Ok, the other Shadowrun thread was not what I thought it'd be about. It turned out to be about alternate premises from the typical "runner" thematic.

What I want to talk about is alternate actual SETTINGS that you could use the Shadowrun game for.  Has anyone ever played shadowrun in something other than the official setting? If so, what did you do?

RPGPundit

A future where the Cold War is going on? Never played it, but Cold Space's goodness got me thinking...

I started a campaign (back before I found the B5 game) that would have eventually culminated in Shadows and Vorlons (re-named) at war for humanity.

Did an expanded cowpunk and clockwork campaign once, based on the chapter in Harlequin's Back. Also a high-fantasy, low-tech version called Tsemes, the Lost City.

Neither lasted long. Six weeks each, one-two sessions a week.

If I can find him I'll see if I can get Brother Justice to discuss his really cool Post Apocalyptic Shadowrun alternate, which explores what would have happened if nuclear weapons didn't fail to work in the Lone Eagle crisis.

A series of 12 adventures using the old Shadowrun and Krynn (Dragonlance). Went okay, but I never really liked the system.

Regards,
David R

I ran a tweaked oWoD/Bug City set in modern times (at the time mid 90s).  The first game was VtM and the PCs tried to infiltrate a hive (wasps?) and were all killed.  They demanded we play the same setting using WtA and we had a blast.  The bugs were wyrm creatures, of course, and I had a whole backstory written up about the rift in the Umbra and how it all came about, but I'll be damned if I can remember much of it.  There was a lot of cool street-level intrigue the second time around, lots of saving of innocents from the not-so-innocent, interspersed with a ton of bug-gutty combat.  I had a blast running it, especially because my players knew nothing of the Shadowrun cosmology so I could wing most of it.  

Pete

The young white man faded back under old Charley White Eyes stare. Charley always had a way of looking through a man, though he was blind. Now his gaze was especially penetrating.

The older white gave Charley and his companions a nod, and asked, "You have reached a decision?"

Charley nodded in return and replied, "We remember the wars. We remember the slaughters and the atrocities. I still have my ancestor's scrotum, which a white soldier tanned and made into a tobacco pouch. It's a good tobacco pouch.

"We know what you are capable of. You humiliated us then, and you can humiliate us now. We learned a hard lesson then, we have no desire to relearn it now."

The FBI man kept his voice level, his face grave. He asked, "So your decision then is..."

Old Charley answered, "We would be fools to assume you have not accepted and adapted to The Change. We would be greater fools to assume that we would could so much as match, much less overpower you.

"We are Americans, and members of the Lakota Nation. Our fate is tied with you, we could no more survive your wrath than a a naked man could survive a blizzard. There will be no rebellion, no seccession. And we shall act in support of the United States of America against any and all enemies foreign and domestic."

The white man nodded and said, "That is good."

As the four Indians walked out of the office Special Agent Mark Alrich looked over at his assistant and said, "It is not wise to threaten a man who has learned how to teleport himself and three other men. Especially one who can do it from Butte Montana to Washington D.C. just a week after The Change."

He turned his attention back to his unending paper work. The new comprehension spell he'd composed was really helping there.