The actual press release has more details than Polygon, without the wokebaiting... From ENWorld The adventures are... · Salted Legacy · Written In Blood · The Fiend of Hollow Min · Wages of Vice ·...
The actual press release has more details than Polygon, without the wokebaiting...
This new D&D book provides adventures set in a variety of all-new locations Dungeon Masters can add to ongoing games, stream as one-shot sessions, or use as the basis for entire campaigns. Each adventure is connected to the Radiant Citadel, a mysterious city at the heart of the Ethereal Plane. Co-led by Ajit George (writer on Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft) and F. Wesley Schneider (Senior Game Designer on the D&D Team at Wizards), this collection features adventures by writers drawing inspiration from their connections to various real-world cultures and mythologies. Journeys through the Radiant Citadel will be available everywhere on June 21, 2022.
“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,” said George, who is the Director of Operations of the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project in addition to his RPG work. “Talented writers from around the globe came together to make something truly special. There’s never been anything like this in D&D before.”
Each of the thirteen adventures in Journeys through the Radiant Citadel highlights a different location, introducing new characters, monsters, and more. The tome also contains a gazetteer for the Radiant Citadel itself, as well as for two additional lands. All these adventures can easily be added to both homebrew worlds and existing D&D settings.
The adventures in this 224-page anthology range in level and tone. The 1st-level adventure, “Salted Legacy,” presents a comedic mystery set in a bustling night market; “Written in Blood,” the 3rd-level adventure, sends characters to investigate a farm with a terrifying haunting; and the 11th-level adventure, “Shadow of the Sun,” encourages adventurers to choose allegiances while navigating the escalating tensions of an angel-ruled city.
Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is a collaboration between the D&D team and a talented collection of artists, storytellers, games designers, and other creatives. It includes contributions by 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.
More information on Journeys through the Radiant Citadel will be revealed soon. Check in on youtube.com/DNDWizards to watch interviews with the writers and co-leads as the book’s release approaches.
Journeys through the Radiant Citadel will be available digitally and in North American stores on June 21 with a cover designed by Evyn Fong, while a limited number of copies with an alternative cover designed by Sija Hong will be available only through game stores.
The adventures are...
· Salted Legacy
· Written In Blood
· The Fiend of Hollow Min
· 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
So, in short we have 13 new adventures that all feature the Radiant Citadel as a campaign setting or waypoint, and these adventures promise new/unique mythology. Not quite the same flamewar/clickbait when you say it simply like that, is it?
It's cool. I like adventures, I dig planar adventures even more, and non-traditional mythology is what got me interested in The Witcher so I'm having a hard time finding something not to like about this product.
I take some issue with the 'never been done before' sales pitch, though. This is Planescape's Sigil with a fresh coat of paint. It's the same concept as The Nexus from the Epic Legacy Campaign Codex or The Forge. It's an old trope, and a good one. I'd rather get a fully reworked Planescape or at least an updated Manual of the Planes from Wizards, but it's a start.
I'm curious as to what you mean by this. This is a neat product in and of itself, and there are a lot of possible approaches to covering it. Once it's out, one could review it. There's certainly...
wokebaiting
I'm curious as to what you mean by this. This is a neat product in and of itself, and there are a lot of possible approaches to covering it. Once it's out, one could review it. There's certainly an article to be written about how WotC is slowly realizing that modules are at least as good for the hobby (and their sales) as long, epic campaigns like HDQ and Curse of Strahd. That said, I don't see how the framing that was chosen - an interview with a designer who feels that D&D content inspired by non-Western cultures being written by people with intimate experience of those cultures - is somehow bad.
I'd rather get a fully reworked Planescape or at least an updated Manual of the Planes from Wizards, but it's a start.
I think this is missing the point. This book is at least partly interesting specifically because it's free from the expectations people have of Planescape; it's not tied to existing lore or even the tone and concept of Planescape, or any other previous product. That's part of what appeals to me about it!
