Where do you go for Shadowrun/modern-themed maps and tilesets? In particular, I'm looking for some Barrens-like streets and alleyways to set the stage for a ganger battle. Finding floorplans and blueprints is simple enough, but I am looking for the extra Wow! factor that comes with a full-color, detailed map.

Back in the old days, this was hard to do as only a few companies were putting out modern or future era maps. I had to re-use the DMZ maps so many times it's not even funny.

These days, there's so much fan-created stuff out there that's incredibly easily accessible. A quick google search will get you tons of maps. D20 Modern was a good source for a lot of them. Hell, just go to http://images.google.com and you'll be able to find a ton of maps of varying quality, from hotels to stores to streets to airports. You can also find real-life blueprints online, especially for houses. You could also print out Google Maps of different urban areas and use those.

I think what he's looking for isn't just "maps", but something he can set down on the table, and the players can use mini's with, ala D&D's Maps and, more importantly, their Dunegon Tile sets. For maps, I'm imagining something like the playmaps that come with D&D adventures, or something that looks a bit like a Battletech Hex Map, but marked out in squares and with streets and stuff.

I'm honestly not reall familiar with anything along these lines, though it would be fantastic to see Shadowrun ones. We use a Chessex Battlemat, and our GM has slowly been picking up vehicles and even a Balsa Wood building to paint up that's in a normal mini's scale. And you coudl likely fake it with a few of the D&D tile sets, but yeah, you're largely out of luck..

Hrmmm...

Bull

As noted before, use Google Earth, get an overhead shot, save it or print and then scan it in, then open it in Paint or whatever and add a grid and details as necessary.

Funnily enough, the BattleTech HexMaps started out as David and I brainstorming ideas for Shadowrun products that weren't books. I told him that I wanted to do tile-set maps, and we were discussing what shape the pieces should be so they interlocked nicely but didn't need to have tabs or other actual connecting elements. I said hexes, because not only could they be used for Shadowrun maps of all sorts of odd shapes/sizes, but the same dies could be used for BattleTech map sets as well.

Then we tangented off to discussing how interesting BattleTech maps in a "hackable" format would be, and that was the beginning of the HexPack: David and I working on Shadowrun.

You don't need a detailed map for that "Wow!" Factor, A Detailed Description, Some Visual Aids, and some appropriate music can set the mood just fine.

If you absolutely must have maps, you can make a modular room system:

Get a basic grid to serve as the standard playing field, and get various cutout rooms you can stick into place. I'd recommend laminated posterboard with some easily removable double sided tape. Use Overhead Projector markers to mark doors and other important features.

A more complex idea (If you're willing to shell out for it) is Lego. Lego sells Street Pieces on it's website (You can probably find them cheaper else where), and a lot of it's "City" and "Town" sets come with Streets, in addition to the buildings.

Admittedly, building an entire Shadowrun Themed Lego Set is time consuming and extremely inefficient. (It would be awesome, yes. Especially if you modified a bunch of Minifigs to look like the PCs). However, if you're willing, you can use those street plates for outdoor scenes. You can even make some basic lego buildings, if you wanted.

Frankly, Shadowrun's not like D&D when it comes to mapping out stuff. D&D is usually pretty linear in play. Go to Room A, kill the 4 orcs, loot, kick in the door for Room B, rinse, repeat. Shadowrun's much more open. Even if you KNOW there's going to be combat somewhere, the firefight might take place in the middle of the club, in the bathroom, in the greenroom in the back, the parking lot, etc. In my experience, unless you have it set up so that it's going to happen EXACTLY in a certain place, it's far better to have a basic idea or non-scale map printed out and use (as someone said before) a BattleMat to draw on the fly.

And just so you guys are aware, a mini scale is usually 1 inch = 5 ft or 1 inch = 2m. This puts the scale just about at model railroading's H-O scale. And there are a lot of dirt-cheap models you can pick up online. You can also use dollhouse furniture, but you need to be more careful about the scale.

Mentioned above in one response but possibly missable by those new to Shadowrun, the DMZ boxset was full-color combat maps for Shadowrun. You can often find it used on eBay, or used on Google shopping.

Map Sets or terrain for D20 Modern, Star Wars, and Necromunda also often work well.

Google Earth works great for larger scale maps, but not so well for those that like using miniatures. I have used such maps with tiny d6s to represent PCs & NPCs.

If you want to go the extra mile/click, there are several manufacturers selling (or giving it away!) paper scenery sets. You download it to your computer and make as much as you want. Buildings, warehouses, factories, etc. They also make futuristic sets. They even make vehicles! Get your runners to put them together for you, as you have better things to do like design runs. Give them some Karma for helping out. Then whip them out and drop them on the table when the firefight starts!

Try www.ss42.com or www.swminiatures.com or www.ebblesminiatures.com or www.worldworksgames.com

Thanks a lot guys, great suggestions so far.

How about modern "tilesets"? That would be a collection of textures, which can be tiled and re-arranged to make my own map. I have no problem finding loads of fantasy tilesets (grass, cobblestone, water), but finding something like a street or a sidewalk is tricky.

Get a ruler and a marker and then go get some Hot Wheels play mats. Not being snarky, all you need is street sections with a grid on them for measurement.

Sorry, I'm more of the MacGuyver type than the "go buy a bunch of expensive stuff at the comic/game store" type when it comes to my gaming props. I still have a bunch of those green foam blocks they use for floral arrangement left over from making hills/mountains for my D&D game. They exist, but they're not as common with the grid/hex lines on them.

If want Barrens and you're using Goggle Earth for base images check out industrial cities like Pittsburg and post-Katrina New Orleans.

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I plan on using MapTool, so I don't need to print anything out or buy anything expensive. There's a lot of free stuff on the net to use.-

We bought a map at the game store, and then bought a roll of clear vinyl to go over it. Dry erase marker to your heart's content. A better solution if you have a larger space is a cutting board from JoAnn's. It is large and has the grid laid out for you.

I've been looking at MapTool a lot recently. I have my laptop hooked into my widescreen LCD tv as a second (extended screen) monitor. That way I can keep things on my laptop screen that only I can see and whatever I want the PCs to see I can slide over to the tv. MapTool looks to have a lot of functionality especially with some of the add-ons like the 'initiative tool', 'character tool', 'dice tool', etc., but I haven't seen much support for Shadowrun yet.

If you find any good tilesets, tokens, etc. that would be useful for Shadowrun let me know because I can see a lot of potential with MapTool.

Not to toot my own horn, but... http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9002

Wow! I haven't had a chance to take it all in yet, but from what I can see it looks like you've done some great work there.