milbysmaps

Another hard day's work in the dynamic lighting mines

I got quite a bit done on the VTT walls and doors for Brazenthrone. Links to download this stuff for Roll20, Foundry and EncounterPlus are below. These maps are now lighting-ready and available to the public:

• The Noble Quarter (4 levels)
• The Old Quarter (3 levels)

Those maps, along with 2021-01-01 11:45:53 +0000 UTC View Post

The 28th Cartographic Congress Vote Runoff

This month's vote comes down to two final contenders and they are both gloriously weird. You have to choose, but there are no wrong answers:

Senator Jon proposes a map of the Barre Sinister, a Spelljammer pirate port built into the palm of a gigantic stone hand orbiting the sun. There are docks and several buildings, most notably the Barre, a notorious tavern where pirates come to drink and parley.

Senator Fraz-Urb'luu proposes a great estate on the plane of shadow, with surreal, ...

The Floating Market

Everybody having a good holidays? I hope so, but if not, remember that 2020 is almost over, which is a cause for celebration by itself. And, with tomorrow being New Year's Eve, it's completely acceptable to drink your way across the finish line.

This map kind of feels like something someone else drew. It's a completely reasonable size, it's almost all outdoors and the map takes up the entire image with no convenient place to put a title. I mean, I did draw this and I remember d...

The Floating Market - Patrons' Edition

Everybody having a good holidays? I hope so, but if not, remember that 2020 is almost over, which is a cause for celebration by itself. And, with tomorrow being New Year's Eve, it's completely acceptable to drink your way across the finish line.

This map kind of feels like something someone else drew. It's a completely reasonable size, it's almost all outdoors and the map takes up the entire image with no convenient place to put a title. I mean, I did draw this and I remember d...

The 28th Cartographic Congress Vote

Hope everyone's having a good Christmas! My wife got me a second monitor and, let me tell you, it is everything I dreamed it would be. Hopefully you all scored some hot loot too. Well, I've got Christmas stuff to do and I'd better get back to it. I'll be leaving this up until the 30th at least. Have a good one!

Senator Matt proposes a battlemap for encounters set in the Drow ...

The Walls of Brazenthrone for VTT

I spent all day yesterday marking the walls and doors of Brazenthrone for VTT. While the experience hasn't turned me into a gibbering psychological disaster, I still don't recommend it. Anyway, here's what I got done in a day of work:

• The Great Hall (6 levels)
• The Anvil Quarter (2 levels)
• The Common Quarter (3 levels)
• The Noble Quarter (1F only)
• City Gates
• ...
  2020-12-23 05:12:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Drowning Hill - Roofs

Sorry, this took me a bit longer than expected because holiday stuff. Anyway, VTT versions of Drowning Hill with walls and doors are in the patrons' Foundry module and the patrons' EncounterPlus module.

If you downloaded the free module for Foundry or EncounterPlus more than...

Drowning Hill - Roofs - Patrons' Edition

Sorry, this took me a bit longer than expected because holiday stuff. Anyway, VTT versions of Drowning Hill with walls and doors are in the patrons' Foundry module and the patrons' EncounterPlus module.

If you downloaded the free module for Foundry or Encounter...

Drowning Hill

This is pretty far from your run-of-the-mill village and I think I owe everyone an explanation of some of the things going on here, so the annotated version and DM notes are available to everyone.

Drowning Hill is a village meant for an amphibious race. The name is a fairly literal description of the place, since most of the village is submerged by high tides. With the place being underwater on a fairly regular basis, it's not an ideal location for people who are particularly picky abou...

Drowning Hill - Patrons' Edition

This is pretty far from your run-of-the-mill village and I think I owe everyone an explanation of some of the things going on here, so the annotated version and DM notes are available to everyone.

Drowning Hill is a village meant for an amphibious race. The name is a fairly literal description of the place, since most of the village is submerged by high tides. With the place being underwater on a fairly regular basis, it's not an ideal location for people who are particularly picky abou...

