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​

 

[Henadic Theologian]

For comparisons sake, the Candlekeep Gazateer (which h no doubt WotC would describe in marketing as "richly detailed) is 10 pages long.

Candlekeep had 17 Adventures, ranging from 8-16 pages on my count, averaging 12.1 pages in yhe page count given. Replace two of the Adventures with the subsidiary Gazateers, and add the remainder to the core Gazateer, and I think that's about what we will see here.

Average page count of 12 pages per adventure for 13 adventures leaves about 68 pages for Gazeteers, monsters, and sidebars with suggestions on connecting this to other settings.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know what was the price points back in the floppy soft cover adventure days. How much would 13 adventures have cost back then if they had been sold individually as softcovers?

Depends on the page count.

 

[Remathilis]

If Sigil is to "hardcore" you can bet Dark Sun is way past the mark.

At most you will get a new setting called Light Valley that kind of has the same feel as DS but is much happier and colorful. A world run by benevolent immortal mage-kings.

I think the issue is this isn't Sigil light mode, it's a planar hub with a different focus. Sigil is about trying the planes together, an adventure starting in Mechanus, traveling to Ysgard, and ending in the Yawning Maw against agents of Demogorgon is a Planescape adventure. This sounds more like hopping from prime world to prime world: starting on Faerun, going to two new settings on your quest. It's a way to go to worlds that aren't European fantasy or classic settings.

The fact that people treat any setting that isn't knee deep in blood and filth or where PCs must save vs dysentery every day as kiddie, juvenile and candy land/MLP is very telling though.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I suppose it's a good thing that Radiant Citadel is a new place. And I suppose the twitter comment about the adventures being "inspired by the writers' connections to real-world cultures and folklore" is a selling point for a large group of potential customers and in line with current WotC products.

For me as a grumpy old man I of course interpret the Radiant Citadel as a whimsy-comfy place where you can step into a jewel and go to anywhere. No need for adventurous spelljamming, no need for a complex Sigil. Just jump into a jewel and there you are.

Now, I don't have need for bought adventures and I don't want a place like the Radiant Citadel in my campaigns. But the book will probably make lots of gamers happy and I don't have to buy it, so all is fine.

What I am worried about though is that this book may well make Spelljammer and Planescape redundant, and I'm no longer as convinced that we get those old settings later on - there's no need for them. Dragonlance and Dark Sun suddenly makes much more sense, which is kind of sad imho.

I would love, LOVE a Spelljammer book.

But we don't need one. They've given us mechanics for a Speljamming helm, plus neogi and giff. What else do we really need for Spelljammer?

I prefer them not touching it at all any more to them mishmashing it with Planescape or the Astral Plane or wherever.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Depends on what they are trying to do. 50-70 pages, tops, for all 3 Gazateers combined.

Yes, that is realistic. These will be small civilizations at roughly 10 to 25 pages apiece however.

 

[Weiley31]

Doesn't it though? Why introduce TWO planar city books that basically fulfill the same function?

This may not put Spelljammer to bed but I'd def say there is a lot less of a chance of a Planescape book when this new book fills the exact same role.

Well, the Multiverse is quite MASSIVE so it would make sense that throughout that very same MASSIVE Multiverse, that there are a number of various Planar Hubs that exist. Which also includes Sigil AND The Radiant Citadel.

Sigil's big claim to fame is that it is THE Planar Hub of the Multiverse. A big name like Disney World/Las Vegas or whatever other famous landmark that exists out there in the world. When ya think of cities, ya think of New York City. Likewise, when you think of Planar Hubs, Sigil is the one. Just like New York City, there are other cities out there.

Although, I too wish it was Sigil as well. But at least this is something new at least that became to be because of 5E.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is directed by Ajit George and Wes Schneider.

And do you remember these tweets from @WinningerR on Jun 14th 2021 ?



Knowing that @AriLevitch leaved WotC on Dec 15th 2021, maybe Ajit George took his place and this book in one of the 2 classics announced in new print formats (meaning just adventures to discover the world)

THIS is what they meant by a new print format? This is like the third adventure anthology for 5e. What's new about it?

 

[OblivionDrive]

As for the optimistic tone, I think at least a certain portion of Gen Z and Millenial creatives have just suffered from doom & gloom burn out. Science fiction in particular has been mostly bleak and depressing for as long as I can remember (I'm thirty-three), but you can look back at the early days of sci-fi and see a lot of hope for the future and humanity. Cynicism in media came about as a reaction to optimism but also resulted in a dearth of aspirational works, possibly even contributing to a lack of hope for the real world and humanity. It's not surprising that more optimistic and aspirational works would be created as a reaction to a prevailing trend of cynicism.

Hey, Gen-Xer in my mid 40s here and I’m all for more hopeful and light material vs the constant doom and gloom.

Like, have we looked at the state of the world lately? Anyone? We could all use a lot more hope in our lives these days, even if it is just at our dragon game tables. Also even the darkest grimdark worlds need the occasional moment of levity if only to help contrast how dark the depths are.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think the issue is this isn't Sigil light mode, it's a planar hub with a different focus. Sigil is about trying the planes together, an adventure starting in Mechanus, traveling to Ysgard, and ending in the Yawning Maw against agents of Demogorgon is a Planescape adventure. This sounds more like hopping from prime world to prime world: starting on Faerun, going to two new settings on your quest. It's a way to go to worlds that aren't European fantasy or classic settings.

The fact that people treat any setting that isn't knee deep in blood and filth or where PCs must save vs dysentery every day as kiddie, juvenile and candy land/MLP is very telling though.

The weird one though is how will it connect to Ravenloft which is a demiplane in the Shadowfell, not a material plane world at all.

 

[DEFCON 1]

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...