This is a transcript of the video: Don’t be intimidated by Radiant Citadel - 3 ways to run it

 I want to talk to you about the new Dungeons and Dragons release, Journey Through the Radiant Citadel. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the world - there are at least a dozen videos already out that discuss individual adventures and the general conceit of Radiant Citadel. I’ll link a few down below. The amount of discussion around it should let you know how excited folks are around this.

Basically there’s this magical hub world, which is the Radiant Citadel, which links to 15 different areas with unique cultures that all live together symbiotically. Each adventure takes place in one of these areas. The book is an anthology of adventures, from level 1 to 14.

This is where the divergence starts to happen. Typically, what’s been released for D&D is very traditional Western fantasy, but this steps away from the typical Celtic/Norse design of D&D.  

From a setting perspective, each adventure has enough meat in the description of the world so that you could expand it into longer play if you wanted. From an actual adventure perspective, each adventure is designed as a one shot but most of them are really meaty so depending on how much your players like to RP, some of the mid and higher level adventures can take up to 3 sessions of about 3-4 hours each. You can absolutely run them as one shots but like, unless you’re running it as a con adventure, I would say don’t rush it. But now we’re getting into the crux of this video so let’s move there.

One of the things I’ve learned is that I am personally very passionate about bringing diversity to games in whatever capacity I can. What this means, tangibly, is 5 things:

1. Whenever I have the opportunity, my PC presents as a brown woman, and has a pretty typical Indian name. I played a marine in Mothership last night, and her name was Prachi Ganesh. 

2. I am currently trying to get into streamed games because I feel like seeing a brown woman playing alongside everyone else, and frankly, just as a good and sometimes better, rarely worse than everyone else is good for non-white people who are nervous about getting into the space.

3. I run D&D and other games in their articulated genre - which, for D&D is Tolkien and Nordic and Celtic-inspired western fantasy - for groups of predominantly white men. I really want these folks to get more comfortable with brown women not just at the table but telling these kinds of stories just as well as a white DM, adjudicating rolls, giving instructions - that kind of thing.

4. When I know the group is right and trusts me and I trust them, I run my homebrew world which is based on Indian fantasy and mythology. There’s a little bit about it on my blog, which I’ll link below. If people want to know more about it, let me know and I’ll make a video about it. I’m pretty proud of it, to be honest.

5. I support, monetarily when possible and by amplifying the message, of non-white and non-cis creators in the space.

That’s where this video comes in. I want to tell you, gentle viewer, a few different ways you can incorporate Radiant Citadel in a way that feels comfortable to your games and your table that’s not like this big culture shock because ultimately, what we are looking for is equitable treatment. And that means using this book the way you would use pretty much any other book. This is bringing diversity to your table in a meaningful way, in a capacity that you can manage. I hope you’ll see that you don’t have to overhaul everything you’re doing to do that.

Way to Play #1

Run it as written. You can ignore the fleshed out culture and society descriptions, and there are even recommendations about how to use these in Eberron or Forgotten Realms. There are pronunciation guides that you can share with your players ahead of time. Treat this as any other written module you’d run. You don’t need the extra context of the Radiant Citadel if you don’t want it. Ignore it. Some people might call this white-washing and maybe it is a little but I promise you it’s fucking fine. The adventures are the adventures - there’s a quest giver, a quest, puzzles, traps, combat.. The same shit that is in every single published 5e adventure and this anthology doesn’t need any special skills to run it. The overall goal is for non-white creators to be treated the same way - with the same merit, the same opportunities, the same benchmarks - as white creators. And if you genuinely think that that’s already been happening, then… great, it won’t be a problem for you to use this exactly as written because nothing has changed and beyond what it stands for, it’s an objectively good anthology of adventures.

Way to Play #2

Run it as you are comfortable.

You want to use the content and culture presented, but you are struggling with a sense of authenticity, starting with pronunciations. First of all, I want to say how much I really appreciate and value you. It warms my fucking heart to know you’re out there looking up youtube videos for pronunciation guides, trying to spell things out phonetically ... whatever is included in seeing something unfamiliar and not immediately giving up. 

First of all, it’s 100% okay if you can’t pronounce things. The guides in the book are there to invite you engage in a way that’s comfortable for you. That’s the important part so i’m going to reiterate: In a way that’s comfortable for you. I came across an incredible tweet that articulates this point so well. 

First of all, I can’t say that first word - Tlacetecolo.

And this is what makes it like any other part of D&D - modify it to fit your table. Change whatever you want.

This takes me to my next and final point.

Way to Play #3

Use it in your home game.

Because each adventure is a standalone adventure, it is super easy to pick it up and drop it in a longer arc. Characters travelling to a destination?  I’ve already figured out how to incorporate the first adventure, Salted Legacy, in my home game like 2 sessions from now. It’s a level 1 adventure about figuring out who’s behind some theft and vandalism at a night market. The characters will be level 8 when they encounter it but apart from bumping upthe DCs a little, i don’t think I’m going to change anything about the adventure. I might make one of the main shops a dosa stall instead of a noodle shop to make it fit my Indian fantasy world a little better. That’s what I mean. And instead of a noodle shop, you can have the streetfood of your choice! Your world doesn’t do noodles or dosas as street food but instead does like.. Big pretzels? That’s dope man. Do that. ‘Dyn Singh Night Market’ doesn’t really work as a name in your world? That’s fine - now it’s the Lion’s Roar Night Market. Easy.

Work it into your campaign as little one to three session adventures that can either be side quests and not really moving the story forward OR have there be some kind of story element tied to doing or completing the adventure. Like for me, when players finish the Salted Legacy quest, that’s going to get them enough renown with this town that the leader of the town seeks an audience with them.. And that leader turns out to be the head of a resistance faction they need to meet. But, the adventure wouldn’t be any less fun if I didn’t have that bit tacked on at the end. It would just be like any other dnd quest - a bunch of adventurers stroll into town, they go to a tavern, and overhear someone bemoaning the vandalism that plagues their shop at the Night Market… or something. Point is, it can have as much or as little to do with impacting the main story as you want. 

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Okay, so that’s all I have. I really hope that if you’ve been putting pressure on yourselves to run this ‘right’, some of that has been alleviated. We’re just really happy you want us at the table. Keep us here by engaging with content like this in whatever way feels good for you.