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​

 

[Dire Bare]

All the complaints are exactly why WotC ignores all of us. Because there is no consistency with anything anyone says here. It's the exact same caterwauling that they have heard over the last 7 years.

- Some people want these books written by "established" writers. While other people just want the properties opened up on DMs Guild-- so that all kinds of material can be written for them by what would be a whole heap of non-established writers.

- Some people want classic material updated and produced for 5E. While other people can't stand any of the modernization of the classical material when it DOES get updated for 5E.

- Some people are sick and tired of retreaded material and want WotC to finally produce something new and original not based upon any previous established IP. While other people can't stand that something new has been made that is taking a slot or pushing back an established IP that they want to see made for some reason... despite the fact they probably wouldn't like what got made for that IP when it came out anyway.

- Some people are desperate for WotC to stop putting everything they make into the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms and to go somewhere different. While other people think that putting this weird location in the Deep Ethereal not connected to anything done previously is a waste.

- Some people hate the idea of WotC having produced nothing but long campaign adventures that take characters from 1-15. While others see a compilation of small adventures-- adventures that in fact aren't even re-prints from adventures written previously and instead are completely new-- aren't useful to their needs and make them want to "walk away" from D&D.

This is all some of the most comical and ridiculous commentary that we see here on EN World over and over and over and over. And yet it never changes, LOL. And for all the times we see people here post "Well, I guess it's time I walk away from D&D because they aren't producing what I want anymore"... they sure do keep showing up post after post every time a new book gets announced. I don't even know why they even bother making these woe-is-me-my-time-with-D&D-is-almost-over posts, seeing as how WotC hasn't been listening to us for years so the posts are all falling on deaf ears anyway. Heh heh...

WotC should keep an eye on the forum discussions . . . but take all the whining with copious amounts of salt. WotC does great customer surveys, and this is what should, and does, guide them. Grumpy gamers complaining has been a part of this hobby as long as I can remember, even back to the before-times, pre-internet. And it also exists in every fandom I've ever poked my head into, not just D&D.

It's fear of change. Fear of being left behind. Groundless fears, but very human ones.

Also keep in mind that its not always the same voices making contradictory complaints. The complaints only seem contradictory in the aggregate.

But . . . it's so tiring. I go through these threads for details on the upcoming products and to celebrate with fellow positive gamers . . . but my "ignore" list grows with each of these announcement threads as some of the cranky gamers just get to be too much.

I don't usually purchase adventures or adventure anthologies in dead tree formats, but this one has me excited! Both because of the very deliberate diversity push and the location of the Radiant Citadel and its connected realities sounds super neat!

 

[Faolyn]

I’ve seen so many people grouse about how D&D doesn’t do anything but encourage solutions through combat and that the other pillars of gameplay are underrepresented in a mechanics sense. The second we start seeing moves to address that more, OTHER folks get mad that there’s less than 100% “killing people solves every problem” in a new book. It’s just weird to me honestly. I would love to see more books offer solutions that don’t just involve a combat slog. Then again, I would also like to see more classes festooned with “ribbon” abilities that do more than just enhance combat too.

Have you checked out Level Up yet?

 

[Parmandur]

Part of my knee-jerk reaction against this is that I don't like comedy or whimsy put in my sci-fi/fantasy. Growing up when I did, it was hard enough for my hobby and interests to be taken seriously. Seeing someone making a joke of it sours me. (Too many memories of bullies making fun of me, having to fight my parents to play games and read fantasy novels.) I don't read Douglas Adams or Terry Prachett, et al.
Reading a book with a cover like this at a local store, coffee shop, etc., and I'd get laughed at. Or at least, I would feel like I would be getting laughed at. This is why I don't like the aesthetic. (The short adventure format doesn't seem especially useful to me either from a practical standpoint.)
To address those who would say "dark times require levity in our escapism," that can be true, but where did we turn after 9/11? Dungeons & Dragons the Movie? No, it was Lord of the Rings.
And why did The Hobbit films fail? I think a contributing factor was the humor.
I have a hard time feeling satisfaction encountering displacer beast kittens or baby gnome mind flayers.
While I may not be the audience Wizards is trying to reach, I (and I assume many others) want a game where we can explore mature themes with other adults. Having the baseline of an adventure being a joke almost ensures that isn't going to happen.

I mean, this is a family game, aimed at 12 year olds: fun for all ages is baked into the brand. And funny stuff is good! Do yourself a favor, give Pratchett a read.

 

[Parmandur]

Sigil's write-up in the 5e DMG is smaller than Waterdeep's in SCAG.

Give the City of Doors something comparable to the gazetteer sections for Dragon Heist and Descent into Avernus (and/or what it got in the 4e DMG2), plus a proper "Manual of the Planes" for the Great Wheel, and that's pretty much all I need.

I'm sure it's coming.

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh my God! Radiant Citadel could become a franchise of family-friendly theme restaurants in the real life!

I wonder about a "D&D" videogame but not a dungeon-crawler, but more a farm+life simulation.

The fandom can agree about WotC should do, and then this only can try to please the majority.

Your point, that you can't please everyone, is a good one. However, please avoid sharing pictures of a convicted rapist in your posts. Seeing Cosby's smiling face put me off this morning.

 

[Faolyn]

The City of Glass? Union? Dis? The City of Brass?

I don't think I've heard of Union, or Dis as a cosmological hub before. Where are those detailed, so I can look them up?

 

[Parmandur]

No, we don't. We may hope and piece together clues that we interpret as a high chance of getting Spelljammer this year. But we don't know.

We have pretty firm information, and WotC is barely even hiding it.

 

[Parmandur]

Harry Potter was a trust fund jock who became a cop while getting tons of praise for stuff he barely did.

Wow, uh, yeah, accurate.

 

[Dire Bare]

It's really about 7 distinct regions, each quite different. And internally diverse within those!

And I think that's the problem some of the cranky grumpies have . . . diversity. You know, what they have in California.

If only we could go back to the good old days when D&D catered to a much more narrow slice of the population. /s

 

[J.Quondam]

Before, I was completely ambivalent about this book. But now I've gone to "Maybe I'll get this, after all?"
I much prefer anthologies of short adventures to massive APs I'll never complete, so that's good for me. And looks like it covers a nice, broad range of cultures, backgrounds, and approaches that could prove to be inspiring, even if I don't use the material exactly as is.
I'll definitely at least be flipping through this one when it hits the shops.