Possibly getting back to Shadowrun, Looking for a setting for a campaign Options

[Omer Joel]

I've been on these boards a very long time ago (about four or five years ago); then I got a full-time+++ job and didn't play much SR, and later I was busy with other RPGs, such as Traveller. But now I've got bitten by the Shadowrun bug once more, sold my old SR3 collection to buy a few SR4 books, and got the 20th Anniversary Edition. All in all, I'm quite impressed with the product quality of the newer SR4 books, and thinking of maybe returning to Shadowrun in the future.

I'm currently in the book-buying phase of things, and would like to buy setting books according to the specific setting my campaign will take place at. I already have Sixth World Almanac, the 20th Anniversary Core Book, Street Magic and Arsenal, and I intend to buy the Running Wild PDF soon.

I've been thinking about planning (for the long term) a Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Edition campaign, with my beloved spouse Hani as the main player. We've already played Shadowrun 4E a few years ago, set in the quasi-post-apocalyptic Puyallup Barrens, and we had TONS of fun despite the fact that this was Hani's first ever RPG experience and thus she had a tough time with the rules. In that campaign she played a Human Bear Shaman and enjoyed the heck out of it.

Now I'm planning again a Shadowrun campaign set in the 20th Anniversary Edition timeline (the year is 2072 in game). This time around Hani wants to play an Ork Combat Hacker. and wants an urban campaign in contrast with the old 'wild territory' campaign.

The thing is that I'm not as familiar with the 2072 setting as opposed to the 2050's and early 2060's (or, at most, 2070) back when I was deeply into 2E/3E Shadowrun.

So I'm looking for a good setting for the next campaign. I need an urban setting, so Seattle is of course the first pick, but I might want to try something new, as most of my previous Shadowrun games were set there. I also need an interesting place where a wide variety of runs could be had.

I'd like to have a place with a current sourcebook. The two cities in the US I'm most familiar with IRL are NYC (where friends of my family live) and Chicago (where I was born and lived for a few years before moving to Israel with my parents). However, from what I recall from Shadowrun, NYC is quite solidly corporate (that is, a gated corporate enclave in SR - or is it?) and Chicago is a bit too wild.

So I'm open to suggestions of cities around the Sixth World as well as location sourcebooks for Shadowrun 4E.

Another thing I'd like to have some input on is the conflicts and interesting plot hooks of the 2070's. After all, the Bugs, Deus, Dunkelzhan, Saito's occupation of the CFS and so on are pretty much resolved; what new conflicts have arisen in the world? What's new and cool to weave into a campaign? I'm feeling a little bit rusty on the current SR lore...