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​

 

[UngainlyTitan]

No, I'm saying that no D&D society makes the slightest bit of sense if you try applying sociology to it, in the same way as magic makes no sense if you try and apply physics to it.

You choose to believe in it because it's fun, not because it makes sense.

If you can't check your Plato at the door, you are playing the wrong game.

Or do not check you Plato at the door and accept the story but follow back to the roots.

 

[Azenis]

No, I'm saying that no D&D society makes the slightest bit of sense if you try applying sociology to it, in the same way as magic makes no sense if you try and apply physics to it.

You choose to believe in it because it's fun, not because it makes sense.

If you can't check your Plato at the door, you are playing the wrong game.

Most D&D settings are vaguely medieval in structure. Well known, identifiable by most players, with certain expectations. Relatable in other words. Some settings go in different directions but they are at least trying to make an interesting place to have an adventure not the waiting room for interesting things to happen elsewhere.

As far as leaving Plato at the door.....exactly. That's exactly what the author of this section of a commercial product did (or rather didn't do;-) and I already pointed out why it's pretty much a waste of page count (unless of course the players get focused on looking for Oz which could be interesting).

 

[Vaalingrade]

who for some reason just decide to voluntarily pay taxes when there is no real consequence for ignoring them.

The valuable trade hub going away due to lack of funding isn't a consequence?

Sigh. This is why every post apocalypse thinks people will just devolve into murder and banditry immediately as if everyone is just itching to murder and eat their neighbors instead of just the writer.

 

[Azenis]

The valuable trade hub going away due to lack of funding isn't a consequence?

Sigh. This is why every post apocalypse thinks people will just devolve into murder and banditry immediately as if everyone is just itching to murder and eat their neighbors instead of just the writer.

Not talking about murder. Talking about taxes. Do you pay extra taxes? Do you know anybody that does? Do you like paying taxes? Let alone know someone that wouldn't cheat (or not take every deduction they could) if there were no direct personal consequences for doing so?

So travelling merchants come in and as written 'pay high taxes' based on the value of their goods and not think about their own bottom line? Let alone adventurers...I've run for a variety of different groups over the years (decades) and I have never seen any player not basically severely resent getting taxed on the spoils of their adventures (I can only imagine if I tried assessing 'high taxes' based on the value of their booty/magic items). Granted, the writer at least realized that could be an issue with murderhobos and provided a mechanism to avoid PCs from telling would-be tax collectors to go pee up a rope, but again that Shieldbearer 'out' limits a number of stories options as well and really forces a certain playstyle.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Do you like paying taxes?

I like roads.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I like roads.

And bridges that do not fall down and where I live medical services.

 

[Azenis]

I like roads.

Yup, fine charge what you need for roads or other infrastructure. That's a tiny amount and in most settings it's handwaved with a 'gate fee' of @ a copper-silver for a pedestrian and a bit more per wagon. And a sword tax on armed adventurers or the like that most PCs will easily cough up...because they are (nuisance) fees fairly common to most settings not an assessment of their net worth (since adventurers tend to wear their wealth in equipment).

 

[Vaalingrade]

Yup, fine charge what you need for roads or other infrastructure. That's a tiny amount and in most settings it's handwaved with a 'gate fee' of @ a copper-silver for a pedestrian and a bit more per wagon. And a sword tax on armed adventurers or the like that most PCs will easily cough up...because they are (nuisance) fees fairly common to most settings not an assessment of their net worth (since adventurers tend to wear their wealth in equipment).

Okay, but the Citadel charges what they need for a dimensional nexus trade hub.

 

[Arilyn]

Taxes were often incredibly high during the Medieval period.

 

[Azenis]

Okay, but the Citadel charges what they need for a dimensional nexus trade hub.

Heh....does that even cost them anything to maintain? <Looks> Don't think so, besides the guards they need to watch it and ask for taxes (for a grand total of two bridges by the way and maintaining roads for an area @a square mile). The Citadel needs trade for food and other necessities, but moving off point that applying a wealth tax on PCs that aren't interested in being Shieldbearers (with expected service/sacrifice to the State and a code of conduct that frankly could be hard for a Paladin to maintain), is an issue I could see happening if the players just don't laugh in the collectors face. Just a weird choice that should have been left on the cutting room floor because it adds nothing to expanding the appeal of 'why should I adventure here'.

Taxes were often incredibly high during the Medieval period.

As I pointed out, most settings handwave this making a sort of familiar quasi-Medieval backdrop for PCs to adventure in. They expect some fees, they don't expect income taxes. This setting as written would probably make them care however in a way I'm sure the author of this section did not intend. Or if it wasn't voluntary, I definitely see many PCs not bothering with it (and the DM who bought it wasted their cash if they didn't quickly edit out that bit of unfun).