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​

 

[Demetrios1453]

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

Eh, 1066 is pretty different from the pseudo-High Middle Ages setting that's typically considered the norm for D&D. By 1500 or so, London was in the 50k - 100k range. Paris by that point was already at 200k.

 

[Maxperson]

I hope to Christ this isn't meant to be be Sigil 2.0 because good grief. This makes the Rock of Bral look large and cosmopolitan.

The video shows it to have at least two levels.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

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.

I tried to delete the post prior to anyone seeing it as I did not think it constructive or “fun” which is actually the point of the forum as I see it.

that I think is to be balanced against making your opinion known to the company. Then again, do they really read this stuff?

I think it’s appropriate to say what you do or don’t like ina fan discussion. On sites related to baseball, fans cheer and moan about the team.

that said I tune out the chronic naysayer. Do you even like the team? I get that.

oh well….not looking good for my tastes of late. But I have barely tapped what I have. I used 1st edition AD&D books through 1998. I can do it again.

 

[Faolyn]

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

With Sigil, they made specific note of how the portals were used to import the vast amount of food needed by the natives. I imagine that something similar happens with the Radiant Citadel. But you're right, it doesn't need to be that large of a place.

Actually, that's could be one of the things that makes Sigil distinct from the Citadel and other such interplanar hub--Sigil could be huge in comparison to the others.

 

[Yaarel]

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?

Heh, I did enjoy the excursion about souls.

Even so, I think the overall point was well made:

We have had at least three doom-and-gloom products: Ravenloft, Descent, Frostmaiden, plus now Netherdeep.

To have three hopepunk products is totally fair: Witchlight, Strixhaven, and Radiant.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I actually prefer the adventure compendiums - Tales from the Yawning Portal and Candlekeep Mysteries are the only adventure books I've bought in 5E. Its far easier to adapt them into my campaign settings than overlong "adventure path" style books. (And when it comes to adventure paths, the ones Paizo did in Dungeon were far superior to any produced by WoTC.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I actually prefer the adventure compendiums - Tales from the Yawning Portal and Candlekeep Mysteries are the only adventure books I've bought in 5E. Its far easier to adapt them into my campaign settings than overlong "adventure path" style books. (And when it comes to adventure paths, the ones Paizo did in Dungeon were far superior to any produced by WoTC.

I warped the sunless citadel so much I could run it again as written and it would be “new” to the group.

I love groups of adventure like this but prefer salt marsh in place of candlekeep.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I warped the sunless citadel so much I could run it again as written and it would be “new” to the group.

I love groups of adventure like this but prefer salt marsh in place of candlekeep.

Oh yeah, I forgot Saltmarsh. That was the other book I got. Great adventures in there. I also have my Dungeon back-issues which are good to mine for adventures.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Oh yeah, I forgot Saltmarsh. That was the other book I got. Great adventures in there. I also have my Dungeon back-issues which are good to mine for adventures.

I need to run more from yawning portal. I think it was a relative triumph

 

[Maxperson]

I actually prefer the adventure compendiums - Tales from the Yawning Portal and Candlekeep Mysteries are the only adventure books I've bought in 5E. Its far easier to adapt them into my campaign settings than overlong "adventure path" style books. (And when it comes to adventure paths, the ones Paizo did in Dungeon were far superior to any produced by WoTC.

I only buy adventure compendiums, preferring to drop an adventure into the campaign that I'm running every so often. The exception to that was the 5e Undermountain campaign, and I'm ripping those dungeon levels apart and scattering them into my game as single dungeons with no connection to Halaster.