How about some tips on how the folks at home can use lighting to make their sets look extra cool as they are in the promotional pictures?

Something to bear in mind - what looks good in a picture may not be what looks good seen up close.

That said: Put your lights where the light would be coming from. Some nice effects van be acceived with low powered light, even flash lights. (I used to use a low voltage, but highly focused desk light with a swing arm.) For night use a blue or dark purple gel over the light. If there are fires or torches, or pools of lava center the light over those areas, again you can use gels to change the light.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* A gel is a colored filter that fits over the light source. (I used to run lights and sound for folk music concerts.)

Mini halogens work great but you can also pick up miniature white LED's from your local hobby or craft store. Depending on the type some of them come with a battery pack and can be strung in key areas (like mini Christmas tree lights). If I had the time I would have included a tutorial on using LED's in key areas. The effect (as you can see in the night shots) can be very dramatic and I can honestly say the effect is more striking in person. LED's in fireplaces and on torches/candle areas would be incredible.

When I was taking those shots I kept thinking how cool it would be to actually game under those lighting conditions. I can see a resourceful GM coming up with strategic reasons for it as well

Okay, a bit of lighting silliness that I am thinking about for an event early next year - light stick at the bottom of a shallow tray of water, dry ice in the tray, water transparencies made from the 'water' in Maiden of the High Seas with holes cut along the ripples, the transparencies placed over the water, and of course a ghostly version of the Maden herself. I will likely use window screening to support the transparencies and the Maiden, but still allowing the underlit mist to rise around the ship.

Any ideas on 'ghosting' the Maiden? (Black & white printing, or trying to find a cartidge with no magenta or yellow inks left in it, so that it prints in lunar shades.)

I still want to use my undead pirates scenario dang it! (Or maybe try to recreate the Dash - a ghost ship that used to be seen around New England, or Der Flitter Hollander with Van derDeeken looking for a few good men...)

The Auld Grump