milbysmaps

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 3

I feel like things are starting to get kind of real now. This is most of the town finished, including the local church (Saint-Pierre's) at the top with the cemetery below it. There's also a gambling hall, some gardens, a bunch of houses and, at the top left, a building known as the House of the Spinning Pig ("Truie-qui-File").

The story behind this is that, apparently, some guy taught his pig to spin thread and he used to take it out in the streets where people would watch it perform. E...

Mont-Saint-Michel – Work in Progress 2

I hope you all had good holidays! The Mont has grown a good bit lately. There’s more of the town and the walls finished to the east of the gates, along with the Tour de la Liberté (“Tower of Freedom”).

The second image is the barracks with its own barbican and the Tour des Fanils (This sort of means “Stephanie’s Tower.” I think. It’s complicated*). In the northwest corner is the Tour Gabriel (“Gabriel’s Tower”), a huge artillery tower with a windmill and a ...

The Tarrasque - A Collaboration

So, a few months ago, I was asked to draw part of a map of that a bunch of other artists would be working on. The map was of the innards of a tarrasque and the idea was that each person would draw a different organ.

I was asked to do something different, though: draw a building piercing through the side of the creature. Why? Because *Ralph Wiggum voice* I'm special. I decided to go with a minaret, the pointiest building in all of architecture. 

Anyway, there's an adv...

Mont-Saint-Michel Work-In-Progress - The Gates and Barbican

Here's a couple of pages I (mostly) finished inking to give you an idea of what this thing was going to look like. These are the outer gates and barbican.

The outermost entrance, the "Porte de l'Avancée," is on the far left by the guardhouse. To its right is the "Porte du Boulevard." And finally, for those especially persistent assailants, there's the "Porte du Roi," or the "King's Gate." This is protected by a ten-foot ditch crossed by two drawbridges-- one for the main gate and one f...

The 16th Cartographic Congress Vote

This month's Cartographic Congress vote is upon us and, with one Greek and two Roman-themed proposals, this one's got no shortage of chest hair.

Since it's the holidays and some people may be away from the internet for a few days, I'll leave this vote open until the 29th or so. Have a good Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule/Festivus or any other holiday you celebrate that I may have missed. Saturnalia? Do people still celebrate that? I don't know. If you do, have a good one.

By the way, I'm ...

Mont-Saint-Michel - Work-In-Progress

Here's Mont-Saint-Michel so far. First, I want to talk about what's finished, then I'm going to talk about some of the unusual things I need to do to get this map done right.

So, this is the town at the base of the abbey. The exterior walls and doors are finished, along with other details around the area, like fences and stairs (which are EVERYWHERE). The only interi...

Mont-Saint-Michel - The Plan of Attack

So, I've gotten some work done on Mont-Saint-Michel. Let's talk about it.

I always knew drawing this map would be tough, but, after looking into it more seriously, I've come to realize that the logistics of drawing this place are insane.

Not that I'd let a thing like that stop me, mind you. I've never been the go-to guy for forest clearing battlemaps a...

Dear Patrons: This is the map you've been crowdfunding for the last year.

As it stands, the dwarven city of Brazenthrone has 497 buildings with 2,247 rooms across 6 different levels of elevation and has taken around 1,300 hours to draw and color. I hope you like it so far. I don't know if it's the largest hand-drawn fantasy map ever made, but I'd say it might be when it's finished.

There's still plenty more to do, like the Old Quarter, the mines and a number of residential areas, but this is the core of the map finished and none of the rest will take as long....

Brazenthrone: History and Lore, 3rd Edition

As promised, here's the 3rd edition of the lore. I added a summary of each of the different districts of the city and some of the more notable buildings, like the Freehammer Forge and the Amethyst Arcade. It's stuff that I felt like I should explain for people who don't have access to the DM notes. While I tremendously appreciate the 187 people who are funding the creation of Brazenthrone, I also want it to be usable by people who can't afford to be patrons and people who won't discover it un...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Overview

There she is. I'll do History and Lore next, then I'm stitching this whole monstrosity together. But first I'm gonna go play some D&D.

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Overview - VTT and Print Versions

There she is. I'll do History and Lore next, then I'm stitching this whole monstrosity together. But first I'm gonna go play some D&D.

Google Drive Link

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Fourth Level

This was going to be the last level, but a few people mentioned that they could use a version without any interiors, so I'm going to do an overview map with roofs on everything. It'll only take an hour or two and I'll have it up later tonight. From now on, I'm going to start making those for the remainder of Brazenthrone, as well as other maps when appropriate.

Oh, and I also promised a 3rd edition of Brazenthrone History and Lore. That'll be up later tonight or tomorrow. Okay, well, I'...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Fourth Level - Patrons' Edition

This was going to be the last level, but a few people mentioned that they could use a version without any interiors, so I'm going to do an overview map with roofs on everything. It'll only take an hour or two and I'll have it up later tonight. From now on, I'm going to start making those for the remainder of Brazenthrone, as well as other maps when appropriate.

Oh, and I also promised a 3rd edition of Brazenthrone History and Lore. That'll be up later tonight or tomorrow. Okay, well, I'...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Third Level

There will be one more floor to the Noble Quarter, which-- I'm not going to lie-- isn't going to be super exciting unless your favorite part of these is the roofs. But it'll only take a day or two and, afterwards, I'm finally going to put all of this together. All of Brazenthrone in one image. It'll be way too big to serve any practical purpose, but I really want to see what that looks like.

