Maps, what do you use Options

[scarius]

i was just wondering what people used for maps of places in a shadow run game.

so far all i have been doing is drawing a large buliding and then doing a basic office floor enviroment.

i was hopeing that someone else had/has something better

[Mardrax]

Kinda depends. Freeforming it seeems the way to go. You could try searching the interwebz for building plans as well, and suit those to your need. That tends to be hard for non-residential buildings though.
As for drawing, wipeable hex/grid paper is your friend, otherwise whiteboard. Should you want to reach for IT soultions for handouts, most vector based graphic programs are quite easy to learn the basics of, so I'd generally recommend those. There are some excellent RPG 'dungeon making' tools available though. I'd say do some window shopping.
For maps of a wider area, I try to get myself a cycling/hiking map. Otherwise, Google Maps works wonders, sometimes.

[Kyrel]

Anything can be used really. It sort of depends on the situation in the game. If we are talking about non-essential encounters, then I normally just run with a freehand approach drawn up on a D&D battlemap. If it's for actual runs, then I tend to either draw things up myself either in hand or on the computer, or I find something suitable online. Googlemaps are nice (as already mentioned), and every now and than you can find some nice floorplans online as well.

[Aria]

Got to love Google Maps...especially some of the modded ones for SR. I made the one linked in my sig for my current game and it has been really useful for tracking things. This is a good one for Bellevue/Redmond (all credit to whoever created/posted it as I've forgotten where I bookmarked it from...somewhere in one of the OoC threads in the pbp forum)

I'm not bothered about the specifics of combat movement though as I play exclusively pbp these days so digital is the only way to go for me...

[capt.pantsless]

I've got a 11"X17" color printer at work, and Microsoft Visio to do the actual drawings. It's pretty decent for whomping up a couple of offices or buildings. It fits my personallity well, as I can keep an electronic record of all maps I've drawn, and re-print if I want to re-run an adventure for a different group.

I've also played around with:
http://www.floorplanner.com/
and that seems to be useful, but since it's a free service you never know if it's going to go away next week.

[Fatum]

I second Visio - it's nothing out of the ordinary, but it has some nice templates ready.

[kigmatzomat]

Being an engineering geek, I use QGIS to make my outdoor maps. Nothing like having the whole world available to make scale maps.

Only useful if the campaign has a large scope though. I tend to run non-urban games though.

[phlapjack77]

Google Sketchup

[PiXeL01]

I tend to use "Spawl Sites" and "Spawl Maps". Great stuff, if you can find them.

[Fatum]

Google Sketchup

Do you use some pre-made models? If so, which ones (or rather, how do I find good ones, etc).

[Omenowl]

Building blue prints and construction drawings are good to use. Modify as needed.

[PiXeL01]

I used to take picture of all the emergency floor plans I found whereever I went with my telephone.

That way you can get plans for supermarkets, department stores, school, apartment blocks easily. Real Estate agents (at least in Denmark and Japan) also publicly found the layout of the building they have for sale.
Go for a walk and get some (poluted) air, bring your camera or cellphone and click away!

[Swing Kid]

When the specific run warrants it, we use SolidWorks to build our settings.
You have tons of options with it, but it is hard to get access to the software (used in engineering)

Here is an example:

http://img4.imageshack.us/i/trashm.jpg/

[phlapjack77]

Do you use some pre-made models? If so, which ones (or rather, how do I find good ones, etc).

To tell you the truth, it's been awhile since I used it - not sure where my old models I drew are anymore.

The Google Sketchup page has this link, seems to have some good examples:

Google Sketchup Examples

[Squinky]

When the specific run warrants it, we use SolidWorks to build our settings.
You have tons of options with it, but it is hard to get access to the software (used in engineering)

Here is an example:

http://img4.imageshack.us/i/trashm.jpg/

Very cool. Also, oddly suprised to see some of my old drawings in the mix.

[Swing Kid]

Very cool. Also, oddly suprised to see some of my old drawings in the mix.

What do you mean? This is an original piece.

[Squinky]

Down underneath that picture in the related images area, there is (or was) some of my older drawings.

[Snow_Fox]

For buildings I tned to adapt places I've been or worked or visited. Of course having worked as a bill collector and for a real estate management firm I've seen a lot of differnet places but your own life experience is fine.

