I will send you instantaneous telegrams.

While I’m not generally a big fan of social media, I am a big fan of getting more feedback on my work, so I recently made an Instagram account.

I probably would’ve done this sooner, but I don’t actually own a smartphone. Yes, I know, I am the world’s youngest 90-year-old man. Still, if you want to see fantasy maps posted from a phone emulator on a desktop by a person who began using Instagram in late 2021, go ahead and follow me.

Also, I have one question for people who didn’t start using Instagram yesterday: is it okay to post pictures sideways, or do people hate that? Some maps only fit that way, but if it’s considered obnoxious, I’ll stop.

Okay, I’m gonna go color the thing in the picture.

A Message for Streamers. Also, I’m drawing this.

If you stream your game, YOU HEREBY HAVE MY PERMISSION to use my maps in your streams. I’d have said this earlier, but I wasn’t aware until recently that a lot of people think it’s illegal or unethical to do so without permission. In any case, I want to make sure any streamers out there know where I stand on it.

This does not come with conditions. You can use my maps whether you are making money from your stream or not. You can use them whether you are a small streamer, a large streamer, or literally Matt Mercer. You do not have to be a patron, nor do you have to interrupt your game to say, “This map has been brought to you by Milby’s Maps,” or anything like that. Just use them and have fun. I’m good with it.

Okay, so the picture above is a place in the Netherlands called Fort Bourtange. It was built by Willem van Oranje during the Eighty Years’ War, in which the Low Countries fought for their independence from the Spanish Empire. I’ve been thinking about drawing a map of this place for at least a year or two, but I recently decided to make it the next historical map. I’m not sure when I’ll get started, but I’m hoping to find time for it by the end of the year.

Anyway, that’s about it. I’m gonna get back to drawing the pirate fortress. If you’ve got any thoughts on any of this, let me know!

Photo Credit: Dack9, Wikipedia

The Lore of The Architects of the Awakening

The Architects of the Awakening are a duergar cult who were the villains of my previous campaign. They’re also the subject of the next Black Loch map and they have a fairly complex story. My group broke up before I got the chance to tell it all, so I’m going to write it out here in case any of you find them interesting enough to use in your own game.

For a TL;DR, check the end of the last post.

First, we need to talk a bit about duergar history. The duergar were a clan of dwarves who were enslaved by mind flayers for several thousand years.  They eventually rose up against their masters and won their freedom, but their hatred for the illithids never faded.

Some time later, a duergar queen named Duerra launched a war on an illithid city, capturing the residents and performing experiments on them to discover the secrets of their mental powers. She is said to have found the source of their psionic essence and to have infused it into her own people. This tale is more legend than history, but, for the purposes of this story, it is the truth.

It is indisputably true that the duergar possess more of a talent for psionics than most races, but, despite having the psionic essence of the illithids within them, their powers are nowhere near those of their former masters. The question of why this might be is one that the duergar have never really asked. But, about 100 years ago, a priestess named Astali, a follower of Deep Duerra– the aforementioned queen who later became a goddess– started asking it. And she was determined to find an answer.

Continue reading “The Lore of The Architects of the Awakening”

Two New Projects

For the Community

For as long as I’ve been posting my maps online, I’ve tried to support the RPG community as much as I can. Not just my patrons, but those who can’t afford to support my work. Younger DMs, broke college students and so forth.  Anyway, I’ve decided to do a little more by making a gift for the community.

Over the last year, I drew about 300 tokens (preview/download). Mostly, I made them for my own game, but I posted them here for anyone else who wanted them. I want to expand that set of tokens to cover everything in the Monster Manual. And I want to give it away for free, as a gift from me and from the patrons who enabled me to make it.

The plan is to do this over time, spending a day or two each month drawing tokens so they don’t get in the way of the maps. I’m not sure how long it’ll take, but the tokens I’ve already drawn cover about 25% of the book, so I’d say I have around 200 or so to go.

Once that’s done, I’ll draw some more tokens for patrons, covering everything in either Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes or Volo’s Guide to Monsters. There’ll probably be a vote to decide which when the time comes. I know some of you play RPGs other than D&D, but, with several hundred tokens, I’d say you’ll find something close enough to the monsters you’re looking for.

A New Historical Map

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a big historical map and I’ve got plans for a new one: the Chateau de Chenonceau. It’s a French castle and it is glorious. Yeah, they just built it across a river. Because why not.

This place has everything I’m looking for in a historical map: it looks amazing, it’s got a unique character, the interior is interesting and– most importantly– there are good floor plans available. I’ll start working on this sometime next month, after I’m done with the map I’m drawing now and the one after that.

Next Up

Speaking of which, I’m currently drawing a deep gnome settlement for the Black Loch. It’s basically a deep, narrow pit in the ground with a spiraling staircase leading down into it. The homes are dug into the sides and there’s a mine at the bottom. I decided to make it abandoned because, honestly, it’d be such an interesting dungeon that I almost think it’d be wasted as a town.

