Author: MattMilby

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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 people out there who liked it and were willing to help me keep making it. As it turns out, there are. So, thank you to all of you. It really is a big deal to me.

Also, before I go, I should let you know that some people on reddit talked me into doing a map of Mont-Saint-Michel. It won’t be in the next month or two, but it’ll happen at some point. Just thought you should know.

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Neuschwanstein Castle

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 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: servants’ quarters, guest rooms and a “Moorish hall.”
  • The cellar is in the right place, but I couldn’t find a floor plan, so I made some stuff up. I was tempted to draw a dungeon, but there is no way there’s a dungeon in there.
  • Nothing about this map conveys the ludicrous degree of splendor in the finished parts of this castle. It really is jaw-dropping. Have a look.

Anyway, I hope you like it. There’s an annotated version of this map with 83 rooms numbered and labeled, as well as all the usual stuff, available to patrons.

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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 expect it to take another four, maybe five days. For those of you looking forward to Brazenthrone, I’ll balance this out by drawing all of the High King’s palace at once.

Here’s what the next few maps will be: the Hall of the Long Banner (Brazenthrone), the Cartographic Congress map (a haunted mansion with secret passages), then the High King’s Palace. Sound good? Alright, I’m gonna get back to work. Despite my repeated requests, this thing steadfastly refuses to draw itself.

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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 can’t afford to build these things for real.

My understanding is that most of the rooms of this place are empty and I wasn’t able to find information on what a lot of them were actually meant to be, but since most people won’t be using this map as Actual Neuschwanstein Castle, I figured I’d come up things to fill them with.

Also, the cellar is completely made-up. There is a door there, which is visible in photos and the place does have a cellar, but I wasn’t able to find any information or floor plans to indicate what it looks like, so I just made it up. Everything else is drawn from various floor plans I found.

I’ll draw the rest of it next, but I thought I’d drop this off for now.

An annotated version of this map is available to patrons.

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Two Things: Reddit, and the Abysmal Floor Plans of Neuschwanstein Castle

I just want to say two things. First, some of you may not know this, but I recently posted the Great Hall on reddit and it was a pretty big hit. It’s actually the top post of all time on /r/battlemaps. I feel like I won an Oscar. Except I don’t care about the Oscars and I do care about the opinions of the people on /r/battlemaps.

So, anyway, I just wanted to thank all my patrons, new and old, for helping me make it. I know I don’t say that enough and I should, but I want you to know that Brazenthrone seriously would not exist without you.

The second thing is about the map of Neuschwanstein Castle I’m working on. I knew this would be a fairly big map, but I figured it’d go quicker than usual since I was drawing it straight from the floor plans and I could save time on designing the layout. Then I started looking more closely at the floor plans and OH MY GOD.

The different floor plans out there disagree. With each other and with actual photos of the castle. One has a staircase starting and ending on the same floor. None of them show the cellar. There’s more, but… the point is, it’s not going to be as quick as I thought, so I’m going to break it up into two parts. The first will be the first and second levels, which include the courtyard. Then I’ll draw the upper 3 floors. If I go hell-for-leather, I think I can finish the first part in around 3 days.

Alright, it’s 11:40 PM. I’m gonna hop off here, finish this coffee and lay down some ink.

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The Great Hall of Brazenthrone – The Promontories

Here’s the final floor of the Great Hall, the Promontories. This is the area where the city’s wealthy commoner families live.

Here’s the non-annotated version. There’s also DM notes and a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms marked and labeled available on the patreon.

Last time, I said I’d be doing a map of something historical, based on the floor plans. If you guessed Neuschwanstein Castle, you are damn right it is.

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Millers’ Bluff

This is the map selected by the Cartographic Congress last month: a large millers’ homestead with three watermills, a granary, workers’ cottages and a nearby inn. Feel free to attack it with the greenskins of your choice. Or whatever other purpose strikes you. What would I do with this map? I’m not sure, but I can tell you there would be a fight on that little island with the firepit, no question about that.

I have a slightly different version of the map here. The brightness is toned down just a bit. I couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so I just made both. If you play Ravenloft or you’re just super goth, that might be the one you want. It’s honestly not that different.

You know, it’s funny. When I started making maps, I told myself, “Waterfalls are cool and all, but I’m not going to overdo it. I’ll use waterfalls sparingly. I’m not gonna go crazy with it.” Now, here I am, six months and 48 maps later, drawing my first waterfalls. Well, that’s not entirely true, but they’re the first waterfalls bigger than half a centimeter.

Next up is The Promontories, the final floor of the Great Hall of Brazenthrone. Then, I’m going to draw something historical, based on some floor plans I found. I’m not going to tell you what, but I think it’s the coolest building in the world. Feel free to guess in the comments. I’ll tell you if you’re right.

An annotated version of this map and DM notes are available to supporters on the patreon.

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The Great Hall of Brazenthrone – Fourth Level

I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes thinking about what to say here. Finally, I decided that I don’t really need to have anything to say about it. It’s the fourth floor. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot there. And you know what? The next floor is going to be even more boring. Nothing but roofs. But the floor after that will be pretty cool, so let’s take our medicine and wait for it to get good again.

The fifth floor will be up in two days. After that, the map chosen by the Cartographic Congress: a watermill homestead by the river. I don’t know exactly how long that’ll take, since I have some fairly grand plans for it and I do historically tend to go overboard on the Cartographic Congress maps.

Anyway, here’s the non-annotated version. And, as usual, there’s also a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms of the numbered buildings marked and labeled available on Das Patreon. There will be DM notes, too, once the Great Hall is finished.

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The Ranger Outpost

Here’s an alternative to the typical ranger’s cabin. The rangers living here can look out over the forest like Medieval Hippie Batman and protect the land from orcs, monsters and illegal dumping.

Next up are the fourth and fifth levels of Brazenthrone. It’ll be quicker to do them both at the same time, since only three buildings have a fourth level and the fifth is just roofs. There will be a sixth level as well– the Promontories– but that’ll be more complicated, so I won’t include it this week.

There are DM notes and an annotated version of this map available to supporters on the patreon.