A review copy of “Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Anthony Joyce-Rivera, Dominique Dickey, Ajit A. George, Basheer Ghouse, Alastor Guzman, Taylor Navarro, Mario Ortegón, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Terry H. Romero
Released last year, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is an anthology collection of culturally distinct regions and adventures.
Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel is an unofficial-official expansion supplement, slightly expanding half the regions with more information and new encounters.
The expansion’s best features are the book itself. It’s professionally edited and designed, with gorgeous original artwork throughout every page. It’s also the closest thing to an official expansion to the original book, as it reunites over half a dozen writers and designers from the Radiant Citadel team, to expand on their work.
It’s a formula for success, but the content left me wanting a lot more.
The sourcebook packs six of the 13 regions from the original book (plus one in the Beyond section, more on that later) in only 30 pages. That leaves about three pages of stuff for each area.
Each region is given a new Gazetteer of information, including history, locations, and encounters.
The expanded regions are: Atagua (“Orchids of the Invisible Mountain”), Dayawlongon (“Between Tangled Roots”), Godsbreath (“Written in Blood”), San Citlán (“The Fiend of Hollow Mine”), Sensa Empire (“Gold for Fools and Princes”), and Tayyib Empire.
Wait, didn’t the original book already include Gazetteers for each region?
It sure did!
In some ways, Journeys Beyond retreads the same information, while primarily focusing on the primary urban center in each region (which depending on the adventure, you may never step inside).
The most useful new content are the encounters. I don’t recall the original anthology having much time for encounters outside of the main adventures themselves, and encounters are the perfect way to immerse players in a region’s story, culture, and characters.
In particular, I loved the encounters around San Citlán (incidentally, “The Fiend of Hollow Mine” was also my favorite adventure of the bunch).
The encounters include thwarting a thief who’s trying to get into an organized crime ring, investigating the disappearance of a famous luchador (and battling some luchador ogre zombies in what sounds like a fun little dungeon crawl), and surviving a monstrous vehicular creation from a mad artificer.
I was also excited to see more information on the Tayyib Empire, a desert region ravaged by a recent civil war, featuring thousands of undead as literal reminders of the past.
Tayyib, along with Umizu, are mentioned in only a few pages at the end of the original book, in a section literally called “Beyond the Radiant Citadel.” These areas were clearly conceived and pitched, but didn’t make the cut to join the final 13.
When I first cracked open this supplement expansion, I was hoping to see full-fledged adventures based on these two regions, or perhaps entirely new places. Without well-designed adventures to anchor these regions, I lack the motivation to explore them in game.
Even though the encounters (and few new backgrounds) are a nice addition, the slight sourcebook expansion to half the regions from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is extremely limiting, and not what I was hoping to see from this otherwise well-produced expansion.
Pros:
- Reunites several original writers from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel.
- Over 20 encounters for seven different regions.
- Beautiful original artwork.
Cons:
- Only about three pages per region (mostly encounters), and still no adventure for Tayyib.
The Verdict: Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel slightly expands half the regions from the official book, but doesn’t go far enough in providing additional content.
A review copy of “Journeys Beyond the Radiant Citadel” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 