There have been a lot of threads recently about relative power level in different people's campaigns and some other threads have made the point that selling players on the Shadowrun universe is an important step towards getting everyone on the same page.
So, how do you play Shadowrun. Not what do you play. In my mind, ganger-level games and heroic Brainscan-level games are all equally valid. Sure, I have my preference, but that's pretty subjective. I'm more interested in which themes of the Shadowrun universe you play up and which you play down. How do the players interact with the rest of the world when they're not shooting/getting shot at?
One of the themes I always try to have as a backdrop in my campaigns is disparity. The gap between rich and poor is greater than it is today. Likewise, the gulf between the powerful and powerless. Shadowrunners are in a unique position in this caste since they have a relative amount of personal freedom but at the same time depend on other people for most of their livelyhood. Not every rich person is corrupt and evil and not every poor person is suffering with nobility, but the power dynamic is very clear.
I'm lucky in the sense that I don't get a lot of toasters living in their low lifestyle apartment cleaning guns between runs. This means that legality is really important (and its counterpart, concealability). About half my 'runners have SINs, which is odd. The flipside of this is no one even thinks about MMGs/HMGs/ Miniguns/Laser Weapons.
The scope of my campaigns tend to lie somewhere in the middle. Runners won't save the world, but they might save a neighborhood from a dirty bomb once. I want runners to feel like their choices and actions matter and affect the world(s) they care about, but I also want to maintain checks on their influence.
How about you?