Firstly, I started writing down daily news events, robberies, disasters, freak accidents, celebrity appearances, political surprises. Some amazing things actually happen and you forget yesterday's news very quickly. The following actually happened:

• A Russian MIG jet fighter flew itself across Europe after the pilot ejected until it ran out of fuel and crashed in Belgium, hitting a house.
• A man robbed a bank with a cucumber in a bag (pretending it was a gun).
• A criminal on trial claims he was involved in a plot to fix horse races by using a sonic gun hidden in a pair of binoculars to disrupt the race. The race had included a jockey falling off by accident, or was it the sonic gun?
• A North Sea oil rig blows up with a massive explosion (Piper Alpha).
• A boxing promoter was shot outside a gym and survived. A famous champion boxer he once managed was prosecuted and acquitted.
• A man killed himself with a bomb strapped to his chest. He used to work as a shot-firer in a coal mine and had built several bombs in his home.
• Hooligans start a series of fires on a car ferry on the Irish Sea, risking hundreds of lives including their own.
• The US army played rock music at General Noriega's house to get him to come out to be arrested!

So many weird things get reported, it is amazing how quickly a list will build up. Somethings you might not be able to use, but you can still throw them into news bulletins on TV/radio.
 
HERE'S A LIST I'M USING AGAIN

I took this further to list a wide variety of places and then the possibilties they offered, for example;

Power Station (Turbines, High Pressure Steam, Generators, Cooling Towers, Chimney Stacks, Pylons, High Tension Cables, Fuel Stores, Gas, Oil, Coal, Uranium)

Docks (Ships, Water, Cranes, Containers, Lorries, Cargo, Warehouses, Dockers, Shipbuilding, Marina, Coastguard)

Brewery, Cannery, Bottling Plant (Alcohol, Steam, Vats, Machinery, Kegs, Aluminium, Bottles, Glass, Cans)

You can apply this idea to any genre of course, and if you make lists or sets of ideas midweek before a gaming session, you will have more ideas to make locations realistic when actually running a game.

When you are at work or school, when travelling, look at the things around you and see how a hero or villain might want to use them. A paranormal who might control animals for example will go for.. a zoo obviously, a pet shop, a circus or rodeo, but what about a kennels, a city farm perhaps or a wildlife reserve or rescue centre, a laboratory (lab animals), a race course (horses, dogs), an abbatoir or stockyard, an vet's or animal hospital, a film set using animals, a tourist attraction (dolphins/whales, hawks & owls), a rubbish dump or sewer (rats, snakes or crocs).

I have now put up a long list of Stagefight locations.