VTT stuff is much better now.

I've got news for Roll20, Foundry and EncounterPlus DMs, as well as some news about Brazenthrone. Let's take it one at a time. 

Roll20

I started using a new script to allow you to automatically make walls for your maps. It's called Universal VTT Importer and it's better for a few reasons: fir...

Wahat Al-Hasan Oasis

I did quite a bit of research for this map, particularly on Middle Eastern architecture and furnishings. It isn't based on any real place, but it was inspired by the Masjid Wazir Khan in Pakistan and the Buland Darwaza in India.

As I was skimming through the various reference material I used here, I came across somet...

Wahat Al-Hasan Oasis - Patrons' Edition

I did quite a bit of research for this map, particularly on Middle Eastern architecture and furnishings. It isn't based on any real place, but it was inspired by the Masjid Wazir Khan in Pakistan and the Buland Darwaza in India.

As I was skimming through the various reference material I used here, I came across somet...

The 27th Cartographic Congress Vote Runoff

Three maps have made it to the runoff this month. In descending order of old-school-ness: 

Senator Roose proposes a funhouse dungeon deathtrap, like from the old days of D&D. (1980s, 1st ed.)

Senator Raffaele proposes a mind flayer dreadnought spelljammer. (Late 1980s, Spelljammer)

Senator Fraz-Urb'luu proposes a great estate on the plane of shadow, with surreal, twisted architecture, doors that lead you back where you came from and lots of gargoyl...

The Fortified Oasis - Work-In-Progress

Here's the first floor of the oasis, almost finished. The other two floors are also nearly done, so I should have this finished in a couple days.

This floor doesn't have many of the rugs I mentioned earlier, which are mostly on the level above. There's one room with seven rugs. It's like Discount Carpet Warehouse in there. And the hookah room has five. Yeah, there's a hookah room. And I sincerely apologize in advance for whatever happens when the stoner in your group gets there.

O...

Several Small Things

I've got the next map-- the Fortified Oasis-- fully penciled and ready to ink. But before I get started on that, I wanted to mention a few other things I got done:

• I made print versions of the full Brazenthrone map. In case anyone wants to print it at poster size, or just to have an image of the whole city that looks good zoomed-in. They're half a gig each, ...
  2020-12-01 16:44:42 +0000 UTC View Post

The 27th Cartographic Congress Vote

Ladies and gentlemen, this month, we have eight fine proposals for your consideration. Personally, I think this is an exceptionally good month for the Cartographic Congress. There's a wide variety of ideas, they're all very useful and I want to draw all of them. Typing them out has already started ideas churning in my head for a lot of these. Anyway, it's your decision to make. Which gladiator walks away with the rudis?

Senator Anders proposes a mosque-like temple dedicated to an exotic...

The Brazenthrone Codex, Third Edition

I know some of you may have an instinctually negative response to hearing about a switch from second to third edition, but I promise you, this third edition is not a downgrade from the second that will slowly grow worse and take twenty years to rectify.

This is the complete Codex with all the expanded annotated maps and DM notes from Brazenthrone, along with a few...

The Dwarven City of Brazenthrone is finished.

I've been an artist for my entire life and this is easily the best thing I've ever drawn. I wish I could show it to 12-year-old me. He would've gone wild. To be honest, he and I aren't that different, although I'd say I'm at least 10% more mature.

The last two years have been quite a journey and I want to thank my patrons for joining me on it-- or maybe I should say taking me on it. They deserve a lot of credit for this. I made 2020-11-24 14:50:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Brazenthrone - The Old Palace - Everyone's Edition

All the patron content for this map is free to everyone and you can download it here.

This is the last chamber of Brazenthrone, but the map isn't finished yet. It'll be finished when it's all put together in a single image, so we can sit back, look at the entire city and wonder why an...

Here's the first floor of the Old Palace.

There are two more levels of Brazenthrone's Old Palace, both of which are nearly done. I'll have it all up in a day or two, but I thought I'd give you a look at the first floor since it's finished.

