So, how about if I just draw the Vatican? Like, all of it.
Added 2025-01-20 21:11:29 +0000 UTCI want to get your thoughts on Vatican City as a potential megaproject for later this year. It's the only country I can draw in its entirety, for several reasons. First, because it's fairly small. And second, because most of the buildings are famous and the floor plans are publicly available. This includes (click for photo):
There are some smaller buildings I don't have floor plans for and would have to make up. There are also a few modern buildings that won't be included, like the train station and the Paul VI Audience Hall, which is probably the ugliest thing in the Vatican.
I'd draw this one building at a time, rather than all at once. So each building would have its own map, as well as being added to the overall map. Once all the buildings are done, I'd draw in the gardens to finish it off.
If I draw this, I would alternate between drawing Vatican maps and other maps, so it wouldn't be the only thing I was working on. Also, I am still drawing the previously-announced megaproject first. And, just to clarify, this would be a 5' (1.5m) grid scale battlemap of the entire Vatican, inside and outside, including upper and lower levels. I'd estimate this project would take somewhere around a year to a year and a half to finish.
So, is this something you'd be interested in? I'll be making the decision on whether or not to draw this based on the response to this post, so leave a comment or shoot me a message to let me know how you feel. If you've got any questions or other thoughts, let me hear those as well. Your feedback will decide the future of this project.
Comments
Honestly one of the coolest ideas I've heard
Magpie
2025-02-15 21:02:24 +0000 UTCI'm only going to include pre-modern stuff, so I'll remove the train station and parking lots and so forth. There are old maps of the place available, so it shouldn't be hard to find out what was there before.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-26 15:49:37 +0000 UTCAnything Renaissance Italy in style is great for me, I love holding campaigns in places like that and it seems like Vatican City would be a cool place to start! Will the maps have references to "modern" stuff, like automobile roads and telephone lines, or will it be still usable for the usual fantasy medieval D&D style?
Adam El Akkad
2025-01-26 02:20:05 +0000 UTCAs you seek out these multi-map projects, a vote as s strong alternate vote for the City of Glass on the Elemental Plane of Water.
Sinam Al-Khafaji
2025-01-25 16:09:51 +0000 UTCFair enough, look forward to it regardless.
AN7
2025-01-24 16:13:01 +0000 UTCOh yes! There's no reason a bunch of 1920s Investigators could possible need to abstract something from the Vatican ... is there? :-)
Simon 'Landmine'
2025-01-24 03:40:37 +0000 UTCI think it could be really good for Call of Cthulhu and historical games, too.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-24 02:40:04 +0000 UTCAs far as the train station, sorry, but I don't want to include fantasy stuff in a historical map. So, I'll probably just draw whatever was there before the train station was put in.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-24 02:18:03 +0000 UTCI'm not the only person who can draw something like this, I'm just the one who will.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-24 02:14:33 +0000 UTCI've got another megaproject in mind that would be based around a dwarven deep road. That idea needs more time to cook, though.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-24 02:12:45 +0000 UTCImagine what kind of campaigns you could run with just the Vatican's map alone.
shadowtim3 .
2025-01-23 01:36:03 +0000 UTCAlso will always second more Underdark maps.
AN7
2025-01-22 16:13:36 +0000 UTCWith your style and approach? Absolutely 100% I can’t think of a lot of map makers who could do this justice but I absolutely believe you could make this epic. Though a quick request for fun, exclude the train station, but maybe have an Eberron ish variant with a lighting rail station?
AN7
2025-01-22 16:13:14 +0000 UTCThis is a great idea! Lots of potential with this one. I would vote for this or more underdark maps.
Wilfred_of_Ivanhoe
2025-01-22 14:37:16 +0000 UTCYesyesyesyes
Eric Holliday
2025-01-22 01:19:21 +0000 UTCI just had so much fun with a post-apocalyptic "Last of Us" fungi and post-tech society mashup. I'm one of those DMs who can't draw maps to save my life, but once I have a map can spin a good story around it.
Jeffrey P
2025-01-21 20:27:53 +0000 UTCEchoing this. I just finished an extended stay for my party in Mont St. Michel. I am the kind of nerd who looked up the tide charts and we tracked the time. What a great map--super complicated though with all the elevations. This looks to be a similar scale of awesomeness and usefulness.
