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So, how about if I just draw the Vatican? Like, all of it.
🕑 Added 2025-01-20 21:11:29 +0000 UTCI want to get your thoughts on Vatican City as a potential megaproject for later this year. It's the only country I can draw in its entirety, for several reasons. First, because it's fairly small. And second, because most of the buildings are famous and the floor plans are publicly available. This includes (click for photo):
There are some smaller buildings I don't have floor plans for and would have to make up. There are also a few modern buildings that won't be included, like the train station and the Paul VI Audience Hall, which is probably the ugliest thing in the Vatican.
I'd draw this one building at a time, rather than all at once. So each building would have its own map, as well as being added to the overall map. Once all the buildings are done, I'd draw in the gardens to finish it off.
If I draw this, I would alternate between drawing Vatican maps and other maps, so it wouldn't be the only thing I was working on. Also, I am still drawing the previously-announced megaproject first. And, just to clarify, this would be a 5' (1.5m) grid scale battlemap of the entire Vatican, inside and outside, including upper and lower levels. I'd estimate this project would take somewhere around a year to a year and a half to finish.
So, is this something you'd be interested in? I'll be making the decision on whether or not to draw this based on the response to this post, so leave a comment or shoot me a message to let me know how you feel. If you've got any questions or other thoughts, let me hear those as well. Your feedback will decide the future of this project.
Comments
Magpie
Honestly one of the coolest ideas I've heard
Milby's Maps
I'm only going to include pre-modern stuff, so I'll remove the train station and parking lots and so forth. There are old maps of the place available, so it shouldn't be hard to find out what was there before.
Adam El Akkad
Anything Renaissance Italy in style is great for me, I love holding campaigns in places like that and it seems like Vatican City would be a cool place to start! Will the maps have references to "modern" stuff, like automobile roads and telephone lines, or will it be still usable for the usual fantasy medieval D&D style?
Sinam Al-Khafaji
As you seek out these multi-map projects, a vote as s strong alternate vote for the City of Glass on the Elemental Plane of Water.
AN7
Fair enough, look forward to it regardless.
Simon 'Landmine'
Oh yes! There's no reason a bunch of 1920s Investigators could possible need to abstract something from the Vatican ... is there? :-)
Milby's Maps
I think it could be really good for Call of Cthulhu and historical games, too.
Milby's Maps
As far as the train station, sorry, but I don't want to include fantasy stuff in a historical map. So, I'll probably just draw whatever was there before the train station was put in.
Milby's Maps
I'm not the only person who can draw something like this, I'm just the one who will.
Milby's Maps
I've got another megaproject in mind that would be based around a dwarven deep road. That idea needs more time to cook, though.
shadowtim3 .
Imagine what kind of campaigns you could run with just the Vatican's map alone.
AN7
Also will always second more Underdark maps.
AN7
With your style and approach? Absolutely 100% I can’t think of a lot of map makers who could do this justice but I absolutely believe you could make this epic. Though a quick request for fun, exclude the train station, but maybe have an Eberron ish variant with a lighting rail station?
Wilfred_of_Ivanhoe
This is a great idea! Lots of potential with this one. I would vote for this or more underdark maps.
Eric Holliday
Yesyesyesyes
Jeffrey P
I just had so much fun with a post-apocalyptic "Last of Us" fungi and post-tech society mashup. I'm one of those DMs who can't draw maps to save my life, but once I have a map can spin a good story around it.
Rob Spirko
Echoing this. I just finished an extended stay for my party in Mont St. Michel. I am the kind of nerd who looked up the tide charts and we tracked the time. What a great map--super complicated though with all the elevations. This looks to be a similar scale of awesomeness and usefulness.
KoonFox
amazing, cant wait to see it!!
Jasper van Nieuwenhuijzen
Would be awesome. Can easily fit as the main base of any religious organization or cult. A city full of clerics and paladins that players need to infiltrate
Nicolas Marin
DEUS VULT!
Jochen Mevius
I need this
Daniel Quaresma
Heck yeah
Violette
Yes, please!!!!
Simon 'Landmine'
Enabling parties to go full 'Mission Implausible'! (I've forgotten which one it was with the Vatican in it.) That would be epic. (Especially as I don't just play fantasy settings.)
Andromedus Blackshire
Yessssssssss
Bryan
While this sounds like a cool idea, I think most of use could do this too since the floor plans are public. Personally, I would rather see your creative thoughts put into a project rather than copying what has already been put in place.
Milby's Maps
Maybe, but they're both too modern anyway. The nice thing about the Vatican is that almost all the buildings are both old and really cool. It's all wheat and no chaff.
Milby's Maps
You could probably have quite a few encounters if you used different parts of the map separately.
Matthew Neville
Amazing idea. Vatican City already looks like a battle map.
Milby's Maps
I'd almost certainly draw St. Peter's Basilica first, but that would include the grottoes and necropolis, since they're underneath it. I'm thinking I might draw all the famous parts first, then email the partially-finished map to someone at the Vatican Library and see if they might be able to share some floor plans of any of the other buildings. It's probably worth a shot, anyway.
Milby's Maps
I posted this, went to the store, came back and there are 15 comments. Wow.
Dana Heath Murray
In the voice of Darth Sidious - Do it
Silas
This would be amazing, but don’t sell yourself short by thinking this is the only country you could draw, you could do Monaco and maybe even somewhere like San Marino.
Luke Rolfs
pretty damn cool idea
Sinam Al-Khafaji
Who would say no? Proceed.
RunningGentles
I saw this and immediately started thinking of how to run a series of adventures involving recapturing the Vatican. So ambitious! I say do it! I might just plug it into my "the multiverse is getting all jumbled" pick-up campaign.
Alex Smith
That would be amazing
Morgan Holt
That sounds sooo cool!
Alexander Tettenborn
YESSSSSS!!!
Jeffrey P
I just loved your mega-project of Mont St. Michel, and made such great use of it in my homebrew D&D game. So I'd love something like this, but especially the Necropolis and Grottoes first, followed perhaps by the Palace, Basilca, and Museums and the Court last. I'm just thinking about where I could set interesting adventures as opposed to something they're just visiting or passing through.
Steve Wright
Wow!
Jay Farschman
Holy moly!
clawforce
This is an awesome idea, do it
CrimsonFenrir
That would definitely be an awesome addition to a map portfolio...having a random encounter or mission at the "Vatican" would be amazing.
AlexanderClement98
This would be so awesome.
HaploTheHand
I cannot express how much I would love this!
