milbysmaps

The Great Vote - Small Category Runoff

The first of the five votes has ended and Old Madeleine's Inn and Fighting Pit is a clear winner. However, the second winner is unclear, with the Traveling Inn and Floating Market tied for second place. This vote will determine which of those two maps will be drawn. You know the rules:

TWO MAPS ENTER, ONE MAP LEAVES.

1. Traveling Inn – An inn that floats up and down a river or coast. Sort of like a b...
   2019-06-02 21:48:29 +0000 UTC View Post

Delvers' Rest - Brazenthrone's Waystation on the Underdark Stairway

I'm giving out the DM notes for this map to everyone because I think they're pretty good and I want to share them. I didn't think I'd have too much to say about Delvers' Rest at first, but then it occurred to me that this would probably be the foulest-smelling place in the city. I won't explain the reaso...

Delvers' Rest - Brazenthrone's Waystation on the Underdark Stairway - Patrons' Edition

Take a look at the DM notes for this map, I think they're pretty interesting. I didn't think I'd have too much to say about Delvers' Rest at first, but then it occurred to me that this would probably be the foulest-smelling place in the city. I won't explain the reason here, it's in the notes if you're c...

The Great Vote - Small Category

This is the first of five votes. The top TWO maps chosen will be drawn. You can vote for any number of maps. If there are no clear winners, there will be a runoff.  The voting will remain open until Sunday, unless I forget to close it on Sunday, in which case it'll be open longer. Anyway, here are the choices:

1. Traveling Inn – An inn that floats up and down a river or coast. Sort of like a big house...
   2019-05-29 15:33:46 +0000 UTC View Post

The Discovery at the Thorn Hills Iron Mine

This is last month's Cartographic Congress winner, based on the idea proposed by Senator Wulfric. It's also the first map I've made with people in it. Dead people, sure, but still. By the way, if you don't want dead bodies in your iron mine, there's a corpse-free version here. 

This map has a...

The Discovery at the Thorn Hills Iron Mine - Patrons' Edition

This is last month's Cartographic Congress winner, based on the idea proposed by Senator Wulfric. It's also the first map I've made with people in it. Dead people, sure, but still. By the way, if you don't want dead bodies in your iron mine, there's a corpse-free version as well. 

This map has a built-in story, but is left open-ended. Some miners were hitting a rock with a thing, the rock broke and they found a cavern with...

Brazenthrone History and Lore - Second Edition

Here's the second edition of Brazenthrone History and Lore. New entries are marked with a red dot. The main things added are about the origin of the city and the unusual system of nobility in the kingdom.

Patreon won't display it at full size, so if you can't read it, just click here.

The Great Vote: The Candidates

Here's the list of map ideas that I mentioned in the last post. As I said, all patrons will be able to vote. I'll probably start the first vote in a week to ten days from now. Read it  
over. For the next few months, I'll still be at the helm, but you're charting the course. Tell me where you want to go.

Anyway, here are the ...

Announcement: The goal has been reached!

First, thanks to all my patrons for your support!  I didn't want to say anything about this before, but this goal was the point where my rent, bills and food are all covered and I'm able to pay all my expenses without drawing from my savings. That is a really big deal and I can't thank you enough. I now officially make a living drawing D&D maps. I wish I could go back in time and tell 15-year-old me about this. He would frea...

The Border Bridge

My idea here was that this bridge is the border crossing between two (probably not super-friendly) countries, but it could also be used as a toll bridge or a fortress entrance. Of course, tell whatever story with it you like, but, personally, I think you should arrange a scenario where your players get to throw people over the side. Your barbarian will love you for it.

Also, the tower on the right really looks like something fr...

The Border Bridge - Patrons' Edition and DM Notes

My idea here was that this bridge is the border crossing between two (probably not super-friendly) countries, but it could also be used as a toll bridge or a fortress entrance. Of course, tell whatever story with it you like, but, personally, I think you should arrange a scenario where your players get to throw people over the side. Your barbarian will love you for it.

Also, the tower on the right really looks like something fr...

The High King’s Palace - Complete

EDIT: You can't view this image properly on patreon. Check it out on the website.

Well, there it is. A little later than I'd hoped, but with my computer degenerating into a mass of dysfunctional electronics that necessitated several full hard drive wipes, I suppose that's to be expected. You know what's funny? I wiped my...

The High King’s Palace - Patrons' Edition

Well, there it is. A little later than I'd hoped, but with my computer degenerating into a mass of dysfunctional electronics that necessitated several full hard drive wipes, I suppose that's to be expected. You know what's funny? I wiped my SSD several times over and you know what's still there? Two things: Europa Universalis 4 and Stellaris. Apparently Paradox Interactive makes some highly resilient software.

Anyway, I need to...

Sorry for not posting, Windows tried to brick my computer.

So, about a week ago, Windows found a problem with my PC. I didn't notice anything wrong, but Windows decided there was a problem anyway and offered to help. Click here to fix it. Sure, why not. One reboot later and my computer is a toaster with a keyboard. Thanks, Windows. Thanks for helping. 

So between then and about an hour ago, I've been going insane trying to get this thing back up and running. System restor...

The High King’s Palace – Second Level - Featuring the Actual Brazen Throne

If you look at the top-center of this map, you'll notice a large chair. That is the city's titular Brazen Throne. It's a large, tarnished hunk of brass that has been the Brasshand clan's royal seat for several thousand years. In case you're unaware, a lesser-used meaning of the word 'brazen' is "made of brass." It didn't get its name for being cheeky.

I'll release the rest of the palace next, including the High King's treasure ...

