D&D’s new starter adventure isn’t about saving the world — it’s about family

polygon.com:

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is the next anthology of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. The project was conceived of by designer Ajit George and co-led with Wizards of the Coast’s F. Wesley Schneider. It will be the first book written entirely by people of color in the nearly 50-year history of D&D. As such, it will include a very different take on the classic first-level adventure.

If you’ve ever played through an introductory adventure from a Dungeons & Dragons starter set, you know how awkward that experience can be. Sure, there’s always a few green players at the table, but that’s not really what I’m talking about. To me, the stakes at level one always feels a bit higher than they otherwise should be. The excellent Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, for instance, makes you more or less responsible for protecting an entire region from a marauding dragon. That’s a heavy lift, even for a bunch of heavily armed newbies. But what if that first taste of D&D was a bit more focused on… let’s call them soft skills?

Designer Surena Marie got her start with Wizards of the Coast as a member of The Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play program that kicked off in 2018. She has since moved on to become the marketing and communications manager for Critical Role. Marie is an illustrator as well as a performer, with a background in Chicago’s improv theater scene. That’s partly why co-lead designers George and Schneider tapped her for Radiant Citadel’s level-one experience, an adventure titled Salted Legacy.

Salted Legacy is the story of two rival families who make their living in a vibrant night market, one filled with many different in-fiction races like kobolds and dragonborn. Players will literally hold the fate of these two