Ten Shadowrun fan campaigns I want to get into on PC

Ten Shadowrun fan campaigns I want to get into on PC This is one of the big reasons I want to get back on a PC. I played the Harebrained Shadowrun games on PlayStation, and I loved them. But there is a whole collection of campaigns people have built for the PC versions that I haven't touched yet. Some of these are new stories. Some go back to the older games. One tries to give you that ongoing life of taking jobs, making money and building your runner that I loved so much on Genesis. That alone has my attention. I went looking through the campaign pages and player recommendations to put together ten worth looking at. This is a researched list of what I want to play, not me pretending I have beaten them already. They also vary quite a bit in polish and age. I'm more interested in what each one offers than pretending there is an official ranking everybody agrees on. One thing to check before downloading anything: the game listed beside each campaign is the game it runs in. Owning Returns doesn't mean a Hong Kong campaign will work in it. These are PC user campaigns, not downloadable campaigns for the PlayStation, Xbox or Switch trilogy. 1. Antumbra Saga Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. Antumbra Saga takes you through the Pacific Coast, with an original group of runners, choices that carry consequences and several possible epilogues. It is the first part of Cirion's CalFree sequence. This is one of the names that keeps coming up when players talk about getting more out of these games. The appeal for me is having another substantial story with its own crew instead of just another combat map. There are conversations, puzzles and different ways to handle situations alongside the fights. Use the complete Saga release rather than collecting the old Antumbra, Eclipse and Corona modules for Returns. The creator says those older releases are no longer maintained. There is also a practical character warning: the Saga page advises against a pure decker. A hybrid or a decker companion is the safer expectation for its mix of missions. Campaign and creator instructions: https://t.co/81asXjGAnF. 2. The Caldecott Caper Runs in: Hong Kong: Extended Edition. This one starts you out working corporate security in the Orkland sprawl and takes you into a much larger story around the San Francisco Bay Area. You recruit a crew, deal with different personalities and make choices that matter to the people working with you. The companion writing is a big part of why it gets recommended. That is exactly the kind of thing I want more of after the official games. I want the people on the team to feel like they have their own thoughts about what we are doing. It follows Antumbra Saga in the CalFree sequence, so I would start there if I wanted the full progression through that setting. The creator lists the campaign as complete. That doesn't mean no player can encounter a bug, but it isn't being presented as an unfinished opening chapter. Campaign and creator instructions: https://t.co/tR0LCojPOp. 3. CalFree in Chains Runs in: Hong Kong: Extended Edition. CalFree in Chains picks up after The Caldecott Caper, with resistance against General Saito and the Protectorate in the California Free State. The scale of the conflict is bigger, and the connection to the earlier campaign is a good reason to play these in order. The sequence I would use is Antumbra Saga, The Caldecott Caper, then CalFree in Chains. That does mean changing from Dragonfall to Hong Kong after the first one. It is a story order, not a promise that you import the same character through all three. The creator lists Chains as complete and recommends an optional music replacement utility. I would get the campaign working first and treat the music tool as a separate optional installation, following its own instructions rather than assuming a Workshop subscription installs everything. Campaign and creator instructions: https://t.co/7yjvbTOfAb. Cirion also provides direct campaign downloads for non-Steam copies: https://t.co/La8P1rYqIK. 4. Dead Man Switch: Vox Populi Runs in: Hong Kong: Extended Edition. Vox Populi revisits the Dead Man's Switch campaign from Returns inside Hong Kong. It gives you a reason to go back through that story with the later game's systems and additional work on the companions and campaign. This is a different kind of recommendation from an entirely new adventure. If what you want is another setting and a mystery you have never seen, start with one of the original campaigns on this list. If you want to revisit Returns, this is a fan adaptation worth looking at. The team has expanded more than the graphics or maps. Player feedback specifically praises the companion conversations and updated story material. Do not plan around bringing in an old high-level character, though: the author says character imports are not supported. Start a new runner. Campaign page: https://t.co/xPdYhEBNIC and author answers and player feedback: https://t.co/Q6lc1dxPOZ. 