Getting ready to start an SR4 campaign (the first serious one, did one briefly after the edition released to try out the system, then went back to wrap up the SR3 game I've been running since forever, haha.)

looking over it, I think I'm interested in running a little bit more 'experienced' a game than the last one, which was about gutter punks and gangers and washed up ex-corporate types working their way from the street trash to experienced runner; by starting with an already established team working out of both seattle and hong kong.

so what I'm looking for is some suggestion on what sort of plots might work well to tie the two megaplexes together - obviously there will be individual plots in both cities, but I'm really hoping to find a few run hooks that I can use to really make it all hang together.

basically, looking more for possible campaign themes than specific individual runs, but everything will be appreciated once I'm back home, I'll post some of the things I was thinking of doing as central themes (I don't keep shadowrun notes at work, much as I wish I did sometimes)

One Word "Triad"... With it being a Traid based game you have perfect reasons to snd the Characters to Both cities. If you wnat just make the fixer refer to them as out of town Muscle, and they are useful to the triads.

Also, keep in mind that a B&E type in Hong Kong can be working (on the same run) with a hacker in Seattle. Might not be the most secure thing in the world, but it's possible.

Vory in both as well. And of course there's the whole thing with major corps in both cities. And there's lots of people with family in both cities.

A simple scenario is a smuggling run from one to the other.

yeah, I had a feeling it would probably be primarily organized crime connections (beyond the 'AAA's in every city' plot that doesn't really allow for much local flavor)

I hadn't considered that you wouldn't necessarily need to have all members of the team co-located but it sounds like it might be fun to try sometimes.

are there any temporal plots (events happening 'now' tying the two together, perhaps in emergence?) that could be used as well? my group has had a lot of fun with the current events style arcs from previous editions before.

Possible themes linking the two sprawls and involving current events:

Triad Politics: A pan-Pacific war erupted a few years back between the Lung-affiliated triads and the Wuxing-affiliated triads in Hong Kong and Seattle. In Hong Kong, Lung's Red Dragon Association wiped out the Wuxing-affiliated Yellow Lotus Triad, leaving only a few survivors to form the Ten Thousand Lions. In Seattle, the war went the other way, with Lung's Octagon suffering major losses in its fight against the Yellow Lotus. Needless to say, there is still lots of bad blood between the two in both cities and strong ties between the triads in both. Hell, the runners could even work for one of the other triads or syndicates, looking to encourage the war between the Lung and Wuxing triads in order to further their own influence.

NeoNET Expansion: NeoNET's Asian operations are currently headquartered in Seattle and run by Samantha Villiers, Richard Villier's ex-wife. NeoNET has been trying very hard to expand its market to Hong Kong, an effort deliberately thwarted by Renraku (using its control of Hong Kong's Executive Council). There are even rumors that NeoNET may be backing radical elements in Hong Kong, such as the 9x9 anti-corporate terrorists, hoping to distract Renraku and the Executive Council enough to leave themselves an opening.

I'll toss out more later.