I think "wokebaiting" was in reference to how the news sites, like Polygon in this case, are presenting the information about this release, rather than anything the release is doing itself....
I think "wokebaiting" was in reference to how the news sites, like Polygon in this case, are presenting the information about this release, rather than anything the release is doing itself.
Contrast Polygon's article with the Wargamer one, for example which doesn't make "black and brown people" the headline, but instead covers the diversity of the authors in the 10th paragraph.
I don't really know what I'm talking about probably, but it seems like this could be the basis for saying that Polygon is "wokebaiting" for clicks.
Yep. I think of those sorts of sites as 'webrags' with zero integrity. They want to book the fight, not do the news. Compare the takes on those sites with, for example, threads about this on two...
Yep. I think of those sorts of sites as 'webrags' with zero integrity. They want to book the fight, not do the news. Compare the takes on those sites with, for example, threads about this on two of the oldest RPG forums: Giants in the Playground and RPGNet. No need for a disclaimer about not reading the comments there.
The fact that a statement might drive engagement from "culture war people" doesn't mean it can't be made in good faith. Representation is important to lots of people.
without the wokebaiting...
The fact that a statement might drive engagement from "culture war people" doesn't mean it can't be made in good faith. Representation is important to lots of people.
Polygon exists to make money on the rage clicks from that fight, as do rather a troubling number of internet sites. Compare their review to the press release and see how they spin the language...
Polygon exists to make money on the rage clicks from that fight, as do rather a troubling number of internet sites. Compare their review to the press release and see how they spin the language expressly to provoke the fight on display in their own comments.
Whenever I see a product or review that does nothing but sell 'diversity' and 'inclusivity' I take that as a red flag just begging for the woke fight and it's tasty page views, rage reposts, and all the other nonsense that follows.
A good product doesn't rely on that fight to make its sales pitch. This product certainly doesn't need it.
Personally, I don't trust WotC as far as I can throw them and I likely wouldn't care about the product at all if I didn't know they were actively making an effort to include non-Western...
Personally, I don't trust WotC as far as I can throw them and I likely wouldn't care about the product at all if I didn't know they were actively making an effort to include non-Western perspectives. "Just another WotC D&D product" is not interesting enough to me for me to read about it before reviews come out. For people like me who have been running other systems as well as D&D for years, they need some kind of hook to get us to care about new product launches. With TWBtW, the hook was "it's less combat focused;" here, the hook is "it's not just the same European perspectives as usual." Indeed, if the headline was "multiculturally inspired plane hopping adventures for D&D," I likely would've just waited until it was out and then flipped through one at a LGS, because that's been done before and those kind of things often come out pretty poorly.
It's unhelpful, I think, to say that this is about "rage clicks." I'm not enraged; I just don't have time for 80% of what WotC puts out, and to be honest, being made by queer and non-white creators correlates strongly with how much I enjoy the resulting game, because it's much more likely to be relatable and approachable to me (queer) and my players (queer and/or non-white). This is signal to me, not noise.
Yes, of course, people who aren't queer can write games that queer people like; people who are white can write games non-white people love to play. Hell, I play first edition, which was written entirely by a couple of dudes in Lake Geneva. That said, my attention and time are limited, and hearing up front that this is a product made by people of non-European descent about stories from non-European cultures is what got me interested.
I would agree if you replaced "Polygon" with "Kotaku". As it is, sounds like an exaggeration to me. Also: I rather like to see that a product was made by people who are either black or brown. I am...
I would agree if you replaced "Polygon" with "Kotaku". As it is, sounds like an exaggeration to me.
Also: I rather like to see that a product was made by people who are either black or brown. I am "black or brown". That is important to me, and not because I'm "woke" or whatever (I'm definitely not). It doesn't mean that something is automatically great just because of that, but I like when people like me do stuff like that. I wouldn't have read the article if the headline didn't acknowledge that.