After that, I’ll be drawing the Cobalt Flotilla, which is a floating community made up of a bunch of ships lashed together, forming a sort of island. Your players will love setting it on fire, I’m sure.

Anyway, that’s everything. If anyone’s got any questions or comments about any of this, let me know!

The free Foundry and EncounterPlus modules have been updated!

So, I sent my module to Foundry recently to put on their site and they asked me to tidy up the walls and doors a bit, which I’ve been doing over the past week or two.

Foundry’s elite module beautification consultant, Cobalt, was nice enough to help out and give me some tips on walls and lighting and so forth, which has improved the module considerably. There are no new maps in there, but a few of them are higher-resolution than they were before and the walls and doors are much nicer. I even redid a few from scratch.

All these changes have carried over to the EncounterPlus module as well, since it is, after all, the Foundry module’s offspring.

As always, I need to give credit to the other people who helped in creating the free module:

  • Luke B. did the original walls and doors for almost all of the maps.
  • Cobalt gave me a tremendous amount of very helpful feedback and did some tinkering with the database files that would have resulted in the module’s complete incineration if I had attempted it myself.
  • And Matt C. gave me tons of feedback on the E+ module, which was crucial in working the bugs out, since EncounterPlus only runs on MacOS and I am not legally cool enough to own an Apple product.

THE GOODS:

You can install the Foundry Module with this manifest URL and you can download the EncounterPlus module here.

NOTE: If you already have the free Foundry module, you should know that the name has changed and, if you update it, it will install a new module called “Milby’s Maps Free.” You can delete the previous one, called “Milby’s Maps Free Module” if you want. Or keep it for sentimental value, whatever.

 

The Deepspire (Work-In-Progress)

So, this is the basic design I’ve settled on for the Deepspire. There’s a long walkway that spirals around the column of rock, with homes, stores, temples and so forth leading off from it, carved deeper into the stone.

Underneath it all is the harbor, where ships can come to trade. Keep in mind that ships in the Underdark aren’t going to have sails or masts, so they shouldn’t have a problem getting in and out of there.

Next to the harbor entrance is a defensive tower. Then, carved into a separate rock formation at the top, is the citadel. I’ve got some basic ideas worked out about how the place will be organized, but nothing concrete. All of this is still subject to change.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a look at what I’m working on. I’ve gotten some work done on the layout of the harbor, which will be the first part I draw. From there, I’ll work my way up to the top, one tier at a time.

I’ll write some lore for this as well, although I haven’t thought too much about it yet. I’m thinking this might be a mullti-race settlement. That’s pretty unusual in the Underdark, but that’s also why I like the idea. And there won’t be too much reason it couldn’t be used as a drow, duergar or other species’ settlement if you prefer.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work. I’ll keep you updated. I think this is going to be really cool. Let me know what you think!

The dynamic lighting for Brazenthrone is finished.

With the rest of Brazenthrone taken care of, patrons using Roll20, Foundry or EncounterPlus will never have to draw wall segments for any part of the city ever again. And neither will I. THANK GOD.

Anyway, I’m going to start sketching out the next map. Here’s where to get the dynamic lighting stuff:

Roll20

Non-patrons can download the wall commands (which draw in the walls and doors using the UniversalVTTImporter script) from here. They’re in the ZIP file. Instructions are included.

Patrons can download all the commands from the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the Roll20 Wall Commands folder.

Foundry

The public Brazenthrone module can be downloaded with this manifest URL.

The link for the patrons’ module can be found in the Table of Contents (pinned as the top post on my patreon page, visible to patrons only). If you already have the patrons’ module, you can just update it.

EncounterPlus

Download the public Brazenthrone module here.

The patrons’ Brazenthrone module is in the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the EncounterPlus Modules folder.

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 the ones I did earlier, will complete the public module. There’s now a patrons’ module as well, with the following lighting-ready maps:

  • Delvers’ Rest
  • The Grand Temple
  • The Iron Mines
  • The Old Mines
  • The Mushroom Farms
  • The Pits of Justice
  • The Underdark Trading Outpost

I think I can probably finish this up in one more session. Most of what’s left is small chambers and I don’t think they’ll be much trouble. Anyway, here’s where to download everything:

Roll20

Non-patrons can download the wall commands (which draw in the walls using the UniversalVTTImporter script) from here. They’re in the ZIP file. Instructions are included.

Patrons can download all the commands from the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the Roll20 Wall Commands folder.

Foundry

The public Brazenthrone module can be downloaded with this manifest URL.

The link for the patrons’ module can be found in the Table of Contents (pinned as the top post on my patreon page, visible to patrons only).