The High King’s Palace – Second Level - Patrons' Edition

If you look at the top-center of this map, you'll notice a large chair. That is the city's titular Brazen Throne. It's a large, tarnished hunk of brass that has been the Brasshand clan's royal seat for several thousand years. In case you're unaware, a lesser-used meaning of the word 'brazen' is "made of brass." It didn't get its name for being cheeky.

I'll release the rest of the palace next, including the High King's treas...

Brazenthrone - The High King's Palace - Ground Level

This is the first of four floors of the High King's palace. This took a while longer than usual because I laid out all four levels before finishing this one. But with that out of the way, the next three should come pretty quickly. Look for the second floor in around three or four days.

Well, like (I suspect) a lot of you, I recently got off the emotional rollercoaster that was the last episode of Game of Thrones, and... I reall...

Brazenthrone - The High King's Palace - Ground Level - Patrons' Edition

This is the first of four floors of the High King's palace. This took a while longer than usual because I laid out all four levels before finishing this one. But with that out of the way, the next three should come pretty quickly. Look for the second floor in around three or four days.

Well, like (I suspect) a lot of you, I recently got off the emotional rollercoaster that was the last episode of Game of Thrones, and... I reall...

Whitebarrow Manor

This is the map chosen by last month's Cartographic Congress, based on the proposal by Senator Ross. It's designed to be a haunted house with a number of secret chambers, although I can imagine a few other uses for it. The largest of the secret rooms in the cellar were left unfurnished to make the map more flexible, allowing different DMs to imagine different dark secrets in the cellar.

Next up is 2019-04-20 08:26:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Whitebarrow Manor - Patrons' Edition

This is the map chosen by last month's Cartographic Congress, based on the proposal by Senator Ross. It's designed to be a haunted house with a number of secret chambers, although I can imagine a few other uses for it. The largest of the secret rooms in the cellar were left unfurnished to make the map more flexible, allowing different DMs to imagine different dark secrets in the cellar.

If you'd prefer not to advertise the secr...

Brazenthrone - The Hall of the Long Banner

Here's the first of Brazenthrone's several residential districts. I know these residential districts aren't really the sexiest parts of the city, but I'm going to try and keep them interesting.

Next up is last month's Cartographic Congress winner, then back to Brazenthrone for the High King's Palace, which I intend to run absolutely buckwild wit...

Brazenthrone - The Hall of the Long Banner - DM Notes, Print and VTT

Here's the first of Brazenthrone's several residential districts. Since it's all homes, there isn't an annotated version, but there's more information on it in the DM notes.

I know these residential districts aren't really the sexiest parts of the city, but I'm going to try and keep them interesting.

Next up is last month's Cartographic Congre...

This is for the Fantasy Grounds users.

So, here's the thing: I can't do gridless maps. I mean, I can, but it'd take forever to erase the grids and I don't think my maps would look good without them anyway, since I incorporate the floor texture into them.

If you hate grids period, I can't really help you. But if you just hate trying to get them aligned? That I can help with. I've been making maps custom-sized for Roll20's grid for a while now, but someone recently he...

Many Thanks! And also, Mont-Saint-Michel

Yesterday was a big day. The good people of reddit took quite a liking to Neuschwanstein and I just wanted to thank all my patrons, new and old, and anyone else who can't afford to support me, but has given me an upvote or shared my maps with a friend.

When I started this, I decided to try and make the kinds of maps I'd never seen before and that nobody else makes. I wanted to do big, ambitious stuff and I hoped that there were...

Neuschwanstein Castle

Here’s an alternate version with the tiles angled to follow the walls in the keep.

I was going to explain all the things that aren't accurate about this map, but it'd take forever and it doesn't matter anyway, so let me just give you the short version:

• Only the bottom and upper two floor...
  2019-04-10 05:58:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Neuschwanstein Castle - Patrons' Edition

I was going to explain all the things that aren't accurate about this map, but it'd take forever and it doesn't matter anyway, so let me just give you the short version:

• Only the bottom and upper two floors of the keep were finished and the unfinished floors currently contain a gift shop and a cafeteria. Since I thought that might spoil the mood a bit, I took some liberties and drew in what was intended to be there: serva...
  2019-04-10 05:58:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Work In Progress: I bit off more than I thought and I'm chewing as fast as I can.

I seriously thought this whole thing would take a week. All of it. I was very, very wrong about that and I've come to realize the scale of this project more and more as I've been working on it. I do like the Neuschwanstein maps so far, but I'm not sure I'd have signed up for them if I'd known they'd take this long.

The picture above is what's left to do. Most of the pencils are done and I've got a lot of it inked. I ex...

Neuschwanstein Castle - First and Second Levels

This is the first map I've ever made of a real place. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was known as "the Mad King." He was born in the 1800s and was really into Middle Ages architecture, so he had this built as a sort of idealized fantasy castle. I'll be honest, I can relate to this guy. Except I'm not the king of Bavaria and I c...

Neuschwanstein Castle - First and Second Levels - Patrons' Edition

There's something new in the print versions this time: a version with white backgrounds. I like the background colors on the maps, but it recently occurred to me that they might be draining peoples' toner pretty hard, so I thought I'd put out versions with just the map floors. I'm sure this isn't life-changing for anyone, but I thought I'd mention it.

This is the first map I've ever made of 2019-03-29 15:51:31 +0000 UTC View Post

The 7th Cartographic Congress Results

This month, the Cartographic Congress chose Senator Ross' proposal of a large, haunted mansion full of secret passages. It narrowly beat Senator John's proposal of a stone bridge with a guard station. So, congratulations to Senator Ross!

Senator John, I'll be drawing your map, too. I like the idea, I think it will be useful to people and I feel like I can do something interesting with it.

So, everyone wins! Or maybe only ...