Travel through the radiant citadel, the next anthology of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, will be the first book in D&D’s nearly 50-year history to be written entirely by people of color. Sixteen authors have given their time and expertise to Wizards of the Coast, including author and game designer ErinRoberts. Her adventure is called Written in Blood and immerses players in a new place called Godsbreath, a land inspired by her own family history.
“Godsbreath is truly my personal love letter [and] Paying homage to the experience of black people in the southern United States,” Roberts said during a presentation to the press. “It’s really exciting for me to have the opportunity to tap into my family’s past and heritage in Mississippi, Florida and Georgia.”
Roberts is an Early Career Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. Her previous gaming work includes multiple products for Paizo, where she contributed to both the Pathfinder and Starfinder lines, and writing for the mobile game Zombies, run!
“The first thing I did when I got the chance was to run to my great-uncle’s book, Growing up black in rural Mississippi, which is actually enrolled in me and my sisters,” Roberts said. “I flipped through it – there are pictures of my family on it, [pictures of] my great grandmother – and to really get a chance to immerse myself in the kind of experience in the black, rural South [in the 1930s and ’40s] and how to make that magical and amazing in a D&D context.”
Godsbreath is more than just a single town or tiny village. It’s an entire region that uses geographic equivalents that closely match the American South. There’s a sombre area called Nightwater Cove that was inspired by Louisiana’s bayou country. Each of the many islands has its own culture and trade specialty, but the waters that surround them are infested with dangerous monsters. There is a port city called Promise that serves as a replacement for busy urban centers like Biloxi, Mississippi or New Orleans. But the real action of th is adventure takes place in a rural area called The Ribbon, a rich tract of land that supports a vibrant farming community. Environmental stresses are causing farmers to develop new lands and plant crops in the uncharted wilderness, and an unhealthy supernatural force rushes out of this wilderness to meet them.
Throughout the adventure, players have the opportunity to travel with several different non-player characters. These NPCs, Roberts said, will help players discover Godsbreath and the people who live there. One of the main NPCs named Tungsten is a type of historian known as the Proclaimer. Roberts described Proclaimers as part clerics, part bards, and their job is to anchor people and deeds in the story of Godsbreath by adding new verses to The Awakening Song.
“It’s an oral history through song that’s basically everything that’s important that’s happened since the beginning of this region,” Roberts said. “Every year people get together and sing it together and celebrate and reflect on what happened and how they got here and who the people are that they lost along the way and where the future is going.”
“I love that [players] can get the chance, so to speak, to understand the region [through these NPCs]’ Roberts said, ‘and maybe people want to be publishers themselves and find out, ‘How can I be someone from this region who’s gone out and explored the wide world?'”
Written in Blood is an adventure for third level characters. Traveling through the Radiant citadel will arrive in shops and on-line starting June 21 and priced at $49.99. It will also be available in digital formatsincluding on Roll20, fantasy terrainand via the D&D Beyond toolset.