Rob Spirko
2025-01-21 20:16:38 +0000 UTCamazing, cant wait to see it!!
KoonFox
2025-01-21 18:36:36 +0000 UTCWould be awesome. Can easily fit as the main base of any religious organization or cult. A city full of clerics and paladins that players need to infiltrate
Jasper van Nieuwenhuijzen
2025-01-21 17:03:49 +0000 UTCDEUS VULT!
Nicolas Marin
2025-01-21 16:34:14 +0000 UTCI need this
Jochen Mevius
2025-01-21 15:17:11 +0000 UTCHeck yeah
Daniel Quaresma
2025-01-21 11:31:57 +0000 UTCYes, please!!!!
Violette
2025-01-21 07:17:53 +0000 UTCEnabling parties to go full 'Mission Implausible'! (I've forgotten which one it was with the Vatican in it.) That would be epic. (Especially as I don't just play fantasy settings.)
Simon 'Landmine'
2025-01-21 00:11:33 +0000 UTCYessssssssss
Andromedus Blackshire
2025-01-20 23:57:52 +0000 UTCWhile this sounds like a cool idea, I think most of use could do this too since the floor plans are public. Personally, I would rather see your creative thoughts put into a project rather than copying what has already been put in place.
Bryan
2025-01-20 23:35:53 +0000 UTCMaybe, but they're both too modern anyway. The nice thing about the Vatican is that almost all the buildings are both old and really cool. It's all wheat and no chaff.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-20 22:46:07 +0000 UTCYou could probably have quite a few encounters if you used different parts of the map separately.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-20 22:40:03 +0000 UTCAmazing idea. Vatican City already looks like a battle map.
Matthew Neville
2025-01-20 22:35:09 +0000 UTCI'd almost certainly draw St. Peter's Basilica first, but that would include the grottoes and necropolis, since they're underneath it. I'm thinking I might draw all the famous parts first, then email the partially-finished map to someone at the Vatican Library and see if they might be able to share some floor plans of any of the other buildings. It's probably worth a shot, anyway.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-20 22:34:45 +0000 UTCI posted this, went to the store, came back and there are 15 comments. Wow.
Milby's Maps
2025-01-20 22:28:07 +0000 UTCIn the voice of Darth Sidious - Do it
Dana Heath Murray
2025-01-20 22:09:03 +0000 UTCThis would be amazing, but don’t sell yourself short by thinking this is the only country you could draw, you could do Monaco and maybe even somewhere like San Marino.
Silas
2025-01-20 22:04:46 +0000 UTCpretty damn cool idea
Luke Rolfs
2025-01-20 22:02:39 +0000 UTCWho would say no? Proceed.
Sinam Al-Khafaji
2025-01-20 21:50:12 +0000 UTCI saw this and immediately started thinking of how to run a series of adventures involving recapturing the Vatican. So ambitious! I say do it! I might just plug it into my "the multiverse is getting all jumbled" pick-up campaign.
RunningGentles
2025-01-20 21:41:23 +0000 UTCThat would be amazing
Alex Smith
2025-01-20 21:41:03 +0000 UTCThat sounds sooo cool!
Morgan Holt
2025-01-20 21:29:51 +0000 UTCYESSSSSS!!!
Alexander Tettenborn
2025-01-20 21:25:22 +0000 UTCI just loved your mega-project of Mont St. Michel, and made such great use of it in my homebrew D&D game. So I'd love something like this, but especially the Necropolis and Grottoes first, followed perhaps by the Palace, Basilca, and Museums and the Court last. I'm just thinking about where I could set interesting adventures as opposed to something they're just visiting or passing through.
Jeffrey P
2025-01-20 21:23:32 +0000 UTCWow!
Steve Wright
2025-01-20 21:22:30 +0000 UTCHoly moly!
Jay Farschman
2025-01-20 21:21:57 +0000 UTCThis is an awesome idea, do it
clawforce
2025-01-20 21:20:34 +0000 UTCThat would definitely be an awesome addition to a map portfolio...having a random encounter or mission at the "Vatican" would be amazing.
CrimsonFenrir
2025-01-20 21:16:08 +0000 UTCThis would be so awesome.
AlexanderClement98
2025-01-20 21:13:05 +0000 UTCI cannot express how much I would love this!
HaploTheHand
2025-01-20 21:12:53 +0000 UTC