What about after that? Well, I promised that once the core parts of Brazenthrone were done, we'd...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Third Level - Patrons' Edition

There will be one more floor to the Noble Quarter, which-- I'm not going to lie-- isn't going to be super exciting unless your favorite part of these is the roofs. But it'll only take a day or two and, afterwards, I'm finally going to put all of this together. All of Brazenthrone in one image. It'll be way too big to serve any practical purpose, but I really want to see what that looks like.

What about after that? Well, I promised that once the core parts of Brazenthrone were done, we'd...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - DM Notes

As promised.

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Second Level

Here's the second floor of the Noble Quarter. I'd say there'll be two more, then that should be it. I'll be doing them next.

I don't have too much to add, but I wanted to mention one thing that specifically applies to non-patron VTT users: if you're using my maps on a VTT and you're not a patron, get them from my website, not here. When you upload an image to Patreon, it bloats it with a TON of metadata and that increase...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Second Level - Patrons' Edition

Here's the second floor of the Noble Quarter. I'd say there'll be two more, then that should be it. I'll be doing them next.

I've got the DM notes mostly written and I may actually finish those in the next day or so. I'll post those for you as soon as they're done. They talk about a catastrophic event in the city relating to the Black Sink (36 on the ground level map). I think it's pretty interesting.

Anyway, I'm gonna get back to it!

Google Drive 2019-12-01 02:55:57 +0000 UTC View Post

The Silent Vaults - A Prison for the Magically Adept

When a person of great magical power breaks the rules, you can't just throw them in the pokey with the cattle rustlers and meth dealers. Imprisoning someone with the ability to fly, teleport, and otherwise bend the rules of reality takes a place like the Silent Vaults.

Enclosed in an antimagic ward generated by a powerful device (in the dungeon, left side), the Vaults nullify the abilities of those contained within. The facility also has a guard barracks, warden's residence and a chapel...

The Silent Vaults - A Prison for the Magically Adept - Patrons' Edition

When a person of great magical power breaks the rules, you can't just throw them in the pokey with the cattle rustlers and meth dealers. Imprisoning someone with the ability to fly, teleport, and otherwise bend the rules of reality takes a place like the Silent Vaults.

Enclosed in an antimagic ward generated by a powerful device (in the dungeon, left side), the Vaults nullify the abilities of those contained within. The facility also has a guard barracks, warden's residence and a chapel...

WARNING: Heartfelt Message - May cause some individuals to feel feelings.

So, today is Thank You Patrons Day, presumably created because some people don't thank their patrons enough. If I'm honest, that probably includes me. But I really do appreciate everything you all do for me. This isn't my dream job, it's better. Had I known that drawing D&D maps for a living was a thing I could one day aspire to, I'd have dreamed about it, but that was hard to imagine until recently.

My previous job was making coffee at the airport. I had to start at 4am. And now I ...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Ground Level - Patrons' Edition

The clanhalls are the family estates of Brazenthrone's high clans. High clans are basically the nobility of the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains. You can read more about them here, if you're interested.

Clans are just extended families. Some clans only have a few...

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Ground Level

The clanhalls are the family estates of Brazenthrone's high clans. High clans are basically the nobility of the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains. You can read more about them here, if you're interested.

Clans are just extended families. Some clans only have a few...

Brazenthrone – The Noble Quarter – The Ink

There she is, ready for the scanner. Okay, back to work.

The Brazenthrone Codex

This is a collection of all the Brazenthrone Patrons' Edition annotated maps and DM notes. Someone recently asked if I had something like this and I didn't. And now I do. So here you go.

I'll update this periodically. It'll be it in the DM notes collection.

Brazenthrone - The Noble Quarter - Work-in-Progess

A million tiny little lines later, the ground level of the Noble Quarter is finally all penciled and ready for ink.

Also, I played on Roll20 for the first time the other day. It was also my first time being a player in a while. I killed a gigantic pumpkin with an axe. It was pretty great.

All right, back to work.

Saint's Rock - A fortified cathedral inspired by Ireland's Rock of Cashel

This is the Rock of Cashel, the inspiration for Saint's Rock. Before it was a cathedral, it was the castle of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland. Fun fact: Brian Boru is the reason there's a harp on your Guinness can. He's also the reason that there are pictures of harps all over everything in Ireland despite the fact that no one plays it or has any interest ...

Saint's Rock - Patrons' Edition

This is the Rock of Cashel, the inspiration for Saint's Rock. Before it was a cathedral, it was the castle of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland. Fun fact: Brian Boru is the reason there's a harp on your Guinness can. He's also the reason that there are pictures of harps all over everything in Ireland despite the fact that no one plays it or has any interest ...

The 14th Cartographic Congress Vote Runoff

Two of the proposals for this month's Cartographic Congress vote have pulled well ahead of the others: Senator Adrian's shipyard and dry dock and Senator Carl's prison. These two ideas will now face off in a gruesome and barbaric battle to the death. To recap:

Senator Adrian proposes a shipyard and dry dock where both large and small ships could be built and repaired.

Senator Carl proposes a prison, similar to Azkaban.

This vote will remain open for three days.

How to Print 1-Inch Grid Maps

I've had a few questions lately about how to print the 1-inch grid versions of my maps, so I thought I'd explain the two main ways to do it:

1)Take it to a print or copy shop and let them deal with it. This does cost money, but they can probably print it on a single sheet and they almost certainly have a better printer than you.

2)Print the map from a .PDF file using page tiling. This allows you to print a single image across multiple pages. The .PDF versions of all maps can be fo...