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​

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don't particularly love the cover either, but I also don't understand the fixation folks have on covers... the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover," seems especially relevant in this case. Some of these adventures sound really, really good. Like so good, I want to take the small region of some of them and build a whole world out of it.

Yeah. I'm not a fan of either of the covers that we're getting for this book. I also didn't like either of the covers for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I didn't particularly like the cover for Explorer's Guide to Wildemount or Call of the Netherdeep, either. But I'm still going to buy this book and I bought all of those books because I like what I've heard about it. I don't care if I like the cover, I care if I like the ideas for the adventures inside it.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Yeah. I'm not a fan of either of the covers that we're getting for this book. I also didn't like either of the covers for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I didn't particularly like the cover for Explorer's Guide to Wildemount or Call of the Netherdeep, either. But I'm still going to buy this book and I bought all of those books because I like what I've heard about it. I don't care if I like the cover, I care if I like the ideas for the adventures inside it.

Yeah, I mean, if the cover is great, awesome! But if it's not fine... no big deal if the book itself is great. And it's not like an incredible cover is going to get me to buy a book everyone thinks is trash.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Public confession: when I first saw it back in '82, I thought the original AD&D DMG cover looked lame. To me at the time it seemed totally cheesy and weak.

Didn't stop me using the book.

 

[Azzy]

If I were to reject D&D books based on their covers, I'd have very few D&D books. (Let me tell you how much I hate Jeff Easely's art and how it covered so much of 1e & 2e stuff.)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Public confession: when I first saw it back in '82, I thought the original AD&D DMG cover looked lame. To me at the time it seemed totally cheesy and weak.

Didn't stop me using the book.

I know that some of the most iconic monsters in D&D came from this book, but I truly do not like the cover art. I think literally all D&D 5e covers are better than this one, even if it is a classic.

 

[Hussar]

Then there are those of us who mostly play online and haven't actually really seen a book cover in decades.

 

[Guest 7034872]

I know that some of the most iconic monsters in D&D came from this book, but I truly do not like the cover art. I think literally all D&D 5e covers are better than this one, even if it is a classic.

"What's the matter with you??? ALL red dragons have black bat wings and horns like a bull. Did you seriously not know that???"

 

[Retreater]

I know that some of the most iconic monsters in D&D came from this book, but I truly do not like the cover art. I think literally all D&D 5e covers are better than this one, even if it is a classic.

I mean, the production standards were very different back then. They had high school students doing the art back in the 70s. I don't judge today's books by the same standards as the first books produced in the industry.
To be completely honest, I don't like the covers from that era either.

 

[Arilyn]

I like Radiant Citadel's cover. To me it speaks of travel, exotic market places and wondrous fantasy. I don't need to see heroes in terrible danger to think of adventure. This cover makes me feel that the adventure and danger are lurking outside the safety of the city. And I'm also a sucker for brightly coloured and busy market scenes.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I mean, the production standards were very different back then. They had high school students doing the art back in the 70s. I don't judge today's books by the same standards as the first books produced in the industry.
To be completely honest, I don't like the covers from that era either.

But did you avoid buying those books because the cover art wasn't great (or something you didn't like)? That is the overall point. Don't judge a book solely on its cover art. Normally the people that write the book aren't the people that make art for it.