milbysmaps

Predjama Castle - Patrons' Edition

EDIT: Apologies, I was recently made aware that Slovenians do not like being referred to as Eastern European. Sorry about that. 

This is Predjama Castle, a real place in the Central European nation of Slovenia. How do you survive all that? You build this place. Predjama is the castle a paranoid person builds. Start by constructing it in the mouth of a ca...

Mont-Saint-Michel: Random Stuff I Forgot or Remade - Patrons' Edition

So, there's only three things here. The first is the annotated version of the first level. It mentions significant things on upper floors, like the town hall and the constabulary, and it has one more building marked: a tavern called "The House of the Spinning Pig."

The other two things are patrons' edition VTT maps I forgot to make. They're maps of the entire level, at a 35px grid size.

And that, I believe, is everything on the checklist. Now on to 2020-03-16 03:24:29 +0000 UTC View Post

Mont-Saint-Michel: Random Stuff I Forgot or Remade

So, there's only three things here. The first is the annotated version of the first level. It mentions significant things on upper floors, like the town hall and the constabulary, and it has one more building marked: a tavern called "The House of the Spinning Pig."

The other two things are patrons' edition VTT maps I forgot to make. They're maps of the entire level, at a 35px grid size.

And that, I believe, is everything on the checklist. Now on to 2020-03-16 03:24:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Map Assets for modifying Mont-St-Michel and Brazenthrone. And one character token.

Specifically, my character token. That's Berg and I'll talk about him in a second.

First, the assets: there are 3 sets, each with 30-40 images of common things in my maps: barrels, beds, desks and so forth. While these are not the fanciest assets you've ever seen-- and may even be among the least-fancy-- they're in my drawing style and should be useful for modding my maps.

The first set is done in the color scheme of Mont-Saint-Michel. The second is in Brazenthrone's colo...

La France: Viva it.

This is the first of a bunch of posts I'll be making today with a whole bunch of different things, almost all pertaining to Mont-St-Michel. There's a few things I updated, a few things I forgot about until now and a few things I just finished.

Anyway, this is the French version I promised. I wrote it with the assistance of a French-English dictionary, then I got a French friend of mine to check it for errors. So, if there's anything wrong, I blame him and you should too.

The hi-re...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Fourth Level

It's been quite a journey, but here we are at the end. Time to chuck the ring into the volcano and start on the next adventure.

To all my patrons, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make this. I try to draw maps that no one else makes and create unique settings for your games. Hopefully Mont-Saint-Michel will serve you well.

The elevation guide is up there. The French version isn't, but my French language consultant is coming over for D&D in an hour and I shoul...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Fourth Level - Patrons' Edition

It's been quite a journey, but here we are at the end. Time to chuck the ring into the volcano and start on the next adventure.

To all my patrons, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make this. I try to draw maps that no one else makes and create unique settings for your games. Hopefully Mont-Saint-Michel will serve you well.

The elevation guide is up there. The French version isn't, but my French language consultant is coming over for D&D in an hour and I shoul...

A Selection of Our Finest French VTT Maps

As promised, these are 18 multi-floor VTT maps containing all the buildings in Mont-Saint-Michel. There are 7 more maps of all the single-floor buildings in there too. This is my first time making these, so if you've got any thoughts or opinions about them, please let me know!

All right, the roof level is almost done. Everything is almost done. Just another day or two. I'll be back with more soon, I'm just gonna start throwing stuff out there as I finish it.

Google Drive 2020-03-14 05:02:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Mont-Saint-Michel - Third Level

This is almost everything. The DM notes are done too, although I reserve the right to change my mind about that tomorrow. There are a couple things left to do:

• Color the roofs. Easy, easy stuff.
• Make furniture tokens. I promised someone I'd make them so they can mod the Mont. Even easier.
• Stacked floor maps for VTT. Here's one 2020-03-13 00:43:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Mont-Saint-Michel - Third Level - Patrons' Edition

This is almost everything. The DM notes are done too, although I reserve the right to change my mind about that tomorrow. There are a couple things left to do:

• Color the roofs. Easy, easy stuff.
• Make furniture tokens. I promised someone I'd make them so they can mod the Mont. Even easier.
• Stacked floor maps for VTT. Here's one 2020-03-13 00:43:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Mont-Saint-Michel - Second Level

I've talked about the map a lot. I feel like talking about my D&D game today.

So I recently started running a game for my friends again after about a year and it feels good to be behind the screen again. Our group is... a little atypical.

First, it was almost the case that every person in the group was from a different country. I, the DM, am American. The wizard (and my wife) is Irish. The druid is Spanish. The monk is French. And the paladin is Norwegian. But, at the...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Second Level - Patrons' Edition

I've talked about the map a lot. I feel like talking about my D&D game today.

So I recently started running a game for my friends again after about a year and it feels good to be behind the screen again. Our group is... a little atypical.

First, it was almost the case that every person in the group was from a different country. I, the DM, am American. The wizard (and my wife) is Irish. The druid is Spanish. The monk is French. And the paladin is Norwegian. But, at the...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Ground Level

This is what the last few months have been leading up to. Hopefully it's everything you were expecting. There's still the upper floors to color and a few other little things to do, but we're almost there.

A few things. First, DM notes for everybody. There are some things we need to talk about with this one and that's where we're talking about them. It's all under "Important Things." Feel free to stop reading after that if you want.

Second, non-patrons will notice a ZI...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Ground Level - Patrons' Edition

This is what the last few months have been leading up to. Hopefully it's everything you were expecting. There's still the upper floors to color and a few other little things to do, but we're almost there.

A few things. First, DM notes for everybody. There are some things we need to talk about with this one and that's where we're talking about them. It's all under "Important Things." Feel free to stop reading after that if you want.