EncounterPlus

Download the public Brazenthrone module here.

The patrons’ Brazenthrone module is in the patron content drive. Open the VTT folder, then the EncounterPlus Modules folder.

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
  • Inner Gates
  • Surface Trading Outpost

For Roll20, these come in the form of wall commands for UniversalVTTImporter. You can download the commands here (in the file called “The Dwarven City of Brazenthrone VTT”). Instructions for using them are in there too. Use the special maps that are included.

For Foundry, there’s a new module you can install with this manifest URL. And for EncounterPlus, there’s a new module you can download here.

The version of the Great Hall in the Foundry module was done by Josh H., who did the most absolutely perfect wall lines I have ever seen in a VTT map. Seriously, they are a sight to behold. I’m actually worried he’s going to look at the ones I did and go, “Look at this scrub with his crappy peasant walls.” Hopefully they’ll meet his standards.

So, all this is in the free public Brazenthrone module. I’m planning to put the rest of the Noble Quarter in there, as well as the Old Quarter, then the rest of the city will go in a patrons’ module. That feels pretty reasonable to me. The free stuff gets you up to the gates, into the Great Hall and gives you a tour of the major districts, which are the places you’d least want to mark the walls for.

As I said before, I’m going to spend a day on this between maps, so I’ll get back on it once the next map is finished. Well, I’m gonna get some drawing done. If there’s anything wrong with any of this stuff, leave a comment and I’ll take care of it!

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: first, it makes both walls and doors. Second, it works with Dungeondraft, so I can make proper walls for you instead of the janky ones with all the dots.

As a guy who draws his own maps by hand on paper, I didn’t expect that I’d ever have a need for Dungeondraft, but I guess I was wrong. Anyway, the wall commands you need are with the VTT files for the oasis map (in the “Newest Patron Content” folder). There are also instructions on how to use them. Follow my instructions, not the ones in the link above. I did some of that stuff for you.

Foundry

I finally got around to cleaning up the public Foundry module and, uh… that thing really had some problems, huh? Sorry about that, but they’re all taken care of. The grids all line up, the walls are all aligned properly and I took care of a bunch of other little things that I noticed.

Mostly, the problem was that I didn’t make some of my older maps with VTTs in mind and it caused issues. I won’t bore you with the details. I did take a few maps out because they would be an enormous pain to get their grids aligned, but these were almost all from my early black and white days. In other words, they were crap. I made the effort for anything good, like Finbarr’s Marsh and Neuschwanstein. Still, if anyone was planning a massive, five-year campaign around Burdock’s Trading Post, I do apologize.

Here’s the manifest URL for the public module. You’ll have to uninstall the old one and install this, but in the future, I’ll make them updateable. For patrons, the Wahat Al-Hasan Oasis is now in the patrons’ module. The manifest URL is in the Table of Contents.

EncounterPlus

The best news is for you. I’ve converted both of the Foundry modules into EncounterPlus modules. This took some work, since the converter is very particular about everything being a certain way. Missing image file? Something out of place? Oh hell no! Call the whole thing off, ABORT, ABORT! I ran the converter, got an error message, fixed the problem, ran it again, got another error, fixed that problem and, after doing this about seven million times, I finally present to you: the public EncounterPlus module.

Everything in the public Foundry module is in here. 66 maps, ~275 tokens and a few dozen journal files. There’s also a patrons’ module, which is in the patron content drive, in a folder in the VTT section.

One word of warning: I haven’t tested that the public module works yet. I don’t have a Mac and I can’t run E+, but the patrons’ module has been tested and it should be fine. Also, I need to thank Matt C. for helping me with this. It would not exist without him. If the public module is confirmed as working, I’m going to send it to the E+ devs to give out to anyone who wants it.

Brazenthrone

The following is something I’m really going to regret saying later. Still, here goes:

I’ve been thinking about doing the walls and doors for Brazenthrone lately and I’m feeling like it’s hard to justify not doing it. It’s an insane task, but, I mean, it’s tens of hours of work for me that saves other people a combined total of hundreds, maybe thousands of hours. That’s the thing I keep coming back to. So… I’m going to do it. God, that was really hard to type.

The thing is, I need to do this in a way that enables me to not go completely nuts. So, the plan is to do it a bit at a time. I’m thinking I’ll spend one day on it between maps. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but– like Brazenthrone itself– it’ll get done eventually.

I’ll release it in the form of Universal VTT Importer commands for Roll20 and modules for Foundry and EncounterPlus. I’ll do FantasyGrounds if I can find a converter, but I haven’t seen one yet. Most of it will probably be for patrons, but I’ll make some of the really crazy stuff– like the Great Hall– public. No one should have to draw the walls for that monstrosity. Well, except me.

Anyway, I’ll spend a day on this after I get done with the next map. We’ll see how it goes.