Wizards of the Coast’s Reveals Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel Details
The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons team graciously invited me to participate in a press briefing recently all about the announcement of the next book release in 2022. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is an anthology of adventures in the style of Candlekeep Mysteries and Tales from the Yawning Portal centered around a fantastic location within the Ethereal Plane. Like its forebears the 14 adventures contained in this book can be used as standalone quests, strung together to form a campaign with the mysterious titular city at its heart or used whatever way works best for a 5E D&D Dungeon Master and the other players in their group. Let’s get into it.
Lighting your path to 5E D&D adventure
D&D’s Communications Manager Greg Tito got things started by showing off both the standard and alternate cover illustrations for Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel before introducing the project leads for the book, Ajit George who previously contributed to Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and D&D Senior Game Designer F. Wesley Schneider. The book releases on June 21, 2022.
George, who wrote the Kalakeri Domain of Dread, cited his work on that project as the genesis for this new collection of adventures. He described a deep sense of satisfaction as the first D&D writer of Indian origin creating content for the game and how this led to his pitch for Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. George is proud to be the first person of color to lead the direction of an official D&D book along with the team of POC writers he assembled, noting his excitement in working with the largest team of black and brown creators on a D&D project ever. Around 50 POC creators were involved with the project through their work, support and design contributions.
“This book is stunning in its scope and ambition. It blows open the D&D multiverse with a fresh set of exciting adventures that serve as gateways to new lands, monsters, characters, and more. Talented writers from around the globe came together to make something truly special. There’s never been anything like this in D&D before.” — Ajit George, Director of Operations of the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project in addition to his RPG work.
The Radiant Citadel itself functions as a through line for the 14 adventures in the book. This location was described as a crossroads city of stories, sanctuary and hope. This is intentional as a contrast to how many urban environments are presented in D&D in the past as places of danger and intrigue, with this new city instead as a place of respite. The Radiant Citadel itself drifts at the heart of the Ethereal Plane. The structure was carved from the fossil of a mysterious creature and George pointed out the visual design takes inspiration from Indian architecture. The adventures found within, with one for each level from 1st-14th, can lead characters all across the Material Plane according to Schneider.
A new kind of creature called a Dawn Incarnate, which are depicted on the book’s alternate cover image, are manifestations of stories and cultures — themes the whole creative team focused on throughout the design process. Each of the writers drew inspiration from their personal connections to their own various recognizable real world cultures and mythologies although they’re not meant to be analogs for those things but rather wholly new creations with fresh and innovative approaches.
Tito pointed out how the book includes lots of gazetteer style material too. He explained how the spirit of WotC’s design philosophy applies to this content by presenting great material but leaving lots of open space left undefined for Dungeon Masters to fill in the blanks. There’s a robust amount of guidance to help DMs effectively add the adventures to different campaign settings like the variety of official ones but also ideas for incorporating them into homebrew settings.
The full image on the standard cover for Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel depicts the Night Market. [Art by Evyn Fong]
Adventures inside Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
The adventures themselves each highlight a different location along with new characters and monsters. My takeaway is the adventures themselves focus more on 5E D&D’s social interaction and exploration pillars and George explained how players are not going to see many adventures in the classic D&D style. One of their goals is to evoke curiosity in younger players with an aim towards giving people an opportunity to see themselves through the cultural elements worked into the different scenarios. Overall the adventures run the gamut from comedy to horror but all of them seek to challenge the players’ perceptions.
A total of 16 writers contributed to the material inside Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. 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 and Stephanie Yoon all contributed to the book, which is 224 pages. There is some discrepancy between the adventure count. During the press briefing they indicated 14 adventures are in the book but the additional information I received as well as other marketing I’ve seen only shows 13 quests. Here’s the names of those adventures:
- 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
Tito introduced three of the writers during the press briefing to talk about their contributions. First up was Surena Marie who wrote Salted Legacy, a 1st level adventure wherein characters are thrust into a generational feud between rival merchant families in the Night Market. This adventure includes a variety of Market Game Challenges to solve like a timed cooking challenge and a spicy taste test. Marie described finding inspiration from shows like Chopped and her goal was to create an adventure particularly accessible to new players. She also kept those who stream their games in mind and designed the material to be fun, easy to run and entertaining to watch. The theme of this adventures is people’s responsibility to one another and their community.
Erin Roberts joined next to talk about Written in Blood, the 3rd level adventure she wrote as a personal love letter to the Southern US black experience. In this scenario characters investigate a haunted farm evocative of the Southern Gothic genre. A terrifying supernatural phenomenon causes commoners to become crazy and violent so adventurers must deal with the added challenge of trying not to harm these victims of whatever’s going on.
The third writer to come on was Justice Arman, who was also just announced as Senior Game Designer for D&D since the briefing took place. His Shadow of the Sun adventures is for 11th level characters and features a strong focus on Persian culture. The focus of this adventure is a tense conflict between different factions for a city ruled by a celestial creature. From what I gather this one features very high stakes and lots of decision points for characters to make with their choices carrying tremendous impact in how the conflict turns out. The theme of this adventure is the city’s complicated reputation with outsiders.
You can preorder Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and help support Nerdarchy when the book releases on June 21, 2022 right here.
*Featured image — Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel’s standard cover features art by Evyn Fong depicting the Night Market within the Radiant Citadel. The whimsical and colorful alternate art cover image aims to evoke warmth and a sense of community as illustrated by Sija Hong. [Images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]
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