In the past as a GM, I have used pictures to lend a helping hand to my players' imaginations, and mine as well. For instance, when the team took a trip to a Saeder-Krupp orichalcum mining facility in Antarctica, I showed them this picture of the real-life Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with the Aurora Australis blazing overhead:

http://s3.supload.com/files/default/2mr6u8o.jpg

You'd have to ask them if it helped them visualize the setting, but I know it helped me. And not too long ago there was a thread (that I can't find now) of other real-life pictures people have used in campaigns, like those massive sewer tunnels in Tokyo or the AT&T Long Lines Building in New York:

http://s3.supload.com/files/default/building.jpg

But I'm also talking about pictures we've made or modified, in addition to ones we've found on GIS. I'm curious if anyone has come up with some truly Shadowrun-specific to wow their players, or even as a player to show the rest of the table what you're talking about.

For instance: right now I'm playing an AI character who, in his newly-emergent naivete, is lacking in understanding of social norms and finds that his (I'll use male pronouns for simplicity and clarity, here) personality and sense of aesthetics often clashes with and disturbs the metahumans around him. As he comes to realize that people are weirded out by him, he is beginning to delight in being intentionally creepy, even making a hobby of it. He refers to metahumans as "meats" or "meat-organisms" and often makes vague, megalomaniacal statements that might evoke worrying correlations with Deus and the Renraku Arcology. But the entire point of this is the images I use to visually describe his personal sculpting of his home node and his programs, that of abyssal deep sea creatures, typically microscopic ones greatly enlarged: copepods, ostrocods, hexactinellid sponges, and the frightening phronima. I'm not sure if the disturbing similarity to insect spirits is lost on him, or if he did it on purpose. In any case I feel these images accurately and sufficiently convey the very alien mode thinking even metasapient AIs have.

Here are a few images I've made, if other people want to use them in their games. They've been resized and tinted a nice matrix-green hue, but I've got full-size full-color versions if you'd like them. I'll put up some more later if people like these.

http://s3.supload.com/files/default/xenotrope1.jpg
http://s3.supload.com/files/default/xenotrope5.jpg
http://s3.supload.com/files/default/xenotrope7.jpg
http://s3.supload.com/files/default/xenotrope8.jpg
http://s3.supload.com/files/default/xenotrope9.jpg

Edit: Huh, I guess the forums don't like images? I'll just link them all.

I've never had the chance to try it, but I came to the conclusion some time ago that a RPG scenario should be directed like a TV show. For example, for those of you old enough to remember it, Scarecrow & Mrs. King (now you've got the theme music stuck in your head- you're welcome) always showed the exterior of the IFF building before cutting to the action inside. This set the scene with the audience. They knew where the events were taking place and the place being familiar allowed them to concentrate on the dialogue rather than waste time trying to determine where the characters are talking.

Another example is the scene with the opposition or third party that shows what's going without the main character's knowledge that introduces part of the story to the audience that the main characters won't figure out until the end of the episode. I have used that technique and when properly employed I noticed that the players have a better idea of which direction the story is likely to go and so the whole adventure moves much more smoothly than when they're completely in the dark.

If I had unlimited resources to build a module I'd include floor plans, exterior views, and background music/sound effects for all major scenes, images and theme songs for all the major characters, and at least one physical prop the players could hold and pass around.

As it is, I'm lucky if I can get half of any of that for any given scenario.

Here you go: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t=0&start=0.