Besides: even the author gives a quote in which they literally say it is important for them that the book was written by black and brown people. How is acknowledging the author's actual goals and intentions "wokebaiting"?
I can hardly tell them apart lately. :p For myself, I'm just looking for a quality product. All the emphasis put on everything that isn't the product itself I take as a sign that the product has...
I can hardly tell them apart lately. :p
For myself, I'm just looking for a quality product. All the emphasis put on everything that isn't the product itself I take as a sign that the product has nothing good enough to use as a selling point.
Can't give me a sample chapter, good reviews, or a trailer, but can give me ten pages about skin tones and gender? Hard pass, marketing fail, and I'll check that the word 'sucker' isn't tattooed on my forehead. I can't imagine deciding to buy a product because I found out the author was black, or white, or a woman, or whatever. Sell me the product, not the author. I won't care about the author until after the product blows me away.
Dude, you should work more on shades of gray... Kotaku vs Polygon is like Bernie Sanders vs Stalin. Sure, they're both on the left, but there's a great difference between them...
I can hardly tell them apart lately. :p
Dude, you should work more on shades of gray... Kotaku vs Polygon is like Bernie Sanders vs Stalin. Sure, they're both on the left, but there's a great difference between them...
I don't play DnD, but a lot of fantasy is largely European influenced, so it would definitely be interesting to see scenarios that are informed by other cultures, particularly those that haven't...
I don't play DnD, but a lot of fantasy is largely European influenced, so it would definitely be interesting to see scenarios that are informed by other cultures, particularly those that haven't had much exposure.
Nothing extraordinary really, just a few people trying very hard to find a negative angle to representation, and a vast majority of other people answering that they're out of their minds. You...
Nothing extraordinary really, just a few people trying very hard to find a negative angle to representation, and a vast majority of other people answering that they're out of their minds.
The actual press release has more details than Polygon, without the wokebaiting...
From ENWorld
The adventures are...
· Salted Legacy
· Written In Blood
· The Fiend of Hollow Min
· 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
So, in short we have 13 new adventures that all feature the Radiant Citadel as a campaign setting or waypoint, and these adventures promise new/unique mythology. Not quite the same flamewar/clickbait when you say it simply like that, is it?
It's cool. I like adventures, I dig planar adventures even more, and non-traditional mythology is what got me interested in The Witcher so I'm having a hard time finding something not to like about this product.
I take some issue with the 'never been done before' sales pitch, though. This is Planescape's Sigil with a fresh coat of paint. It's the same concept as The Nexus from the Epic Legacy Campaign Codex or The Forge. It's an old trope, and a good one. I'd rather get a fully reworked Planescape or at least an updated Manual of the Planes from Wizards, but it's a start.
I'm curious as to what you mean by this. This is a neat product in and of itself, and there are a lot of possible approaches to covering it. Once it's out, one could review it. There's certainly an article to be written about how WotC is slowly realizing that modules are at least as good for the hobby (and their sales) as long, epic campaigns like HDQ and Curse of Strahd. That said, I don't see how the framing that was chosen - an interview with a designer who feels that D&D content inspired by non-Western cultures being written by people with intimate experience of those cultures - is somehow bad.
I think this is missing the point. This book is at least partly interesting specifically because it's free from the expectations people have of Planescape; it's not tied to existing lore or even the tone and concept of Planescape, or any other previous product. That's part of what appeals to me about it!
I think "wokebaiting" was in reference to how the news sites, like Polygon in this case, are presenting the information about this release, rather than anything the release is doing itself.
Contrast Polygon's article with the Wargamer one, for example which doesn't make "black and brown people" the headline, but instead covers the diversity of the authors in the 10th paragraph.
I don't really know what I'm talking about probably, but it seems like this could be the basis for saying that Polygon is "wokebaiting" for clicks.
