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​

 

[Mind of tempest]

Ravenloft used to be a demiplane in the Ethereal.

Ravenloft is not a planer nexus more an anti-holiday a place to get more stressed.

 

[Parmandur]

A couple more teases:

 

[Faolyn]

That said, it's not like D&D (be under TSR, Paizo, or Wizards) really ever shied away from non-white settings or adventures, they just were written as exotic locales to be explored by mostly white authors for mostly white audiences. I'd love to see some mythos from other cultures, as seen through the eyes of those cultures, put into D&D. A samurai character option created by Japanese writers. Genies explored through Arabian authors. Voodoo tackled by a practitioner. Egyptian pyramids written with Egyptologists in consult. I wouldn't even mind some Celtic or Norse folklorists taking a look at druids or frost giants in the context of game. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate, but it wouldn't hurt to have more voices contributing the saucepot.

I have a vision for a 6th edition Monster Manual where monsters are presented in their typical D&D ways, but each monster entry also has a "Folklore" section which both says where the creature is from, gives optional traits to make the creature more like the folkloric version (such as giving weasels advantage on attacks against cockatrices), and lists similar creatures from other places (such as ningyo in the merfolk entry).

 

[Parmandur]

With two Southern U.S./Carribean microsettings...I'm looking at Ghosts of Saltmarsh now, the map looks a little like part of the Mississippi river delta...

 

[Stormonu]

I'd have preferred a campaign setting to an adventure anthology, but well, Dungeon Magazine no longer lives.

This will have to be one I peruse before contemplating buying.

As for art, this is my favorite piece of art of late - I think it's from a 5E book, but I can't seem to find it. I'd love a D&D campaign or adventure book filled with this sort of artwork:

Spoiler

 

[Retreater]

for art, this is my favorite piece of art of late - I think it's from a 5E book, but I can't seem to find it. I'd love a D&D campaign or adventure book filled with this sort of artwork:

Tomb of Annihilation

 

[DarkCrisis]

I guess we wait even longer for that Hollow World update.

 

[Stormonu]

Tomb of Annihilation

Well, that explains it - I'm going through that adventure and have been avoiding looking in the book!

 

[Charlaquin]

As a huge planescape fan, I'm surprised to hear that planescape was never whimsical or cute


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Yes, but see, it was whimsical and cute in the way that was popular when I was a kid. Which is to say, the objectively correct way.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Looks fun, has the ethereal plane had cities and cultures before? My idea of ethereal is a whole lot less concrete

but in terms of a series of mini adventures to plug in, awesome

ps is this the India inspired product discussed ladt week.

I think the Ethereal plane tended to have demiplanes more then anything else in it, although there were Ethereal flinchers with settlements I think.