particularly dumb choice when you think about it because a connected anthology like Ubersreik Advenutures or Ghosts of Saltmarsh is just as easy to write - if not more so - than an anthology where every adventure has to be invented by scratch.

Perhaps don’t lump all criticism into one pot.