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​

 

[Guest 7034872]

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.

That's the approach I would favor for sure. It's clean, plausible, and keeps all the book's moving pieces intact. Mind you, I'm not yet convinced more population and inhabited structures are needed: I'll wait to see what's in the book and test it out a bunch before making any changes. But your approach is the one I'd favor if I found the habitable regions too small.

 

[Malmuria]

fwiw, the Domesday Book has medieval London at a population of 18,000 in 1086. By comparison, state universities have enrollments of 40k-70k.

 

[Hussar]

fwiw, the Domesday Book has medieval London at a population of 18,000 in 1086. By comparison, state universities have enrollments of 40k-70k.

Yeah. The problem is, people think city=Waterdeep. How the heck would you ever support a population that large in the deep Ethereal?

City=10 000 people. A fairly small town by todays standards. A major centre by DnD standards.

Plus, probably like Saltmarsh, they don’t actually show the entire settlement on the map because most of it doesn’t matter. Do you really need thirty candlemakers?

 

[Malmuria]

Yeah. The problem is, people think city=Waterdeep. How the heck would you ever support a population that large in the deep Ethereal?

(or on the sword coast...)

 

[J.Quondam]

How the heck would you ever support a population that large in the deep Ethereal?

My guess is ranches with vast herds of ethereal filchers.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Delete

 

[Hussar]

Just hypothetically how universally positive does a fan have to be to not be unflinchingly negative?

I love the core books, like xanathars, like mordenkainens, like volo’s, am lukewarm about half of Tasha’s and think the Harry Potter knockoff and candle keep is nothing I would buy and in fact is terrible for my needs or desired aesthetic.

the alternate cover for the box set is also distasteful to me.

some of us are frankly indifferent to others excitement which is maybe a hair better than enjoying others dissatisfaction. But keep shining the light of happiness and joy in a way that Yums the yuk. Or something.

Totally fair.

Now, how many times have you posted in a thread dedicated to Candlekeep?

I totally agree with you here. Most of the early 5e offerings left me cold. Just wasn’t interested. But, y’know what? I just didn’t post in threads about them. I ignored them and got on with my day. I went out and found stuff that I did like and talked about that instead.

It’s really not that hard.

Look at the Ravenloft sidebar we’ve been having. Now I really have no dog in that race. But you have very passionate people discussing the finer points of the setting which results in giving me food for thought about the setting and horror in rpgs in general.

That’s a great example of not tucking in peoples yum.

 

[Scribe]

Look at the Ravenloft sidebar we’ve been having. Now I really have no dog in that race. But you have very passionate people discussing the finer points of the setting which results in giving me food for thought about the setting and horror in rpgs in general.

But if people had not complained, or voiced things which they did not like about it, it would have never happened.

 

[humble minion]

Look at the Ravenloft sidebar we’ve been having. Now I really have no dog in that race. But you have very passionate people discussing the finer points of the setting which results in giving me food for thought about the setting and horror in rpgs in general.

That’s a great example of not tucking in peoples yum.

As the person who first raised Ravenloft in this thread and then watched in horror as my sidenote metastatised into a 10-page digression into the nature of souls and horror, I came here to apologise for bringing it up in the first place. But hey, as long as someone got some value out of it then it's not a bad thing, right?

 

[Demetrios1453]

(or on the sword coast...)

Waterdeep has a few thousand square miles of farmland and ranchland around it. Basically, everything between the Dessarin and the Sword Mountains, up to Amphail.

Oh, and a fortified mega-farm personally blessed by the goddess of agriculture.