Author: MattMilby

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Mont-Saint-Michel – Ground Level

 

Here’s the annotated version and the DM notes.

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 attached to this post on the patreon. If you play on a VTT, you’ll need those. They’re individual sections of the map so you don’t have to try to get Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds to try to choke down the whole island at once. There are more VTT options for patrons, but I want everyone to be able to use this and those files are necessary for that. I care about those of you who aren’t giving me money too, you know.

Third, the DM notes are only half-finished. I wanted to get this posted and I’m not letting a little thing like incomplete DM notes stop me.

Finally, there’s going to be an elevation guide and some other VTT options to come, but those will require multiple floors to be finished, so they’ll come at the end.

Anyway, what do you all think? If you’ve got any questions, just ask. I may not know the answer, but I’ve been living and breathing this place for the last few months, so it’s worth a shot to ask.

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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*

All right, I’m gonna grab some more coffee and get started on coloring this thing. My next post will the the finished first level!

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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 hole? I don’t know.

The leftmost tower has the windmill I mentioned before. I can’t show you a photo because it’s not there anymore, but some old French books assure me it used to be there. Well, Google Translate assures me that some old French books say it was, anyway.

The last and uppermost level (the roofs) are all drawn and I should be able to assemble them tomorrow. And then I spend the next week coloring away like a preschooler. I’ll be back with the roofs. Until then!
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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 hour or two of work. Rocks are easy to draw. After that, I’ll scan it all, assemble the third level of the town and the roofs, place the trees, rocks and coastline and it’ll be ready for color.

I’m sure you all have varying opinions about this project. Some of you are excited for it and others not as much, but thank you all for bearing with me. I really didn’t expect that it would take as long as it has, but I promised to draw it and honoring my commitments to you all is the most important thing for me.

I’ll also promise you that, from now on, I’ll look more carefully before I leap. While I’m glad to have drawn Mont-St-Michel, I wouldn’t normally take on a sprawling megaproject while I’m still working on another one (Brazenthrone). For those of you waiting for more of the dwarven city, I apologize and I’m going to get back to it as soon as I can. Hopefully you’ve got enough to work with until then.

All right, I’m going to go draw these rocks and get this stuff in the scanner.

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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 the town hall, which is actually right over the main gatehouse. I can only assume it was built there so that, in the event of an artillery barrage, the politicians are the first to die. And there’s a windmill on top of the island’s leftmost tower. It’s the small tower in the center here. The windmill blades are gone now, but I’ll draw them back in on the map.

One other thing I wanted to address was how this map would work with VTTs. An entire level of the island is going to be way too big and probably not very practical (at regular size, anyway). A patron suggested that I divide it up into blocks of buildings and include every level of that block in one map. This keeps the image sizes reasonable and allows players to go between floors without having to load a new map.

I’ll make full maps of each level for VTT at various sizes as well, for use as overview maps or for people who don’t mind lowering their grid size to 35px. I think VTT DMs are going to have a lot of different preferences about the size and scope of the maps they want for Mont-St-Michel, so I’m going to make sure there are as many options as possible as far as what you want in the map and how big or small you want it to be.

Okay, I’m going to get started on the third level. I’m hoping to get all of it and the roof level done by the end of the month. I’d better stop typing and start drawing then.

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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!

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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 this place real? Everything about it is straight out of a fantasy novel. There’s a place called the Inn of the Mermaid down the street, too. And both of those date back hundreds of years.

God I love it.