The large room at the upper center is the throne room. The Brazen Throne was removed and currently occupies the new throne room in the 2020-11-19 22:10:33 +0000 UTC View Post

The Thronebrazing Kit - Also, the Foundry Module is now online.

Do you use Foundry? Are you dissatisfied with how small Brazenthrone is and wish you could make more of it? If you answered no to both, there's nothing here for you, feel free to go about your day.

Foundry first. Here's the manifest URL so you can install it the grown up way: http://modules.milbysmaps.com/MMPublic/module....

Kasan-Tir Mining Outpost - "I like it but I'm not into the tunnel thing" Edition

There were two experimental things I did with this map and one of them seems to have gone over well, while the other didn't. A few patrons let me know, which I appreciate, since it helps me make decisions about stuff like this in the future.

Anyway, I made an alternate version without the tunnels for the patrons' edition maps in case anyone really didn't like the original one and I figured I should give it out to non-patrons as well. My patrons seem to prefer this one and, in general, I...

Kasan-Tir Mining Outpost

This took a while to draw because I spent two days laying it out, then I decided it was crap and started over from scratch. Sorry for the wait, but it really was irredeemable garbage.

There's some unusual stuff going on here and I'm wondering how you're going to feel about it. First, you've got multiple levels overlaid on top of each other. There's the winding path with arrow slits above, then the tunnels on the other side of those arrow slits below.

Mainly, this keeps the map a b...

Kasan-Tir Mining Outpost - Patrons' Edition

This took a while to draw because I spent two days laying it out, then I decided it was crap and started over from scratch. Sorry for the wait, but it really was irredeemable garbage.

There's some unusual stuff going on here and I'm wondering how you're going to feel about it. First, you've got multiple levels overlaid on top of each other. There's the winding path with arrow slits above, then the tunnels on the other side of those arrow slits below.

Mainly, this keeps the map a b...

The 26th Cartographic Congress Vote Runoff

Two proposals shot to the head of the pack this month, which means we're going straight to the deathmatch! Who will wear the INTERCONTINENTAL HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BELT*?

Senator Parker proposes a crusaders' castle.

Senator James proposes a village for an amphibious people, located on a hill that is submerged during high tide. An inn at the top of the hill is the only structure permanently above water.

*The winner will not receive an actual belt. I will draw the map, thou...

Map Module for Foundry (and a note about Roll20)

Here's the Foundry VTT pack I promised. Actually, it's not the pack I promised, it's a lot more than that. Here's the story: I was getting a few maps ready to export from Roll20 to Foundry, using a campaign on my friend Luke's Roll20 account. I export everything, expecting three maps to come out the other side. Instead, I get sixty maps. Huh?

Oh, these must be the archived maps. I look through the...

Dear Foundry Users: This is me having your back

I worked out a way to export walls to Foundry. I haven't exported the module file to share the maps with you yet, but I wanted to let you know that your situation is handled. I found a way to convert Roll20 maps with dynamic lighting to Foundry, so patrons can expect to spend a lot less time setting up maps in the future.

I'll get you the module file for the Tusk, the Fallen Tower and the Great Hall in a day or two and I'll fill you in on how I did it. It'll be free for everyone, of cou...

Brazenthrone - Freeholders' Hall - Everyone's Edition

You know what? This is the second-to-last chamber of Brazenthrone and I'm just going to give everyone the patron content for the rest of it. You can download it from the bottom of this post or from Google Drive.

There's not too much to say about Freeholders' Hall. It's where the mushr...

I just did two impossible things in Roll20.

I set up the dynamic lighting for every wall in the Great Hall of Brazenthrone in 15 minutes. That's the first impossible thing. The second impossible thing is: I can give you the ability to do this. Except it's not going to take you 15 minutes, it's going to take you 1 minute. And no part of this involves ever setting foot in the Roll20 Marketplace.

Two days ago, I posted something about how I didn't think I'd be able to give you maps with dynamic lighting set up for Roll20. I thought ...