Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel Preview Chapter | Web DM | TTRPG | D&D

[@TigburtJones]

I’ve watched them all. You’re the best; never stop; you’ve got an amazing thing going

[@Heimal]

Doing new things in DnD is definitely hard, but I hope they keep doing it. Sure the old settings and modules are fun, but this is the kind of thing I want to see more of.

[@schemage2210]

I know the Magic the Gathering crossovers have been divisive but I would argue that Strixhaven, Theros and Raavnica books have all done a better job of "new" forms for D&D. Yes the Radiant Citadel offers a "unique" utopian society to explore but personally each of the MTG settings had astronomically more character and depth than what is presented in this promo chapter.

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

One of the 3e planar travel books mentioned the deep ethereal as an endless expanse of fallen empires, ghost kingdoms, and mythic locations that once existed on the material plane but either no longer exist or are lost to the sands of time. Faded from all memory to the point where even the legends of these places are long lost. Then of course that book went on to devote 50 pages to the astral plane and Sigil because this was 3e and they needed to tell players that Sigil and Planescape from 2e still existed, but the lady of pain kicked all the factions out of her city. Most of the anthology books for 5e have been good enough for my uses. I haven't gotten tales of the yawning portal, but I might if I want to delve into old school dungeons. Ghost of Saltmarsh is an indispensable resource for my homebrew campaign setting since the world map I use is from an older web comic and contains dozens of small island chains alongside the one massive super continent. That and Theros campaigns are just not the same if you don't give the party a ship and tell them to figure out if they're Jason and the Argonauts searching for the fabled golden plot mcguffin, Odysseus ping ponging his way around the world, or literally Wonder Woman's mom searching the high seas with her elite guard for just the right island to set up shop on. I need to pick up Candlekeep soon. Having a handful of short adventures is useful, but the real benefit is the massive library itself. How do you recreate the fabled Library of Wan Shi Tong from Avatar in D&D? You take Candlekeep, replace all the low tier NPCs with Awakened wolves and maybe the occasional Arcanoloth, and make the head librarian a tripled HP Elder Deep Crow from Acq. Inc. Give it some extra legendary and lair actions while you're at it. His Mythic transformation is less a second phase to the boss fight and more just him moving the library to another plane and dumping the PCs out along the way. The Radiant Citadel looks like as good a dumping ground as anywhere at the end of that fight.

[@lukerabon7925]

Two ideas already: the Citadel's original purpose was to prepare for a multiversal cataclysm and it's either the collective will of the people that live there that keeps everything "normal" (ie having gravity and other life sustaining properties) or there's a massive psychic force dedicated to keeping this place around, for whatever reason

[@stories_by_orin]

Can't wait for Werid Wastelands!

[@afortna1]

Is it bad that when I saw this place my first thought was wow I could turn this into a destroyed ancient Society for my PC's to explore the ruins of.

[@felixrivera895]

I'm excited for the Radiant Citadel. The ethereal is so linked to the Feywild and Shadowfell that it makes for a really easy jump from a Witchlight/Ravenloft style game to a completely different style game. If your party finds a way Out of Barovia, then maybe they end up in the Radiant Citadel.

[@isaacalien]

You saw a lot of the same adventure opportunities I did when I read this chapter. Arayat being a man on the edge, or a corrupt(ed) Speaker causing collapse are both fun to consider

[@schemage2210]

Don't forget, this book will be an adventure anthology, so I highly doubt a lot of pages will be dedicated to "adventure generators" or the like. As apposed to a book like Guild Master of Raavnica which was all about creating adventures based on the local guilds.

[@DaDunge]

@@schemage2210 Though this looks like it could work well with Ravnica.

[@tuomasronnberg5244]

You know, if there's a spell called Create Food and Water, then it just makes sense that illithids would've developed a spell called Create Brains over their millennia old history.

[@DaDunge]

Illithids also feed on what's in the brains. The memories and minds isnt what sustain them not the flesh of the brains.

[@tuomasronnberg5244]

@@DaDunge okay, call it Create Memories and Minds then.

[@DaDunge]

@@tuomasronnberg5244 more the use of the encode thoughts cantrip.

[@schemage2210]

I read this chapter and totally don't care for it. I can appreciate Jim's perspective that the Radiant Citadel is a powder keg waiting to happen, but to me, it totally reads the opposite. It's just a utopia, and it has always been a utopia and is set up in such a way to always remain a utopia. Yeah, the moment that Shield bearer leader tried to overthrow the government, he would be exiled. The end. Utopias make for boring stories. In fact, the only stories I know that feature Utopias are stories that explore when an outside force comes into a utopia and that utopian society spirals out of control til it's destroyed. Star Trek included. I also seriously question the role of the Radiant Citadel as a "trade hub" (as it specifically states it trade goods between civilisations rather than individual people) as whatever these other civilisations are, surely they would be able to farm food locally, in far larger volumes not to mention cheaper. Or mine ores in much the same way. And even if there is "one" thing that they want to trade for, surely they couldn't trade for large enough volumes to sustain a civilisation!!!

