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​

 

[TheSword]

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.

Books will sell as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. That can happen in a successful company or a failing one. I’m one of those folks that doesn’t believe D&D success is down to marketing and Critical Role and that the quality of the books has something to do with it.

Time will tell. If WOC turns away from me no doubt I’ll just go into the West and diminish. There are other folks producing better adventures. Cubicle 7 for instance.

 

[Scribe]

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...

Its the spirit of the thing though.

Books will sell as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. That can happen in a successful company or a failing one. I’m one of those folks that doesn’t believe D&D success is down to marketing and Critical Role and that the quality of the books has something to do with it.

Time will tell. If WOC turns away from me no doubt I’ll just go into the West and diminish. There are other folks producing better adventures. Cubicle 7 for instance.

Yeah, all fair. I'm...less convinced its about book quality, but what quality means is going to differ between all of us.

 

[Faolyn]

Aaaah, yes, I see. Well, we do have the map of the Radiant Citadel itself already with the locations marked, and it is actually a fairly compact place: it doesn't actually look large enough to have really hard and fast neighborhoods, more of a small town (or military base) vibe.

Perhaps there's an underside or an inside as well?

 

[TheSword]

Yeah, all fair. I'm...less convinced its about book quality, but what quality means is going to differ between all of us.

Let’s call it book appeal then. Or broader appeal at least.

GW ignored its legacy of products and the heritage of the brand in favour of the Tyranny of Novelty. In the end they realized what they had and started again with things to please old fans as well as new (necromunda, Genestealer cults, Warhammer Quest etc.) Now they seem to have the balance right between old and new. Hopefully WOC can reach this point.

 

[Parmandur]

Perhaps there's an underside or an inside as well?

This map seems to combine two levels at different elevations, based on the shading and the side view. It's a small, campus sort of environment.

 

[Yaarel]

It's a bit of a funny duck: it' clearly urban, and cosmopolitan...but not that large, and it can't be that huge a population. Very, very different vibe from a Sigil or a Ravnica type location.

Heh, urban, cosmopolitan, diverse, sophisticated, small size, small population, ... sounds like a college town.

 

[Malmuria]

Heh, urban, cosmopolitan, diverse, sophisticated, small size, small population, ... sounds like a college town.

Or an inter-planar trading post? Literal point of light in the deep ethereal?

 

[Hussar]

There were two separate posters who claimed that other people's unhappiness with an upcoming product was a selling point for them.

Yup. I was one. The unhappiness of unflinchingly negative people who have nothing better to do than continuously yuck in other people’s yum does bring a certain amount of joy to my heart.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Perhaps there's an underside or an inside as well?

There is that section right up against the Diamond called the "Preserve Entrance." Maybe the Diamond itself has some inhabitable tunnels/smials???

This map seems to combine two levels at different elevations, based on the shading and the side view. It's a small, campus sort of environment.

That's my sense of it, too, especially after you and Ruin Explorer noted its size. DS9 also wasn't such a big place, so maybe Malmuria is right that it's a kind of planar outpost.

 

[Yaarel]

Hypothetically, there can be "suburbs" literally floating nearby. Not that the official adventure has them, but a DM making this a homebase can develop communities around it.