[Equinoxz]

New to Shadowrun - apologies if I post this in the wrong sub.

I am looking for your opinions on the best campaign arcs within Shadowrun. I want to GM a campaign with linked adventures that has a cool backstory/plotline. What books can you recommend? I don't mind using older edition books, there are so many to choose from, so I don't know where to start.

Are there any adventures or campaigns that deals with one of these themes: A religious cult, mafia/organized crime syndicates, AIs and BBEG/Megacorp devious plan for world domination?

[Mirikon]

Religious Cult: You, my friend, want to start with an old module called Queen Euphoria, then pick up the Universal Brotherhood - Missing Blood book, before moving on to Bug City, with detours to the Threats and Threats 2 books.

AIs: There really is no other choice. Start with Renraku Arcology - Shutdown. Proceed to Brainscan. Continue to System Failure.

[Whiskeyjack]

Ghost Cartels is a lot of fun.

[Moonshine Fox]

Well, if you feel like being sadistic, I quite enjoyed the old Survival of the Fittest campaign. It deals with draconic power politics, which I think make megacorps look like the shallow end of the pool by comparison. Running it does make your players break the fourth rule of Shadowrun though 

[adzling]

I'm running our team through a customized version of 4e's Ghost Cartels right now.

It's great because you actually get to leave Seattle and go all around the Pacific Rim.

It's crap because most of the "runs" after Seattle are more like run suggestions/ plot stubs that you have to spend considerable time building out to make them playable.

Still it's been fun times.

[farfromnice]

in the third :Renraku Arcology is pretty cool

As GM I enjoyed playing Frosty in the Artifact run of the fourth

it really depend at what you like. Do you want your game to be shaming evil corporation/dragons/secret society ?

Magic or Technological Theme ?

[Pap Renvela]

Harlequin because he's an annoying SOB.

[Tarislar]

New to Shadowrun - apologies if I post this in the wrong sub.

I am looking for your opinions on the best campaign arcs within Shadowrun. I want to GM a campaign with linked adventures that has a cool backstory/plotline. What books can you recommend? I don't mind using older edition books, there are so many to choose from, so I don't know where to start.

Are there any adventures or campaigns that deals with one of these themes: A religious cult, mafia/organized crime syndicates, AIs and BBEG/Megacorp devious plan for world domination?

I'd also say that taking any of the previous Missions campaigns with their setting links is a great way to link adventures.

Season 1 & 4 both = Seattle.
Tons of the old Modules are based out of Seattle
You also have the Elven Blood series split between Seattle & Tir Tairngire

Season 2 = Denver

Season 3 = New York

Really,  adding some single stand alone adventures set in those areas should give any GM loads of base content to work with before coming up with their own occasional custom mission.

[Dinendae]

Religious Cult: You, my friend, want to start with an old module called Queen Euphoria, then pick up the Universal Brotherhood - Missing Blood book, before moving on to Bug City, with detours to the Threats and Threats 2 books.

AIs: There really is no other choice. Start with Renraku Arcology - Shutdown. Proceed to Brainscan. Continue to System Failure.

These right here are the two best campaigns in my opinion. I'm not sure if those ever got updated to 4th Edition or not, but both story arcs are well worth the effort of converting them.

[Mirikon]

The modules might not be, but I did convert some of the drones from the Shutdown book to 4E: http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=11022.0

[kyoto kid]

Well, if you feel like being sadistic, I quite enjoyed the old Survival of the Fittest campaign. It deals with draconic power politics, which I think make megacorps look like the shallow end of the pool by comparison. Running it does make your players break the fourth rule of Shadowrun though 

...hated that one, lost two really good characters, and they didn't die either.

[kyoto kid]

Harlequin because he's an annoying SOB.

....loved both of them.

Was going to mention them myself.

[Lorebane24]

I'm having a blast springboarding and tweaking the numerous hooks and runs in Lockdown.

[Equinoxz]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will check them out.

Are the Shadowrun Mission Seasons a series of adventures that are linked together to form a campaign? Or are they more a series of stand-alone adventures?

[Angelone]

Missions can be either they are stand alone runs that you can just drop into your campaign. However, each season is linked with a recurring cast of characters and overall plot.