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

People keep complaining that the utopia is too utopian. It's not. The central premise for why the Radiant Citadel exists is that refugees from over a dozen worlds all came to the conclusion that it would be easier to scrape out a living on a corpse floating in the deep ethereal than stay in the dimensions they were born in one more day. That's the origin story and starting point. How many fascist dictators ruled the worlds connected to the Citadel for things to get that bad? How many crises pop up every week on the 15 or so worlds connected to the Citadel? As for trade go over to the Extra Credits KZbin channel and watch the series on the history of coffee. Pay particular attention to how hard the various middle eastern empires worked to ensure no uncooked coffee beans made it to the west. Then go read Dune or watch either movie or the Scifi channel miniseries. Or better yet, watch rogue one or any clone wars or rebels episodes where they go to Kessel. Trade can be the source of infinite adventure if you do it right. So can escort quests. Give the party a floating shipping crate, a child, a group of 50 1d4 hp npcs, or a pet displacer beast to escort from one world to another. Combat runs differently when you change it from the basic "kill everything in sight" to capture the flag.

[@schemage2210]

@@CitanulsPumpkin Let's be real here, you and I have done this dance before. We have about as differing opinions on D&D as we can get. And if the likes of us, can't **just** agree on something, how on earth do you think a setting would occur where more than a dozen diverging cultures come together and just **get along** for the sake of all??? You only need to look at the United Nations or even the European Union to realise that in reality racially and culturally diverging groups will never just get along. It's human nature not to, particularly when you throw little things like capitalism into the mix. And if that doesn't convince you, just look at multicultural melting pots such as america, where racial discrimination and violence still occurs to this day. As for those 15 other worlds, sure, they might be completely worn torn hell-scapes. Then again, that is complete supposition with no supporting evidence to this point. In point of fact, based on the tone of the intro chapter, I wager that they are also going to be "largely" idyllic places of diverse cultures. And even if your right, doesn't change the fact that for all intents and purposes, the Radiant Citadel could exist in it's own little bubble where players in such a campaign (set in the radiant citadel) never travel to these other worlds. Oh, and don't you think that if these 15 worlds were anything except idyllic paradises, that more of an emphasis would have been placed on this in the intro, as to point out that these 15 worlds are terrible places that you must rescue people from????? I'll go one further. I don't have a problem with utopias per se, my problem with radiant citadel is that it is only a utopia without depth!!! In reality, and many other works of fiction, utopia is made on the backs of some pretty nasty secrets. drugging the population to make them complacent, secret police, brainwashing, genocide and eugenics etc etc etc. you know, the types of things that are done "with good intentions" to make a perfect society that leaves dark secrets to explore. depth!!!! The radiant citadel has none of that because it is a one-note, plain old, utopia and i can't think of anything more boring.

[@DaDunge]

On the contrary star trek lost all appeal when the utopia of it was compromised. It was intresting as a utopia and completly uninteresting now that its a bog standard dark grey setting.

[@schemage2210]

@@DaDunge you see, maybe due to my age but i became a trekkie in the TNG era onward, particularly DS9 and Voyager. So for the most parts, to me, the utopian aspects of trek were very understated except for DS9 which kinda shows what happens when a fairly idyllic society is forced to go to war. I would also wager that TOS was made in an time when a space utopia was something to strive for. Years later with subsequent series, that same optimism for the future no longer existed politically speaking, so you saw less of the utopian vision for humanity etc etc...

[@DaDunge]

@@schemage2210 DS9 has the utopian vision in the early seasons only in the last two seasons did they go cynical. And the snow was worse for it. Watching Voyager right now and it feels pretty meh all over. TNG is where the heart of star trek is. I dont mind cynical setting but there are shows that do that a lot better than star trek (such as babylon5) and star trek was the only one who tried to show us a better future.

[@geoffdewitt6845]

YEAAAAH!!!!

[@thewyldness]

How do people keep up with all this 5e content?? 2E was even more but at least it was broken up by setting.

[@thewyldness]

The two positives here are the shine on the creators and a non-grimdark product. Otherwise...

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

3e and 3.5 were far worse. Every 2 to 3 weeks they would release a new splat book with 20 pages of new feats, 40 pages of prestige classes, and a sliver of new usable content for actually running games. One book every two or three months isn't that bad.