5. SNES Reboot Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. Requires Geeked's portraits and props pack. Considering how much the Super Nintendo game means to me, you can probably guess why this one caught my attention. It is a fan remake of that game, rebuilt through the newer Shadowrun tools. The creators describe the project as complete, while also acknowledging it isn't perfect. You can use the default Jake or a new character. I would treat it as somebody's recreation of a game I love, with its own changes, rather than expecting every original mechanic to carry over exactly. The required prop pack is important. Don't download the campaign alone and then assume missing assets mean the whole project is broken. Also make sure you are on the Dragonfall: Director's Cut release linked here, not the old Returns alpha that still turns up in searches. SNES Reboot: https://t.co/9tQlJIEJNC and required Geeked prop pack: https://t.co/onMjKXz2yb. 6. Brothers to the End Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. This one makes a connection that immediately interested me: it is a fan prequel to the Genesis game and a sequel to the SNES game. It follows Michael and Stark through a job that becomes something much worse. That is fan continuity, not an official missing chapter Sega or the original developers released. But as an idea for somebody who loves both games, it is a hell of a pitch. The creator describes a ten-act campaign, multiple endings and a lot of dialogue, with an estimated 20–25 hours of play. That time is the creator's estimate, not a time I measured. Expect established protagonists and a story built around them rather than assuming you are making a completely blank runner. For me, this is one of the most interesting reasons to go looking beyond the official campaigns. Campaign page: https://t.co/NJr99Rus9j. 7. Mercurial Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. Mercurial puts you in Seattle in 2050, building a team and taking a job in a city where trust can be expensive. It is another story campaign to look at when you want more of that setting and the work of being a runner. It comes up alongside the better-known CalFree campaigns in community recommendations, but it is older, and there are bug reports in its discussions. I would go into it with separate saves rather than assuming an older community campaign will behave exactly like a current commercial release. What gets it onto my list is the opportunity to put together another team for another Seattle story. It doesn't need to reinvent the entire game for that to be worth a look. Campaign page and discussions: https://t.co/CjleQI31av. 8. SR Unlimited Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. Unfinished story; sandbox-focused. This is the one I would look at for the repeatable-run side of Shadowrun. The project describes jobs drawn from fixer pools, Street Cred, Heat, Notoriety and safe houses. The work you do can open up better contacts while also drawing more attention from Lone Star. That is much closer to the sort of ongoing runner life I loved on Genesis. Taking jobs, getting paid, improving your situation and deciding how much trouble you can afford to attract. I want more of that. But I need to be clear about the tradeoff: the authors explicitly say the storyline is incomplete. This is not my recommendation for somebody who wants a fully finished campaign with a dependable ending. There are also player reports of broken missions. Go in for the sandbox and expect rough edges. Dragonfall version: https://t.co/VR2gnEMRHc and project description and systems: https://t.co/qNyvt3kP60. 9. Codename: Cherise, The Galaxy Case Runs in: Dragonfall: Director's Cut. This one follows Cherise, an established female gun-for-hire, in a custom Tokyo setting. A job involving a holonet celebrity pulls her into something more complicated. The attraction here is a focused character story and a different setting from the Seattle campaigns. The creator describes it as linear and dialogue-driven, with choices in how you respond. That is useful to know before you start: this isn't the sandbox option on the list, and it isn't built around inventing every part of your protagonist. It is also a smaller-name recommendation than the CalFree campaigns. I included it because it offers something different, not because I found a universal agreement that it outranks everything else. Campaign page: https://t.co/LMsg87ifph. 10. Nightmare Harvest Runs in: Shadowrun Returns. Nightmare Harvest sends you into the Shambles, a troubled neighborhood with gangs, secrets and a runner trying to keep a low profile. It leans into exploring, reading what people tell you and finding ways through a situation. The player feedback that stood out to me was about the dialogue and the number of options. That sounds like a good reason to give Returns another outing instead of immediately moving every recommendation into the later games. This is an older campaign, and its creator warns about save-related issues. Read the current instructions, keep separate saves and don't treat quicksaving in every scene as guaranteed safe. It is worth knowing that before getting invested, especially with a campaign that asks you to do some investigating. Campaign page and creator warnings: https://t.co/6pbQbWOxuE. Where I would start For my own interests, SNES Reboot and Brothers to the End are the obvious ones to look at because of my attachment to the old games. For a substantial new run of stories, the CalFree sequence makes sense. For revisiting Returns, Vox Populi. And for that ongoing job system, SR Unlimited, with the unfinished-state warning taken seriously. Before starting any of them, check the host game, required items and the creator's latest notes. Steam copies use the relevant game's Workshop; non-Steam installations need a download and instructions intended for that version. There isn't one folder path or one character-import rule that applies to everything here. I haven't installed and tested these on a PC yet, so I am not promising current compatibility on every setup. What I can say is that there is a lot more Shadowrun here than I got to play on console, and this is exactly the kind of stuff I am looking forward to getting into.