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]

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".

Stuff like the Core, and making all of the Domains more like the original setups for Barovia and Mordent. A lot of tonal stuff, which I have seen Hickman kvetch about in the opposite direction of the old school critics of the new book.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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.

You don't think that the fact that there is a post in this thread on the first page that has 50 positive reactions and is 100% misrepresenting the book as "cute and fluffy D&D" and saying "it could have been planescape" couldn't possibly have any negative impact on potential buyers that come to this thread looking to see if this book is for them?

That's not "Venting about the product", that's lying about it.

 

[Parmandur]

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

And maybe it was fun...the first 100,000 times. That was a long time ago....

 

[Parmandur]

So, thinking about the Radiant Citadel a bit more...it strikes me that one could probably combine it with Candlekeep and Strixhaven easily enough: have the Citadel be the campus, connecting to various worlds that supply students. The Tales from the yawning Portal material could also be useful...

 

[TheSword]

You don't think that the fact that there is a post in this thread on the first page that has 50 positive reactions and is 100% misrepresenting the book as "cute and fluffy D&D" and saying "it could have been planescape" couldn't possibly have any negative impact on potential buyers that come to this thread looking to see if this book is for them?

That's not "Venting about the product", that's lying about it.

Have you looked at the front cover?! Anyone put off by that comment would have already been put off by taking a 5 second look at the doe-eyed-fluffy-blue-bat-rabbit dropping strawberries on passersby.

Do you understand that was an editorial choice of the art director to put that front and center and therefore perfectly valid for criticism. That’s not lying, it’s front and center.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Just a personal note: I don't like accusing people of lying or bigotry unless I actually can prove it. The Principle of Charity is supposed to apply to everyone, not just to me and those who agree with me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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.

May I remind you that your very first post in this thread called this book "another meh publication by WotC" and said that the book "lacks material depth", both of which are impossible statements to verify without having read the book?

Also, from what I've seen, you're actually one of the only two people in this thread whose main complaint about it is that it's an adventure anthology. As I said before, that is an absolutely valid complaint and reason not to buy it. However, there were others that did not have such charitable posts. There is no reason to defend the people that routinely come into threads like these and crap over these books because they weren't specifically designed for them.

Literally the only problem I have with your posts in this thread is your very first one and the later one objecting to labeling people that routinely come in and complain about products not being aimed at them and how they only want the older stuff to be updated as "grouchy gatekeepers". And neither of those are really big deals. I'm primarily complaining about the other people in this thread who came in and crapped on this unreleased book without valid reasons.

Frankly, I don't care about your posts in this thread. You're not really the problem. The problem are the people saying that it's somehow bad to correct the people lying about this thread and the people lying about it because they're miffed about previous releases by WotC not being aimed at them.

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.

I literally have no idea what you're on about here.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Have you looked at the front cover?! Anyone put off by that comment would have already been put off by taking a 5 second look at the doe-eyed-fluffy-blue-bat-rabbit dropping strawberries on passersby.

Do you understand that was an editorial choice of the art director to put that front and center and therefore perfectly valid for criticism. That’s not lying, it’s front and center.

As has been stated earlier, it's pretty pathetic to make your main criticism of the book be the cover art. "Don't judge a book by its cover." Just because the cover art has a "cute" monster (I personally think that it's more ugly than anything) does not indicate that the book is just more "cute and fluffy D&D".

 

[Scribe]

You don't think that the fact that there is a post in this thread on the first page that has 50 positive reactions and is 100% misrepresenting the book as "cute and fluffy D&D" and saying "it could have been planescape" couldn't possibly have any negative impact on potential buyers that come to this thread looking to see if this book is for them?

No, I honestly dont. I think people looking for a reason to be put off, or who have already been put off due to past WotC choices, dont need such a thing to convince them to pass on a product.

I've passed on Wizard books for pettier reasons (Alignment, ASI, etc), and will likely continue to do so.

Hell, I just went back to the first page to look, and I'm put off by the cover, and alt cover, instantly, as discussed over in the 'art' thread that is current.

The post with 55+? Honestly, yeah?

Cute and Fluffy? Tell me that isnt the first impression.
Dislike of the current trend in art direction? Clearly he's not alone.
Dislike of the trend of looking for alternative's to combat? What of it? Again, seemingly not alone.
Could have been Planescape? True! Then again, I came around to the fact I would rather not even see Wizards of the Coast of 2022 Planescape ANYWAY.

The 55+ reactions? Those people are already likely in agreement, and again likely are put off before even finishing scrolling past the Alt Cover.

Everyone else? Lets be real, you know its going to sell well, Wizards knows its going to sell well, and people are going to sing its praises when its released.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'm done. I'm done with this nonsense. I've said my part, and there's no point continuing discussing this more. I'm bowing out of the discussion.