The next adventure anthology for Dungeons & Dragons will be Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, which gives players the chance to explore new parts of the multiverse. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel features thirteen standalone adventures, one of which is "Gold for Fools and Princes" by Dominique Dickey, which is about mysterious creatures causing a gold mine to collapse, precipitating a race between rival princes to save those trapped inside.
The D&D multiverse has been expanding in the fifth edition of the game, with more and more classic settings being revived, and the upcoming return of space-faring Spelljammer ships will make it possible to fly between the different D&D worlds. The Radiant Citadel is a location in the Ethereal Plane that has portals to many different places, so players can use it as their base of operations, or travel there for a flying visit between adventures. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is the first POC-led D&D book and the Radiant Citadel connects to adventures that are inspired by many different real-world cultures that are rarely depicted in mainstream fantasy media.
The adventures in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel are spread across different level ranges, and the adventure for level 7 parties is "Gold for Fools and Princes". Screen Rant recently spoke to "Gold for Fools and Princes" author Dominique Dickey about creating a D&D rescue mission, the cultural inspirations for the adventure, and how the events are connected to the Radiant Citadel.
Gold for Fools involves mysterious creatures causing a gold mine to collapse, precipitating a race between princes to save those trapped within. What is the cause of the conflict between the princes in the adventure? How can the players help resolve the situation? Will they have to choose sides in order to save the day?
Dominique Dickey: The cause of the conflict is power: both princes are hoping to win the empress’s favor by freeing the trapped miners. Players can resolve the situation by gathering information on the cause of the collapse, and eventually by venturing into the mine to take matters into their own hands. Players don’t have to choose a side between the princes, but one (or both!) of the princes may work against the players, in that case.
As Gold for Fools and Princes involves saving trapped people, will there be a timed element to the adventure? Is it the kind of adventure that involves a desperate race against time, or will players have time to plan things out and deal with conflicts as they arise?
Dominique Dickey: Players will have time to make a plan! The first half of the adventure focuses on investigation, discovering what’s caused the cave-in and what awaits within the mine, while the second half is the rescue.
One unique aspect of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is that all of its adventures are inspired by real-life cultures and mythology, especially ones not commonly seen in fantasy media, which is often dominated by elements that come from Medieval Europe. Were there any specific cultural elements you wanted to include in Gold for Fools and Princes?
Dominique Dickey: I was heavily inspired by the Mali Empire. I wanted to portray prosperity in pre-colonial Africa, especially because a lot of popular media set in Africa focuses on pain and exploitation.
Was Gold for Fools and Princes the first idea you had for a Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel adventure? Was there a lot of workshopping involved with nailing down the concept, or did you have the idea already fleshed out in your head?
Dominique Dickey: I pitched three adventure ideas to Ajit George, the project lead, but I was definitely the most enthusiastic about Gold for Fools and Princes—and luckily, Ajit and the rest of the team agreed that it was the strongest of my ideas! From there, the writers formed a community and worked together to brainstorm, which was invaluable as I moved from pitch to outline to draft.
How does Gold for Fools and Princes connect to the Radiant Citadel itself? Is it a key location in the adventure, or a starting point where everything kicks off?
Dominique Dickey: One possible way to kick off the adventure is to be sent from the Radiant Citadel to Anisa on trade business for the Citadel right before things go sideways. Also, some of those from the Sensa Empire have emigrated to the Radiant Citadel and are part of its culture.
Gold for Fools and Princes is an adventure meant for Level 7 characters, which means that the party will most likely have access to Level 4 spells. These include troublesome spells like banishment, dimension door, locate creature, and polymorph. When designing the adventure, did you have to think about the various ways mid-level players can bypass tricky situations and change things accordingly?
Dominique Dickey: A lot of this came out in the playtesting process, which I wasn’t involved in, so luckily I was free to focus on the story beats I wanted to convey without getting too hung up on the mechanics.
What kind of playstyle does the adventure focus on? Will it be combat-heavy, will it feature a lot of role-playing, or does it use a lot of explorations and puzzles?
Dominique Dickey: The adventure features a lot of role-playing and investigation, with two major opportunities for combat.
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel includes overviews about the lands where its thirteen adventures take place. How much detail did you go into for your own land? Did you manage to include anything that couldn’t fit into the adventure itself?
Dominique Dickey: The gazetteer contains heaps of information that didn’t fit into the adventure! I actually started by developing the setting, then asked myself “if I were running a campaign in this setting, which encounters would I want to emphasize?” The adventure emerged from that question.
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel will be released on July 19 in North America and on August 9 in EMEA.