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​

 

[RealAlHazred]

Oh, man, a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed Domain of Dread would be great. I don't think I'd make it much like the Isle of Dread, though.

I don't know, all it takes to make a Domain of Dread is to theme it more like a horror movie than whatever it was originally. ("Lost World action adventure" in this case.) The kopru are fairly Lovecraftian in theme, with tentacles and mind control. Maybe create a "Elder Kopru" advanced version which has the power to send its mind into the bodies of "lesser creatures;" the mental image of a player character rising from a deep sleep while at camp to wreak havoc with the supplies -- moving oddly, "like it's not used to moving limbs that contain bones" -- is giving me good vibes. I think it's a possible retheme, and it wouldn't even take much! Great Cthulhu started with not much more than an island with a few human tribes and monsters, and now he's mainstream!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, you can definitely make the Isle of Dread into a Domain of Dread, just as you've said -- it's already halfway to a Lovecraftian/Howardian horrific fantasy site.

I was responding to Barbosa -- whom I misread as Hector Barbosa.

I'd go with a different vibe for a specifically PotC-inspired Domain of Dread, as I think the various forces sinking into competing horrific curses and bargains to one-up each other, along with the variety of haunted ships and islands, is a big part of the vibe of that franchise. I'd make the domain as big as the Caribbean and have multiple competing Dreadlords, myself.

 

[Marandahir]

New York and London are models of good city administration compared to so many other places.

Running a city well is hard!

We try. The bureaucracy is a double-edged sword, but I'm proud to work as a civil servant for the Greatest City in the World!

If the original Shemeska still lurked here, I'm sure I would hear how this is a bad idea, but I think we probably have one more transitive plane than we really need. I think we could easily just make the Astral and Ethereal different regions of the same plane, with multiple ways of accessing it.

When I first heard the term, I assumed the Deep Astral was the new Ethereal.

I lurk.

I won't say it's a bad idea, but I wouldn't do it myself. Though admittedly I've been playing almost entirely within the Pathfinder cosmology for years upon years now (as I've written a good chunk of it) and I haven't been enthusiastic about how WotC has handled the planes in 5e.

It is you!

I will say that every time I see they dropped the Isle of Dread into the Elemental Planes, I just wonder if there were actually plans to do something with that idea, instead of just yanking a classic adventure site off its traditional place on the prime material.

I just assumed it was an Easter egg to explain how the Isle of Dread existed in both Mystara and Grayhawk canonically.

I thought the Isle of Dread was in the Mists, and Rory Barbarosa is its Darklord?

Isle of Dread was in the Feywild back in 4e, and I still don't understand why they didn't just keep it there. I guess they got caught up with the idea that the Feywild and the Shadowfell were LOCKED to the particular Prime Material rather than transitive to various Primes like they were in 4e (4e Domains of Dread had Lord Soth AND the Baron of Ravenloft in the same plane etc). I personally like the idea that the Domains of Dread and Domains of Delight are in the DEEP portions of those planes, where there's not much difference from the Deep Ethereal (hence the Mists of Ravenloft being Ethereal despite being in the Shadowfell). These things cross over all the time down there.

That all said, the idea that the Astral and the Ethereal are two names for the same thing is intriguing to me. Did anyone else just think of the Blind Eternities, too? That could be how to unite the Magic planes into D&D…

 

[Vaalingrade]

Did anyone else just think of the Blind Eternities, too? That could be how to unite the Magic planes into D&D…

Planeswalker Campaign, GO

 

[Incenjucar]

It is you!

I will say that every time I see they dropped the Isle of Dread into the Elemental Planes, I just wonder if there were actually plans to do something with that idea, instead of just yanking a classic adventure site off its traditional place on the prime material.

There has been a rather long history of not knowing exactly what to do with the Inner Planes and their variations over the decades. I'm not sure there is going to much of a steady idea of what to do with them unless some major pop culture influence cements an idea in the minds of the public to act a nucleus for them to form sufficient content around.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There has been a rather long history of not knowing exactly what to do with the Inner Planes and their variations over the decades. I'm not sure there is going to much of a steady idea of what to do with them unless some major pop culture influence cements an idea in the minds of the public to act a nucleus for them to form sufficient content around.

I think that's fair.

And, having said that, that feels like good marching orders for WotC: Develop a Great Modron March for the Inner Planes. Something iconic that will both develop them further and make them -- outside of the Planes of Shadow and Faerie -- exciting adventuring locations in future.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We try. The bureaucracy is a double-edged sword, but I'm proud to work as a civil servant for the Greatest City in the World!

CLEVELAND?!

 

[MichaelSomething]

CLEVELAND?!

It does contain the heart of Rock n' Roll.

 

[Incenjucar]

I think that's fair.

And, having said that, that feels like good marching orders for WotC: Develop a Great Modron March for the Inner Planes. Something iconic that will both develop them further and make them -- outside of the Planes of Shadow and Faerie -- exciting adventuring locations in future.

Introducing "shallows" would probably solve a lot of it, akin to gate towns. Give players an easier entry point into elemental adventures where they're kind of on top of and surrounded by the elements instead of strictly immersed in them. From there, add more populations to interact with at different power scales. The sheer difficulty of surviving in these environments, and the differing preferences of natives vs. non-natives drives a lot of easy conflict. Dark Sun is an obvious model to compare to, given the already close ties to the elements and their harshness.

 

[Hussar]

Introducing "shallows" would probably solve a lot of it, akin to gate towns. Give players an easier entry point into elemental adventures where they're kind of on top of and surrounded by the elements instead of strictly immersed in them. From there, add more populations to interact with at different power scales. The sheer difficulty of surviving in these environments, and the differing preferences of natives vs. non-natives drives a lot of easy conflict. Dark Sun is an obvious model to compare to, given the already close ties to the elements and their harshness.

That's kind of a neat take.

You could have transitional locations - locations strongly tied to this or that element which exist in both the Prime and the Elemental plane simultaneously. So, some sort of shore town for elemental water, a volcano or desert for fire, mountain top for air (?) and underground for earth. Traveling a "certain direction" from the town leads deeper into that elemental plane which becomes obviously harder and harder to survive on.

Hrm, I kinda like this thought.