For general land scaping- try google earth for the big features-like the freaking hills in Seattle, and then allow that unless it's a major road like alaska way, 5th ave or Champs elyssee. it could have changed in 60 years time, if you need it to-but leave the lakes and rivers there.

[Wesley Street]

I build everything from scratch using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, typically in a "top-down" interior design format (see Knight at the Opera and Something Completely Different for examples). I haven't seen much in the way of CAD-style 3-D mapping that doesn't come off as... cold to me.

[Vegetaman]

Pretty much what I have always done, is figure out what the plot of a run is going to be. Gang, Corporate, Warehouse, etc. Then I go into MS Paint and just start mapping stuff out. All I need is a pretty rough floor plan and I throw some numbers on there so I can make up a reference sheet that I have on hand that lets me know what the area looks like, any guards or patrols that may be in the area, surprises, events that should occur, and things of that nature. Since if worst comes to worst, I just remove the numbers and change the colors to blue background and white walls and call it a "building blueprint". I went to this method when I started in around 2001 and the map turnaround time is only several hours, and when we used to run one or two sessions a week, I needed that kind of speed.

I've got three examples of those maps on this page:

https://sites.google.com/site/vegetaman/home/shadowrun

And if you decide you want to see more, I've got about 16 of them here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?unnfmuvzizt

[Adarael]

There are a lot of floorplan maps out there for free on architectural sites. When those don't work, I use 3ds max, which is probably total overkill as far as software packages go...

[Neurosis]

Pretty much what I have always done, is figure out what the plot of a run is going to be. Gang, Corporate, Warehouse, etc. Then I go into MS Paint and just start mapping stuff out. All I need is a pretty rough floor plan and I throw some numbers on there so I can make up a reference sheet that I have on hand that lets me know what the area looks like, any guards or patrols that may be in the area, surprises, events that should occur, and things of that nature. Since if worst comes to worst, I just remove the numbers and change the colors to blue background and white walls and call it a "building blueprint". I went to this method when I started in around 2001 and the map turnaround time is only several hours, and when we used to run one or two sessions a week, I needed that kind of speed.

I've got three examples of those maps on this page:

https://sites.google.com/site/vegetaman/home/shadowrun

And if you decide you want to see more, I've got about 16 of them here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?unnfmuvzizt

Vegetaman those are great, thanks for sharing!

[TheOOB]

I use These, mostly cause I have them for D&D. I quickly scetch a general floorplan, rarely to scale, and use minis to give an idea of how many people there are, who's behind cover and whatnot.

Sometimes I just grab random floor plans online for ideas.

[Ol' Scratch]

Unless the players go out of their way to obtain a blueprint and/or need a map to plan, we just rely on shared descriptions of the environment. If after I describe the current setting one of the player asks if so-and-so exists, I'll spend a half second asking myself if that's plausible. If so, then it does. If not, then it doesn't. Otherwise I'll just put a quick sketch together or look up random blueprints/maps on Google's image search. It just takes a simple search term to use.

Improvisation is the key to good gamemastering in my opinion.

[Mr Clock]

Something that may or may not mesh well with Shadowrun: zone maps. All you need to know is where each zone is in relation to one another - eg the kitchen is accessible through the breakroom, but not directly from the office floor. Drop three or four lines of description in for each zone, and roll with it. I lifted the idea from Diaspora. It doesn't quite line up with SR's metres and degrees of precision, but I'm sure players will understand the idea. Saves worrying about the exact placement of every workstation and waste-bin, at least.

CODE

                                        MAIN OFFICE

                                        Open plan, low cover
                                        Lots of plants
                                        Confusing layout
                                        L shaped like Tetris block -------------------------------------------------------------------]
                                               |
                                               |
ELEVATOR & STAIRS                              |                                   STAFF BREAK ROOM                       RESTROOM
                                               |
Card lock (R3)                                 |                                    Vending machines                        Card lock (R3)
Fire door, alarmed (R3)                        |                                    Tables with fixed benches             Corporate radio
                                               |                                                                           Lots of mirrors
                                               |
                                               |

Might want to put in some more solid lines to define the boundaries between zones, but you get the gist. Actually gave me an idea while making it. Tetris blocks as the basis for area shapes. Could help add some variety, conceptualise a space more easily.