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]

Remember, Weiss and Hickman were pretty heavily involved in making Curse of Strahd. I'm sure that if the whole "only a few people in the domain have souls" thing bothered them, they would have spoken up about it, like they did recently about the Dragonlance UA.

IMO, if the original creators of the setting are fine with it, I don't really see what the fuss is about.

Weiss and Hickman created Strahd and Barovia. Everything else in Ravenloft, including all the other domains and the concept of it as a campaign setting, came from other writers later, starting in 2e. Ever since WotC pulled the license back from Arthas in the late 3.5 era, they have focused on the original module version every time they touched on Ravenloft. Their opinion does not apply to my complaint.

 

[TheSword]

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?

I was referring to the fact that the adventures were unconnected and therefore small indispensably units rather than a interwoven cumulative exploration of an area. That’s what I meant by depth. I clarified that was what I referred to pretty early on. Yes I feel such products are utterly meh. A similar reaction to Strixhaven, Candlekeep, and Witchlight

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.

I’m defending the many folks that offered reasonable criticism that have been shouted down with rants about negativity.

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.

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

I’m talking about the strange choice WOC seems to be making in not getting writers together to link the adventures together in some way. Which seems such an easy and obvious thing for people working collaboratively on a project. Or by giving them a better brief.

I don’t think anyone cares if they pass on a book or two from the company they support. When you start to feel the misses outnumber the hits, then I’m surprised that you are surprised folks complain. Particularly when it is such a glaring departure from what came before.

 

[darjr]

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

He's a glutton. Imagine if he only had unsatisfying empty shells. Endless grey cardboard. Their deaths are their freedom. Every time one of them gets away from him.

 

[Malmuria]

I can't find it now, but one of the articles posted had an interview with George in which he spoke a bit about the process for putting this together. It struck me that this has been worked on for a long period of time (whereas my impression of CM was that it was somewhat hastily put together), and there was project oversight to enable the writers to reference each other's works. Who knows to what degree they are cross-referenced, or whether that's actually a good thing; we'll see!

 

[whimsychris123]

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.

Since Rime of the Frostmaiden, they haven’t had a FR-oriented full length adventure. And if that’s what you want, you’re out of luck. And there hasn’t been any indication FR epic adventures are coming back. However, can I recommend a couple campaigns?

Call of the Deep on DM’s Guild is really good and steeped in Forgotten Realm lore. It’s definitely epic. There’s also an Adventures League group of connected adventures called Rising Shadows set in the Moonshae Isle.

They may not be the hardback WotC adventures that you’re looking for, but they are worth checking out.

 

[Scribe]

I can't find it now, but one of the articles posted had an interview with George in which he spoke a bit about the process for putting this together. It struck me that this has been worked on for a long period of time (whereas my impression of CM was that it was somewhat hastily put together), and there was project oversight to enable the writers to reference each other's works. Who knows to what degree they are cross-referenced, or whether that's actually a good thing; we'll see!

I did read that yesterday I think, that it was a collaborative process throughout.

 

[TheSword]

To be honest I’ve seen this in creative businesses time and time again. There is a change in the leadership/creative team organisation and the end product fundamentally changes. I’ll give it a bit longer and then eventually stop looking, maybe coming back to it in a few years if the direction turns back. There’s enough old stuff to keep me going a few more years.

It happened to Games Workshop in the Matt Ward/Kirby years. High level choices that just didn’t sit right. Some people loved it of course. Enough people didn’t that it eventually got rectified. Ultimately product sales will be the only thing that really makes a difference and we never see those. Hopefully WOC will shift back before not too long and I’ll get inspired again. Ot they won’t and there lots of other companies producing inspiring stuff.

 

[Scribe]

It happened to Games Workshop in the Matt Ward/Kirby years. High level choices that just didn’t sit right. Some people loved it of course. Enough people didn’t that it eventually got rectified. Ultimately product sales will be the only thing that really makes a difference and we never see those. Hopefully WOC will shift back before not too long and I’ll get inspired again. Ot they won’t and there lots of other companies producing inspiring stuff.

I think between the success of D&D and especially MTG, Wizards is insulated far more than GW ever was. The dark days of Kirby (a CEO that actively expressed disdain for his consumers lol) wont be match by Wizards any time soon, if ever.

 

[Demetrios1453]

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.

I mean, technically it is a Planescape product, just set in a particularly obscure and previously all-but-unused part of the setting, and not pulling in the social trappings of the setting...

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, technically it is a Planescape product, just set in a particularly obscure and previously all-but-unused part of the setting, and not pulling in the social trappings of the setting...

It's in the same cosmos.