Here’s a sketch of the 13-story tower I’ve been working on. I wasn’t originally planning to draw something completely insane here, but then I came up with this design and now I am. Anyway, what do you think?
Also, just a heads-up: this map and the next map are both going to have windmills. Things are going to get pretty Dutch around here for a little while, I hope everyone’s prepared for that.
Here’s the unfurnished version.
This is that “not-in-a-cave” version of the map I promised. Not too much else to say about it, really.
Well, I’d better get to work on that floating wizards’ tower. Hopefully I’ll be able to get started on Fort Bourtange by the beginning of the month, but we’ll see.
Here’s the unfurnished version.
Hey look, I drew a reasonable-sized map! 34×55! I knew I could do it! Don’t get used to it, though, the next two maps I’m drawing are a 13-floor tower and this.
Delaro’s Manse is a part of the Black Loch, marked on the map as “Secluded Manse.” Delaro Montalos is one of the few humans living in the underdark sea. He’s a wizard who came to the loch to conduct research into an extradimensional gateway he created.
Normally, in a D&D setting, the term “extradimensional” refers to planar travel, but that’s not the case here. Delaro isn’t going to the inner planes, the outer planes, or anywhere else described in Planescape. He’s going outside of that, to another multiverse altogether.
I imagine this place as a completely different reality with laws of physics that bear no resemblance to our own, but I think there are a few other ways to play it. The most interesting, to me, is having Delaro’s gateway lead to our world, at some interesting point in time. You could drop your party into the middle of the Second World War, or the French Revolution, or the Wild West. You could have your party appear in a city under siege by the Mongol horde, or in the capital of the Incan Empire as the conquistadores are about to arrive. Hell, you could drop your party into the middle of modern day Tokyo. There are tons of possibilities if you want to go that route.
I feel like a lot of people are going to want to use this map for things other than the Black Loch, so I’m going to make an alternate version, which I think I can get done tonight. I’m just going to get rid of the stalactites and put some grass in there, so the place isn’t explicitly in a cavern. It won’t take long and it’ll keep some DMs from having to say, “I told you it was on a grassy hill, stop asking questions.”
Anyway, I’m gonna get on that. Let me know what you think!
There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.
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.
Here’s the unfurnished version of this map.
Gambler’s Key is a pirate lord’s fortress with a casino in the front and a loading bay for pirates to drop off their plundered cargo in the rear. It’s sort of the opposite of a mullet: a party in the front, business in the back. Well, I guess it depends which side you consider the front, but… whatever, let’s not overthink it.
Ryan, who proposed this map to the Cartographic Congress, asked me to make a token of this as well. Basically, the token is for inserting the island onto a sea map in which the party’s ship is 1-2 tiles in size. Anyway, you’re all welcome to it as well and you can download it here.
The other week, I talked about drawing a map of Fort Bourtange, a star fort in the Netherlands. I want to get that started fairly soon, so here’s the plan: I want to get a Black Loch map drawn this month, so I’m going to do that next. I’ll be drawing the “secluded manse,” which is the home of a powerful wizard living on the island of Driders’ Rock.
After that, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: a floating, thirteen-level tower dedicated to magical experiments and research with a dock for airships. And then I’ll be drawing Fort Bourtange. I’d like to get started on it around the beginning of next month, but we’ll see how long the other two maps take. Sound good? I hope so.
Anyway, let me know what you think of Gamblers’ Key!
There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.
This is the finished first level. I’ve been giving this map some extra love, but the rest is almost done too. I’ve gotta finish up a few more details, draw a sideview, and write the DM notes, but I should have it all done in about two days. Also, I hope you like that water, because that is probably the best-looking water I’ve ever drawn.
Okay, back to work.
These are the lower two levels of the pirate fortress/gambling hall I’m working on. All this is underground. There’s a third level above this showing the top of the island and the buildings above ground, but I ran out of room on my desk.
On the bottom floor, you’ve got storage, sleeping quarters and facilities for receiving stolen goods. Then, on the left side of the floor above, you’ve got the gambling hall. And on both levels, there are a variety of places to fire cannons from in case the cops show up.
Anyway, I’m gonna get back to coloring this. Hope you like it so far!
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
Here’s the updated Black Loch map.
All this stuff is free for everyone. You can download it here.
So, these are the tokens I drew. I’d say you can figure out what most of these critters are, although you may have some questions about the half-orc with a mustache and a combover holding a cup of coffee. That’s Stan– short for Stanislaus, not Stanley– and he’s my character in a game I’m playing in.
You know your dad’s friend from work? That’s Stan. He’s a strange sort of RPG character, but the campaign he’s in involves flying around the solar system in a spelljammer searching for dragonballs, so he’s less weird than you’d think. And one of the other PCs is a railway maintenance robot, so there’s a case to be made that Stan isn’t even the weirdest one in the party.
Anyway, I know nobody else needs Stan’s token, but I thought I’d throw him in there just in case. I’d rather you have Stan and not need him than need Stan and not have him.
Well, that’s it for now. I’m gonna get started on the next map.
Oh, one last thing– if you’re new here, I made around 300 more tokens you can also have. Feel free to share them if you know anyone who’d want them.
Here’s the unfurnished version I promised. Instead of talking about it, I’d like to share something completely useless with you. I was looking through the 5th Ed. Monster Manual today and I noticed that there were a TON of entries starting with D. The D’s start on page 46 and end on 122. Anyway, I did what any crazy person would do and I got out a calculator. There are 76 pages of D’s out of a total of 304 pages of monsters, meaning that 25% of the monsters in the Monster Manual start with the letter D. And what’s the game called? That’s right… D&D.
*head explodes*
A few months back, I said I was going to draw some more tokens and I intend to start on that. The reason I hadn’t before is that I was a little behind on things, mostly as a result of the Cobalt Flotilla taking a bit longer than I’d anticipated. Anyway, I’m now caught up and I’ll get started on those today. Hopefully, I’ll be posting them tomorrow, then another batch every month or so.
After that, I’ll be drawing the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress: “a pirate lord’s fortress with a casino and underground lair hewn out of granite.” That proposal won the vote by the biggest margin I’ve seen in a long time, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s a thing a lot of people would like a map of. It’ll be like the Mont Acceaux Casino, except you don’t get kicked out for throwing up all over the floor.
Anyway, I’m gonna get to work. Let me know what you think of the map!
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