Champion Tier - The Burgomaster's Mansion Exterior - [40x30] (Patreon)

Hello everyone, and happy New Release Monday! Today, I am releasing part I of the restored Burgomaster's Mansion, which includes the mansion's exterior. Next week, I will have the interior finished, including the 1st floor, 2nd floor, and wine cellar.

This map was inspired by the Burgomaster's Mansion in Berez, and I wanted to create a non-ruined version for use with the amazing third-party supplement The Interactive Tome of Strahd, which explores the history of Strahd and Barovia. You can find a copy of this PDF on the DMsGuild here.

This 40x30 gridded map explores the concept of the Berez Buromgaster's Mansion when it was intact. I wanted to create a larger building face similar to the previous few building maps I've done to add more depth and detail. This allows me to show the grandeur of the manor front and all the fun little details your players will see as they walk down the gravel road and see the lights within illuminated. Though there are signs of life within this mansion, including lights within and smoke pouring from the chimneys, the surrounding looming pines and imposing gothic manor should provide a sense of foreboding.

I wanted this mansion to feel opulent, reflecting the owner's hubris, who feels he can outsmart Strahd and kill an innocent. I greatly enjoyed reading about this in the novel I, Strahd, and loved the parallels drawn with Mina Harker from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Currently, this map is the exterior only as the mansion interiors are quite extensive and detailed, but once I release the interiors, I hope you'll agree it was worth the wait!

One last note on perspective. For the exterior, I greatly angled the view to show a wider face of the mansion; however, this will be toned down a bit for the interior version. While you'll see a portion of the walls, I am trying to find a great balance between grinding this in a VTT, showcasing various perspectives based on token location, and maximizing room area size to fit tokens for placement. Hopefully, the greater level of detail and depth will be worth it.

For my Champion Tier patrons, you will get the following with this release:

• Exterior Mansion with 6 Color Moods: Gloom, Ghostly, Dark Fairytale, Night, Sunny Day, & Warm

• Weather effects including sun rays, fog & rain

• No Lights version

• 4k & 8k resolution

• Grid & NoGrid

• Jpg & Webp file formats

• VTT Sizing guide

This has been a productive year so far! On the map front, I'll be finishing up the mansion interiors, including the first, second, and cellar floors. Regarding Saltmarsh maps, I will work on the Hoolwatch Tower, a stone watch tower on a hill with a guard station. It's a great defensive location and quest hub should your players want to help the local Saltmarsh guard.

Outside the new maps, I have been working with a partner to create the first handful of VTT modules with walls and lighting! My goal is to have a majority of my back catalog ready to go before I release more details; however, know that this work has been started, and I am super excited to be able to offer a VTT tier for Foundry in the future. Once this is up and running, I'll be looking into ways to distribute Roll20 and FantasyGrounds VTT-ready maps as well.

In addition to working with talented partners, I have been working with an extremely talented artist to custom-build and design my very own assets! I know I've mentioned this before, but for the last few months, we have been creating new assets together. We have focused on gothic architecture to support my vision for greater and more epic maps with specific details. You might have noticed the extremely beautiful new gravestones on my Gallows Crossroad map, and you will find more and more incredible pieces I have the honor of featuring in my new maps.

Visuals, detail, and quality are hugely important to me, and I cannot tell you all how excited I am to bring even more details and life into my maps!

As always, thank you for your continued support and belief in the work I've been doing.

Cheers,

DM Andy