D&D’s next book includes an adventure inspired by the American South

The Radiant Citadel: Journeys, the next anthology of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, will be the first book written entirely by people of color in the nearly 50-year history of D&D. Wizards of the Coast was helped by 16 writers, including Erin Roberts (author and game designer). Her adventure is called “Written in Blood,” and it will immerse players in a new location called Godsbreath, a land inspired by her own family history.

“Godsbreath is really my personal love letter [and] homage to the Black experience in the Southern United States,” Roberts said during a presentation for the press. “It’s really exciting to me to get a chance reach back to my family’s own past and legacy in Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia.”

Roberts is an early-career fellow at The University of Texas at Austin. She has worked on several games for Paizo. There she was part of the Starfinder and Pathfinder line, as well as writing content for mobile gaming. Zombies, Run!When she wrote for Wizards, she stated that her inspiration came from a book by professor Chalmers Archer. It was first published in 1991.

“The first thing that I did when I got the chance to do this was run to my great uncle’s book, Rural Mississippi: Growing up Black, the one that is actually inscribed to me and my sisters,” Roberts said. “I flipped through it — there’s pictures of my family on it, [pictures of] my great grandmother — and really to get a chance to ground myself in what the sort of experience was in Black, rural South [in the 1930s and ’40s] and how I can make that magical and amazing in a D&D context.”

Godsbreath can be described as more than a small village or single town. It’s an entire region, one that makes use of geographical analogs that map closely to the American South. There’s a murky area called Nightwater Cove that was inspired by the Louisiana bayou country. Although each island has its own unique culture and trade specialties, the surrounding waters are full of dangerous creatures. There’s a port city, called Promise, that serves as a stand-in for bustling urban centers like Biloxi, Mississippi, or New Orleans. The real adventure of the story will be in The Ribbon, an area of rural land with a vibrant agricultural community. Farmers are being forced to clear new ground and to plant crops in uncharted areas by environmental pressures. An unwholesome supernatural force has rushed to join them.

Players can travel along with non-player characters during the adventure. Roberts stated that these NPCs will help the players discover Godsbreath as well as the local people. Tungsten is one of the most prominent NPCs. He’s a type of historian called a Proclaimer. Roberts describes Proclaimers to be part cleric, part bard. Their job is to add new lyrics to The Awakening song to the history of Godsbreath to inshrine deeds and people into Godsbreath’s past.

“It is an oral history through song of basically everything of note that has happened since the very early days of this region,” said Roberts. “Every year people come together and sing it together and celebrate and think back on what’s happened and how they’ve gotten here, and who are the people they’ve lost along the way, and where does the future go.”

“I love that [players]You can kind of understand the area [through these NPCs],” Roberts said, “and maybe people will want to be Proclaimers themselves and figure out ‘how can I be someone from this region who’s now gone out and is exploring the wider world?’”

“Written in Blood” is an adventure for third-level characters. Explore the World Through Journeys Radiant Citadel It will be available in shops and online beginning June 21, and it will retail for $49.99. You can also get it digitally on Roll20. Fantasy Grounds, and through the D&D Beyond toolset.