I've been thinking about making a Shadowrun introductory campaign.

The best thing about SR is the setting and the massive backstory, so the idea is to make a campaig. where the player "play though" the pivotal events in the Shadowrun backstory.

I would launch the campaign early (maybe 2011) and then play a scenario for each of the major events in SR.

People either play the same characters (who age) or relatives/friends in case they die/retire.

What would be the most important events?

I'm thinking (not in choronological order):
- The Awakening/UGE
- VITAS
- Crash of 29
- Dunkelzahn's Electoral Campaign + Death (maybe also Harlequin's Back)
- Bug City (being in the city when the nuke goes of and the whole city is quarantined)
- Shutdown of Renraky Arcology (being inside and trying to get out)
- The Quarantine in Boston because of CDF

What else should be in there?

A.

Crash 2.0 was a huge event. Would tie Renraku Arcology and Boston Lockdown together too.

In the Awakening--> Great Ghost Dance!

In the Crash of 29--> Echo Mirage and the foundation of VR

I prefer to have the players learn the basics pre-game and integrating from those in game, however.

I had a similar idea a few years ago, that I never put into play, except it was to focus on US history.

I planned on removing one or two PC with each flash-foward as they retire and/or become NPC, and introducing new blood. The team profile was also to slowly change, starting as federal agents, embedding a growing number of contractors over the years, before turning into a full corporate team, and ending as shadowrunners.

I was far from having written the entire thing, but I had planned the following episodes:

2001 - The PC are a FBI team, investigating the Terrafirst attack against the Shiawase nuclear power plant in California and some discrepancies in Shiawase reports.

2009 - The PC mix FBI and military intelligence as a task force investigating SAIM membership in the armed forces, right before the Lone Eagle incident.

2011 - The PC are part of the effort to track Daniel Coleman after the escape of the Abilene detention center, facing the first uses of magic.

2017 - The PC are tasked with locating and designating Ghost Dance shamans in the Rocky Mountaines for drone strikes, trying and ultimately failing to delay the Great Ghost Dance.

2030 - The PC are in eastern Europe after the Crash, trying to obtain proof of Russian invasion plan and preventing US units from entrapment.

2034 - The PC are involved in political plot during the CAS secession, as megacorporations scheme to secure military contracts on both sides.

2036 - The PC are involved in the plot that lead to Fuchi Industrial Electronics acquiring US classified cyberterminal technology.

2039 - Disgruntled PC have joined Knight Errant Security Services and must perform day-to-day cop duty, when the Night of Rage happens.

2055 - Universal Brotherhood / Bug City (with an emphasis on the contribution of NAN-trained shamans within Knight Errant special forces).

2057 - PC are part of Dunkelzahn security detail during the 2057 campaign.

2064 - The Patriot Coup - showing how the New Revolution was built over the resentment and the connection of the past six decades, and with one or several of the PC from the ealier adventures as well as many regular NPC involved.

I'd definitely swap VITAS for some parts of the Ghost Dance war...VITAS never had the effect on the storyline that killing 25% of the world population should have had, so you'd run the PCs though an apocalyptic scenario and then twist the story to account for the fact that nothing much happened.