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​

 

[TheSword]

I don’t think we need to turn this into a CR thread. However it’s worth noting that in the Vox Machina thread people laboured the point over and over again that CR wasn’t D&D and they were two separate brands. The cross over is a nice idea, and I’m sure it makes fans very happy, but not everyone watches streamed play, in fact based on the number of followers I would say by far the majority of TTRPGers don’t. So making Exandria the basis of one of the few books for the year is pretty polarizing I believe. Not because it’s bad, but it isn’t core D&D. Most people will be ambivalent towards it and therefore it’s not a substitute for a core D&D AP.

As I said I understand why they did it. Everyone deserves their day in the Sun. I just don’t like the scheduling of it, and would like to see a bit more content similar to the first few years. I think this goes back to the idea of the Tyranny of Novelty discussed a few months back.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not because it’s bad, but it isn’t core D&D.

I mean, it absolutely is. Exandria has all of the same classes, all of the same races, the same monsters (with some unique additons), many of the same gods, the same themes and supported stories as "core D&D", and so on. The official 5e setting that it's the most comparable to is the Forgotten Realms, which is basically what "core D&D" is defined as in D&D 5e.

I mean, I don't know how much you know about Exandria, but its themes, content, and stories absolutely fit into what "Core D&D" has been for quite some while. The world is designed for foster and support heroic-epic fantasy stories, like lots of other D&D settings.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There isn't really any such thing as "core D&D". It grew out of tactical wargaming, but the rules never dictated "how to play" and people where doing all sorts of different things with it right from the start. I was playing in something close to the Critical Role style back in the 1980s. It's not new, but it has become, for some people, a "how to play" tutorial. Which kind or runs against the spirit of "here are some tools, build what you want". Not intentionally, mind.

The trouble with a more tactical focused game is whilst it is fun to play, it is less entertaining to watch than a "theatrical" game.

But it's probably a fair criticism to say that most of what WotC have produced since Dungeon of the Mad Mage has supported theatrical games more than combat games.

 

[Yaarel]

I don’t think we need to turn this into a CR thread. However it’s worth noting that in the Vox Machina thread people laboured the point over and over again that CR wasn’t D&D and they were two separate brands. The cross over is a nice idea, and I’m sure it makes fans very happy, but not everyone watches streamed play, in fact based on the number of followers I would say by far the majority of TTRPGers don’t. So making Exandria the basis of one of the few books for the year is pretty polarizing I believe. Not because it’s bad, but it isn’t core D&D. Most people will be ambivalent towards it and therefore it’s not a substitute for a core D&D AP.

As I said I understand why they did it. Everyone deserves their day in the Sun. I just don’t like the scheduling of it, and would like to see a bit more content similar to the first few years. I think this goes back to the idea of the Tyranny of Novelty discussed a few months back.

I have a sense of the Critical Roll stream play, but never watched it.

I enjoy very much the Vox Machina animation. It feels D&D to me.

Why would there be any polarization? The gun? D&D has flirted with guns since its origins. The ... roleplaying and method acting? Surely that is D&D too! Thinking outside the box and resolving an encounter without combat? That is D&D too.

 

[Hussar]

I have a sense of the Critical Roll stream play, but never watched it.

I enjoy very much the Vox Machina animation. It feels D&D to me.

Why would there be any polarization? The gun? D&D has flirted with guns since its origins. The ... roleplaying and method acting? Surely that is D&D too! Thinking outside the box and resolving an encounter without combat? That is D&D too.

But... but.. but... people are having fun in all the wrong ways. They must not have fun that way. We must all have fun exactly the same way or we're not really playing D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

I don’t think we need to turn this into a CR thread. However it’s worth noting that in the Vox Machina thread people laboured the point over and over again that CR wasn’t D&D and they were two separate brands. The cross over is a nice idea, and I’m sure it makes fans very happy, but not everyone watches streamed play, in fact based on the number of followers I would say by far the majority of TTRPGers don’t. So making Exandria the basis of one of the few books for the year is pretty polarizing I believe. Not because it’s bad, but it isn’t core D&D. Most people will be ambivalent towards it and therefore it’s not a substitute for a core D&D AP.

As I said I understand why they did it. Everyone deserves their day in the Sun. I just don’t like the scheduling of it, and would like to see a bit more content similar to the first few years. I think this goes back to the idea of the Tyranny of Novelty discussed a few months back.

But...the thing is...it really is pretty stock core D&D. Functionally, there isn't much difference between setting an AP in Exandria, Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, or Nerath
They all have most of the same stuff.

 

[Parmandur]

But it's probably a fair criticism to say that most of what WotC have produced since Dungeon of the Mad Mage has supported theatrical games more than combat games.

I take that as am indicator of where WotC is finding their money. It's so funny to me that in College, I'd play in games that looked like CR (one time a friend dropped in on our game, was very surprised by how it went, and described the experience as being like "a Tolkien character being dropped into a Joseph Conrad novel."), read the forums and think "huh, guess my group is unusual." Not ao unusual, apparently.

 

[Dragonsbane]

More "cute and fluffy D&D?"
I dislike the aesthetic of D&D these days - displacer beast kittens, flying lemurs, etc. It makes it look childish. Couple that with "talking through problems with the bad guys" from recent campaigns, and I'm not interested at all.
It could've been Planescape.

I agree totally. I hope its intended crowd enjoys though!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But... but.. but... people are having fun in all the wrong ways. They must not have fun that way. We must all have fun exactly the same way or we're not really playing D&D.

That's the thing. I think, because of it's popularity, CR is unintentionally giving the impression some people are "playing wrong", and those people are feeling got-at and lashing out by insisting that it is CR that is "playing wrong".

I take that as am indicator of where WotC is finding their money.

Sure, but would it be if not for CR? Whichever, it's important for everyone to recognise that WotC has to maximise profit by focusing on the core demand (or in this case enlarging the market by reaching out to demographics which have not been traditionally represented), and that Third Party Publishers have an essential role is supporting smaller markets.

 

[Hussar]

I look at it this way. 5e is now coming up on 10 years old. Between WotC and 3PP if you cannot find material that suits your play style, you are just not trying hard enough. You've basically got a choice of anything you want. It's right there. For pretty much any price point. Shoestring budget or deep pockets.

Everyone is getting something.