Just trying to see how far people deviate from what is published.

I'm more of a "pick and choose" or "it doesn't affect us" kind of guy.

Depends on the champagin as well, but I usually start with the books and then go wherever the thought takes me.

I use it, but only as it fits with my game. If something I disagree with then I change, modify, or interpret in my own way to fit the campaign.

Veracusse

Big stuff is true. I sometimes edit out small details. I don't really strike them from the record, I just don't choose to use everything unless a player chooses to go there.

Pretty much the same tune here, only I voted for if its printed then its true. Mainly because my players rarely involve themselves with some of the Big aspects of the Sixth World but we like our gritty details. Also i make most of my books available as Shadowland to the chars, so i dont alter too much to reward them slogging through some of the books for the info they want.

"It dependsh on how drubnk I are!"

Using canon material is a great way to increase the realism and verisimilitude of the game, as Shadowrun has quite a detailed timeline and world history (in fact, I would hesitate to even claim that I use ALL of the canon, simply because the entirety is too rich and vast to digest into a single campaign). The cloak-and-dagger nature of Shadowrun also makes allowances for information to be false or presented in multiple point of views. In general, our group strives to maintain the canon history and timeline of the Big events (The Big D is still dead), and interpret the local events in a light that best fits the campaign. I also have a tendancy to downplay the fantastical elements and focus on more realistic ones when I GM, simply because I'm tired of PCs predicting blood mages when Aztechnology shows up or predicting insect spirits on Ares runs.

I wish more GMs would pay attention to shadow commentary. makes for great plots and rumours.

I...I have a little shrine where I put the canon, and at night I worship it. I like to caress the holy text and reap its secrets and infallible logic with my eyes...

I read cannon closely, and am pretty anal about presenting it accurately, but sometimes I have fudged on some things.

The notable example is SURGE. I thought the SURGE "epidemic" and ensuing "SURGE CULTURE!" movement were about six shades of retarded. Its like "Hey, it's been 40 years since Goblinization, so lets do it again, only this time lets make more colorful and add in a furry pornstar!" So, while indivuals with deformities greatly resembling SURGE effects may eventually creep in as NPCs, you won't find SURGE clubs in any major sprawls in Akarenti's Shadowrun universe. Nor will you find feline pornstars.

There are plenty of "comet made magic go crazy" things in YotC that actually added something to the game. SURGE just wasn't one of them.

A better question in my case might be how do i not use canon. Regardless of the events described in Canon, few would have any real impact on my game. We never use those characters, rarely those situations. Overall I use Canon as a guideline, from which I do not hesitate to deviate from depending on my whim, or my players.

We haved played games that range from the awakening ocuring in different time frames-the old west and world war two are my favorites-to games that vary little from canon's exsisting fabric.

I picked the first one simply because I don't care. If a player says "Hey, it's 2064, so this happened!" Unless it directly contradicts my plot, fine, I can run with it.

I rarely really interact with all the silly details in the metaplot. It's simply not relevant.

We don't use that much of canon in our campaing. We play in Miami, so Cyberpirates is enough on canon material for this region

The big stuff like Arc, SURGE, Ring Of Fire or Saito are jsut too far away (from Miami) o we don't care (SURGE).

I stick to it as much as possible. Of course as a GM you add what you want to it, but I don't have any 6th world altering things going on. (That's why it's SHADOW run, so the wage slaves don't get all uppity) I think the main reason I use canon and no house ruling (that I know of ) is so that my players have a shared experience in a way with everyone else playing the game.