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​

 

[Michael Linke]

This is unrelated to any of the classic settings that are supposedly still in the pipeline, by my understanding.

I originally thought that Radiant Citadel might count as the "classic setting cameo" we've been told to expect, given it's adjacency to Planescape, but I believe Ray Winninger said in a tweet that it is not.

I wouldn't mind if it was. I liked how Ghosts of Saltmarsh was half mini-setting, half anthology, and all tying back to a beloved location from the AD&D era. If they had done this exact same book, but set in Sigil, i would have gladly accepted it as a Planescape offering. Just wasn't sure how far they were trying to stretch any association. I guess it's a cool bonus that we get this book AND the promised classic settings revisited.

 

[Ace]

They literally just made several books with dark themes. Netherdeep, Ravenloft, and Rime of the Frostmaiden all have horrific elements in them. Even Witchlight touches on some darker themes, like a lot of fairy tales (Shadar-Kai carnies having to damn someone to Ravenloft in order to escape the Domains of Dread, an old hag imprisoning and enslaving children, the horrific Jabberwock, etc).

I don't think WotC is at all scared of putting darker/more mature themes in their books, even the ones that are supposed to be fairly "lighthearted," like The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

I'm a bit behind the recent releases to be honest and my idea of what is dark might be a bit darker than some. So , I stand corrected.

 

[Michael Linke]

I'm a bit behind the recent releases to be honest and my idea of what is dark might be a bit darker than some. So , I stand corrected.

OOOOOooooh, right. Ravenloft is dark. Yes. I am a well adjusted person. I did not think Ravenloft was an unrealistically idyllic setting, and totally realized it was grim and dark to normal people like me that are normal.

Serious face edit: some of us stepped away from D&D for a bit in the 2000s to play White Wolf games, so our view of a dark setting definitely goes further than Ravenloft and Witchlight.

 

[Azzy]

Its a fight scene. D&D has how much of its rules/text devoted to combat? 80%?

Grimdark means something, thats all, and this isnt it.

Yeah. Real grimdark is intentional parody (like Judge Dredd and WH40K). Grimdark that takes itself seriously is unintentional self-parody.

 

[beta-ray]

Oh, I know why. Because the Great Wall of China in the real world winds and bends a lot. Except it was built in hills and mountains with constantly changing slopes and altitudes, and had to be like this for a good logical reason.

Here, it winds and bends only because the creators had to signal LOOK, CHINA! somehow, and the best they could come up is to take a visual symbol of China that a second-grader could recognise, and pasted it onto the Ethereal Plane with no consideration as to how it would work in a world with little physical matter and essentially no objective gravity.

H-How do you know this?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

My bet is now on the new Starter Set: people had pointed out thst the Vox art seems to have characters from the 80's cartoon.

What, we are calling the 80s cartoon's world a classic setting now?

 

[Nikosandros]

I don't think the leaker mentioned the cameo. No one really knows what cameo actually entails here anyway.

I was too concise. I did't mean to imply this. I meant that, if it is correct that the next two book are SJ and DL, then the cameo isn't one of them.

 

[Nikosandros]

Or there's another book in the pipeline for this year that we don't know about yet.

Yes, that is certainly a possibility.

 

[Nikosandros]

My bet is now on the new Starter Set: people had pointed out thst the Vox art seems to have characters from the 80's cartoon.

I must admit that I'm really not that familiar with the cartoon, but this is also a possibility.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I was too concise. I did't mean to imply this. I meant that, if it is correct that the next two book are SJ and DL, then the cameo isn't one of them.

Ah, I see. Well, the cameo could appear in any of the books theoretically. A cameo could be pretty minor, like an NPC from one setting showing up. So I wouldn't rule that it is coming in one of upcoming books this year.