I don't know about y'all, but I don't have any friends in my area who play Shadowrun. All of mine play homebrew, Dark Heresy (I GM), Pathfinder or D&D, with a couple short jumps into other systems in one-shots. Few of them are particularly interested in Shadowrun.
A thought popped into my head the other day when I was perusing my old Shadowrun books (and saw the best Shadowrun campaigns thread). The Universal Brotherhood storyline, the Arcology Shutdown, the Year of the Comet/Winternight... All of these are phenomenal campaigns with depth and... That special something you get when a story just jives. That said, I can't get my friends to try them, because they aren't interested in Shadowrun.
So, if I can't bring the players to Shadowrun, maybe I can bring Shadowrun to the players? I'm working on a translation of the Universal Brotherhood plot-line to D&D right now, since that section of friends/gamers is the most open to new storylines right now.
My current plan involves building the framework for a dystopic fantasy city, a rather large metropolis with some massive problems with slums. All (or almost all) of the characters will be living in this area, whether they were born there, immigrated, etc.
The first few levels (1-3) will be used to draw out how much of a shitburg this city is, at least for anyone of their social strata. There will be a couple of failing charities and other forms of aid to the impoverished, and a quiet mention of 'The Society of Unity.' In the end, loan-sharks, angered crime-bosses or the local watch will want the player's heads. This will encourage them to get out of town for a while, perhaps as caravan guards, 'adventurers,' or something along those lines. They'll get to see some of the world, level up some more, give some time to earn money for back home or let the heat die down... Maybe see another branch or two of the Society of Unity.
At some point (around 7th level), I'd give them some encouragement to go home. Family is ill, a wedding, they have enough to pay their debts, an inheritance (that'll get the greedy ones). When they do, the first thing they'll notice is the slums are much nicer than they were before. Not because of care from the gentry; the Society of Unity has brought people together, mended cracks between the various groups, etc. To drive the point home, maybe some of their family members have joined the Society; there will definitely be a repentant loan-shark/crime-boss/watch-captain who apologizes for their previous behavior and lets bygones be bygones. Nobody will notice the transient population is dwindling, as many new members of the Society turn to an agrarian lifestyle, or so they say. One of these might be a family member or close friend of a PC.
I'd give the PCs a few more levels of more local adventuring (8th or 9th level) before throwing in a real hint/some evidence showing the Society of Unity is not all that it seems. It'll hopefully be enough of a hook to draw them in. With that, it's only a matter of time before they discover the horrifying truth of the matter and we see how they develop.
What do y'all think?