Second, non-patrons will notice a ZIP file attach...

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 13 - Les Roofs

There she is. A whole lot of trees died to get us to this point. Seriously, I'm gonna post a picture of all the originals at some point. I think this may have taken more paper than Brazenthrone, which is a little nuts.

That reminds me, I need to buy more. Unfortunately, I have to order the paper I use from overseas, which is a bit of a pain, but only the finest French graph paper will do. *adjusts monocle*<...

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 12 - The 3rd level, now with rocks, trees and other nature-type stuff

So, this is the whole island. In the back, there's the Chapel of St. Aubert on the left, then toward the center is a fountain. It's kind of a strange fountain. I guess you get the water out of the ...

Everything I need to draw for Mont-St-Michel is done. All of it.

Except for some rocks. The town is done, the abbey is done, the roofs are done, the little outlying buildings are done and the various things I forgot to draw earlier are done.

I didn't think I'd get it finished this soon, but I ended up drawing most of the fourth level and the roofs in one enormously long session, using coffee and Scandinavian metal to stay awake for an amount of time usually only achievable by meth addicts.

There are still some rocks to draw, but that's only an ...

The Post that was Promised

Okay, I'm awake, I've had coffee, I can write now. So, next up is the third level of Mont-St-Michel, which I think is quite a bit more interesting than the second because we finally get to the top of the curtain wall, which a lot of the adjacent buildings have exits to.

Other notable things include 2020-02-18 20:02:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 11 - Complete 2nd Level of the Town and Abbey

I really wanted to get this done tonight and I did but now it's like 8 am and I want to write some stuff here but I just... I can't. I'll post something tomorrow. Good night.

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 10

The second level of the town is almost done! Once I knock out the rest, it's on to the third floor, which shouldn't take long at all. Then I'll do whatever roofs are left, which is going to feel like a vacation compared to drawing the rest of this place, haha. Then I'll draw in the trees and rocks, fill out the back of the island (including the two small buildings back there) and it'll be ready for color!

Mont-Saint-Michel – 1st Level of the Town and Abbey

Also, here's the entire first level of the town and the abbey.  I think this is pretty awesome.   Thank you so much for letting me make stuff like this.

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 9: The Town, 2nd Level

The second level of the town is coming along faster than I'd expected and I'm feeling like we're on the homestretch now.

If you noticed that building at the bottom extending over the street, you should have a look at the real thing. You know what that place is called? The Inn of the Unicorn. No kidding. How is t...

Patrons: The Cartographic Congress Needs Your Help!

So, there has been a tie in the Cartographic Congress runoff vote and that is unacceptable. This isn't soccer, this is Thunderdome: two maps enter, one map leaves. Two maps do not leave. So, in order to break the tie, I'm opening the vote up to all patrons.

 The poll is here. Make the right call and, above all, vote with conviction. And vote decisively. May one or more deities guid...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work in Progress 8: Le Roof

And that's it for the abbey. You may have noticed the steeple here and thought, "Is there really a statue of a sword-wielding angel on top of this thing?" In fact, there is a GOLDEN statue of a sword-wielding angel on top of it. I mean, sure, you can hardly see it from the ground, but people know it's there and that's the important thing.

All right, back to work.

The 17th Cartographic Congress Vote Runoff

Two big things on the water. Will it be the drow city or the warship? Cast your votes!

Senator Matt proposes a drow city on the edge of an underdark lake. A giant hole in the roof of the cavern nearby creates a huge waterfall as water rushes in from the surface sea above. Note that this will not be a battlemap and will not include the interiors of buildings.

Senator Parker proposes a man-of-war, a massive floating fortress of a ship built to be the flagship of a fleet.

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work in Progress 7: The Abbey, 3rd Floor

The third and final floor of the abbey is finished. In the center is the cathedral, of course. Above it on the left is the cloister, with the refectory and kitchen on the right. For those of you not familiar with the term, a refectory is a dining room in an abbey. It strikes me as one of the least-necessary words in the English language, but there you go.

The area on the left side of the map is a huge, open-air terrace. The area outlined inside it is the foundation of a structure that w...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work in Progress 6: The Abbey, 2nd Floor

The second level of the abbey is done and there's some interesting stuff here. The room near the bottom-left with the four pillars is an ossuary. The big thing in the middle is called a "treadwheel" and it's meant for hauling stuff up a ramp into the abbey. It's turned by people walking inside it like big, hairless hamsters. Yeah, I know. Fun.

The big chamber near the center that looks like a hand giving th...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work in Progress 5: The Abbey

The  abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel is both amazing and complete madness. Every map I have of it (and I have a lot) disagrees with the rest about what rooms are on what floor.

The thing is, the floors here don't just neatly stack on top of each other like most buildings. Imagine a house with five basements. Each one has a staircase leading down to it and each one goes to a different depth. One goes 10 feet down, another 15, another 20. Now imagine that the one that goes 15 fee...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work in Progress 4

Originally, I'd intended to post again once I'd finished the upper town, but I decided to push on and finish up the gardens as well. So this is the entire ground level of the town complete. Aside from two small buildings on the north side of the island, the only thing left is the abbey.

One other thing I need to talk about is how long this will take and how I'm going to handle it. I estimated a month at the start, but it's going to take another month at least. I could pause and work on ...

The 16th Cartographic Congress Vote - Final Deathmatch

ROME HAS FALLEN! The sky pirates and the hill people have brought down the mighty empire. Who will rule over their ashes?

Senator Fraz-Urb'luu proposes a pirate's secret airship factory, hidden on an earthmote (an island in the sky).

Senator Adrian proposes a stone bridge over a large valley, fortified with a mountain outpost on one end.