[chinlamp]

Hi, I'm new to GMing, having only done two sessions, and have fudged my maps so far (the first was simply taking the current map of the Seattle Art Museum and changing exhibit names, the second just used an apartment room from Sprawl Sites), but I find that in my next run, things are going to need a bit more detail.  Or, at the very least, something more unique (it's an Ares R&D lab).

Which is why I want to ask this: what do the GM's here, on this forum, use for making maps?  Not maps like you need for D&D, which has whole areas, nor maps that have battle hexes on them (our group is more inclined to describing things, and giving rough estimates of distances than using figures on a board.  At least when it comes to Shadowrun), but  actual floor plan layouts.

The Seattle Art Museum one I used: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/pdf/SAMGalleryMap.pdf

If anyone can direct me to a program or site that can help me do this, or a site with a large amount of similar maps that I can modify in Paint (I don't have Photoshop, nor a tablet), it would be much appreciated.

[CitizenJoe]

Bing Maps (just search for it) has venue maps where it shows the inside of some buildings.

[raggedhalo]

I like Campaign Cartographer with the Modern symbol set...

[Crash_00]

I usually just google for "X floor plans" where x is the type of facility and then use an image result that I like. I'll tweak it in Pain or Painter to my linking if I need to. It's quite amazing what you can find, everything from military buildings to labs and apartments in seconds.

[chinlamp]

Thanks for that.

My problem now is that I have no idea what a Weapons R&D lab should look like.  There don't seem to be any that are easily findable through google or google images, and while I'm sure their building plans would be in a city hall database somewhere, there's no guarantee that database is open to the general public or even online.

I've searched for a good couple hours now and not really found anything overly helpful (then again, I probably woulnd't know it was helpful even if I did find it), does anyone have something similar that they've used in the past?

[JustADude]

Thanks for that.

My problem now is that I have no idea what a Weapons R&D lab should look like.  There don't seem to be any that are easily findable through google or google images, and while I'm sure their building plans would be in a city hall database somewhere, there's no guarantee that database is open to the general public or even online.

I've searched for a good couple hours now and not really found anything overly helpful (then again, I probably woulnd't know it was helpful even if I did find it), does anyone have something similar that they've used in the past?

Do a search for a mechanical engineering lab, then just add a firing range.

[chinlamp]

Huh... I did not think of that.

[Crash_00]

Well what he said, and also don't forget that as GM it looks like whatever you want it to look like. You don't have to be exact. Just get something roughly similar (Lab) and call it what you want. With that you could just tack on (Range) as a separate building or a different floor. Heck, I've used an apartment complex as a research lab before because the floor plans just looked cool enough.

It's wonderful to be completely unique/realistic if you have the spare time and energy, but if you can shoe horn something in that works, it's always best to use that time and energy on the story IMO. I'd much rather see unique plots and NPCs as a player than floor plans that last one run on average.

[JustADude]

Well what he said, and also don't forget that as GM it looks like whatever you want it to look like. You don't have to be exact. Just get something roughly similar (Lab) and call it what you want. With that you could just tack on (Range) as a separate building or a different floor.

Actually, on those two maps, it looks like the range could get squeezed into the room in the Lab drawing marked 204B, assuming it's a strictly a small-arms range, or they're just testing mechanical reliability and muzzle performance.

[ShadowChaser13]

Your players probably dont what a weapons reseaech lab looks like either lol if you can get your hands on Sprawl Sites, 1 edition off amazon its one of the best gaming resouces i've ever seen

[CanRay]

You can get it in PDF form on Drive Thru RPG.

[Angelone]

Fabled environments has a bunch of map books. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=3118

[CanRay]

Oooooooooooooooooooo, Summer Camp! 

[Angelone]

I know right, which is inhabited with Shedim and other nasties.

[Walks Through Walls]

Runner's Toolkit has a few good maps in it also. It has a lab building for sure. The nice thing is they have a labeled side and unlabeled side so you can reuse it for other purposes. Also they are laminated for reuse.