Yep. I think of those sorts of sites as 'webrags' with zero integrity. They want to book the fight, not do the news. Compare the takes on those sites with, for example, threads about this on two of the oldest RPG forums: Giants in the Playground and RPGNet. No need for a disclaimer about not reading the comments there.
Wargamer's article was much better imo.
Edit: Even Gizmodo has better coverage.
The fact that a statement might drive engagement from "culture war people" doesn't mean it can't be made in good faith. Representation is important to lots of people.
I don't think there was "wokebait" did it? The information on the headline seems relevant to me.
Polygon exists to make money on the rage clicks from that fight, as do rather a troubling number of internet sites. Compare their review to the press release and see how they spin the language expressly to provoke the fight on display in their own comments.
Whenever I see a product or review that does nothing but sell 'diversity' and 'inclusivity' I take that as a red flag just begging for the woke fight and it's tasty page views, rage reposts, and all the other nonsense that follows.
A good product doesn't rely on that fight to make its sales pitch. This product certainly doesn't need it.
Personally, I don't trust WotC as far as I can throw them and I likely wouldn't care about the product at all if I didn't know they were actively making an effort to include non-Western perspectives. "Just another WotC D&D product" is not interesting enough to me for me to read about it before reviews come out. For people like me who have been running other systems as well as D&D for years, they need some kind of hook to get us to care about new product launches. With TWBtW, the hook was "it's less combat focused;" here, the hook is "it's not just the same European perspectives as usual." Indeed, if the headline was "multiculturally inspired plane hopping adventures for D&D," I likely would've just waited until it was out and then flipped through one at a LGS, because that's been done before and those kind of things often come out pretty poorly.
It's unhelpful, I think, to say that this is about "rage clicks." I'm not enraged; I just don't have time for 80% of what WotC puts out, and to be honest, being made by queer and non-white creators correlates strongly with how much I enjoy the resulting game, because it's much more likely to be relatable and approachable to me (queer) and my players (queer and/or non-white). This is signal to me, not noise.
Yes, of course, people who aren't queer can write games that queer people like; people who are white can write games non-white people love to play. Hell, I play first edition, which was written entirely by a couple of dudes in Lake Geneva. That said, my attention and time are limited, and hearing up front that this is a product made by people of non-European descent about stories from non-European cultures is what got me interested.
I would agree if you replaced "Polygon" with "Kotaku". As it is, sounds like an exaggeration to me.
Also: I rather like to see that a product was made by people who are either black or brown. I am "black or brown". That is important to me, and not because I'm "woke" or whatever (I'm definitely not). It doesn't mean that something is automatically great just because of that, but I like when people like me do stuff like that. I wouldn't have read the article if the headline didn't acknowledge that.
Besides: even the author gives a quote in which they literally say it is important for them that the book was written by black and brown people. How is acknowledging the author's actual goals and intentions "wokebaiting"?
I can hardly tell them apart lately. :p
For myself, I'm just looking for a quality product. All the emphasis put on everything that isn't the product itself I take as a sign that the product has nothing good enough to use as a selling point.
Can't give me a sample chapter, good reviews, or a trailer, but can give me ten pages about skin tones and gender? Hard pass, marketing fail, and I'll check that the word 'sucker' isn't tattooed on my forehead. I can't imagine deciding to buy a product because I found out the author was black, or white, or a woman, or whatever. Sell me the product, not the author. I won't care about the author until after the product blows me away.
Dude, you should work more on shades of gray... Kotaku vs Polygon is like Bernie Sanders vs Stalin. Sure, they're both on the left, but there's a great difference between them...
I don't play DnD, but a lot of fantasy is largely European influenced, so it would definitely be interesting to see scenarios that are informed by other cultures, particularly those that haven't had much exposure.
As always, do yourself a favor and do not read the comments.
Oh no. Now you triggered my morbid curiosity.
Nothing extraordinary really, just a few people trying very hard to find a negative angle to representation, and a vast majority of other people answering that they're out of their minds.
You know, the internet.