I'm currently thinking of running a few games of Shadowrun, that will involve its background and rules, but would be set in an unusual period.
I'm thinking of stories in the 2011-2030 for exemple, but maybe also during the "Renaissance" period (16th century).
Anyone ever did this and could give me some hints of what are the things difficult to handle, or even the kind of stories they made up around this ?
I'd be clearly interested to do some kind of crossover campaign, where the players would start a story in the 16th century, involving Leonardo da Vinci, and then resume the modern campaign of shadowrun, where my players would stumble on some kind of diary that relates the events of the story they played in the 16th century, and continue to work on some mysteries unsolved at that time.
I have yet no clue of the details of the story, but i want to have it linked in some way with Leonardo, or any kind of reocurring character in the classical shadowrun setting (i'm still in 2053 with my group). If you guys have ideas, or already some experience with such a kind of story, i'd be delighted to get your advices

Try to find a copy of the book "Black Madonna." It's all about the IE who calls himself "Leonardo."

Cyberware, and to a lesser extent, bioware will be concerns in a game like this. I once tried to adapt the SR mechanics to fantasy a la Tolkien. I didn't have enough time on what amounted to a side project to fix all the quirks with cyber/bio. A promising avenue was treating them as magical items.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

A better way to do it is that all characters are mundanes and can't get cyber. Rather than working for corporations, they would work for governments and/or Guilds. Their job would be like normal shadowruns, but with less fanfare.

You also have to remember that without cyber/bio/magic that you can quickly overwhelm your player's characters because everybody is a "mook". Now if you want, you can allow your characters to get extra IP by stating that they have become "highly skilled and can make the most of any combat situation". Just make it cost 20 * (IP * IP) in Karma. Quite easy to get one extra IP, but costly as hell to get two or more.

Obviously, if i play in the 1500s there wont be cyberware ... and probably no magic ...
The thing is : how does magic work during those downcycles ?
What kind of magic could be doable and how ?

No 'ware
No Magic (none at all)
No HMMVV (No Vampires or Ghouls)
No Dragons (they're all asleep,waiting for Magic to return)
No Metahumans !
only Norms and a lot of religious Wars in Europe

with a Dance in Europe
Medicineman

I have used the Shadowrun mechanics in a 16th century setting. I would recommend you search for a thread on that, since many of your concerns will be addressed. However, in brief:

Initiative was a problem, especially in combination with combat pool, since it resulted in people having a TON of pool available for only one or two actions. I cut CP down significantly.

Magic users obviously beat everyone (okay if your PCs are magic users). Cyberware can be replicated through other things, such as tattoo magic.

There are a few of those things listed i'm not sure about :
No 'ware for sure
No Vampires ? are you sure about that ? The Ordo Maximus existed during the downcycle no ?
No Dragons ? Well there is a mention of Downcycle dragon hunting somewhere ... so there are some dragons.
No Metahumans ! What about the IEs ?
Surely the players wont be vampires/Dragons/IEs etc ... but that doesnt mean they cant be involved in a story that involve something like this

Go play Ars Magica.

I do play Ars Magica, thank you very much.
And Ars is set in the 13th century, and has nothing to do with the 15th ...
The goal here is to make the player feel they take part in story much bigger than their characters can handle alone.
Thanks for the advice anyway

The difference between the playstile in the 13th and the 15th century is the dawn of the age of reason and the new world.
Once again: If you want to play in such a timeframe I'd suggest to take a system reflecting these ages.

For a steampunk setting I would say the following:
Ware = Steam version (will require tweaking of equipment)
Magic allowed (though you can pass it off as witchcraft and all magic users hunted for using magic)
HMHVV allowed if the setting warrants it
Mythical animals like Dragons allowed if the setting warrants it
Metahumans allowed if the setting warrants it
Play up religion as much as possible

I smell some "Thief: The Dark Project"

I'll restate my basic "needs" :
- Setting between the 15th to the 17th century.
- Being the past of the shadowrun universe (that is real history with slight adjustment due to continuity in certain backstories of the shadowrun universe).
- A 2 to 3 sessions story in that setting to link it to a bigger story with my current players in actual shadowrun setting (well i'm still in 2053 with that group).
The goal being that the shadowrun group becomes aware of the whole renaissance story by some way or another (Astral quest, diary or something ...)
For exemple, i'll query my player for a game, and before we start, i distribute a character sheet to each one of them.
Then start in that renaissance setting, and refuse to answer questions on why we're not playing shadowrun.
Then, when that story is over, i start another session, this time in the modern (well futuristic actually) setting.
I could even start that story with "Following your collective dream/astral quest you all decided to go to Hangar B32 in puyallup to recover the ancient artifact/book/whatever. You got it in your hands. The problem is that others where right behind you." and start with a big shadowrun sequence to give them again the "pleasure" of ware and magic wielding

So the goal is just to have a few game sessions in that setting, to give a better sight on SR's backstories.

Well no magic or cyber for all so that quailty that gives mundanes more IPs would be a must. Firearms would be clunky melée more viable. Now other than that it's all plot issues.

Well ,the HMMVV Virus Transforms Humans into Vampires (and Elfes to Banshees, makes Ghouls ,etc) the HMMVV Virus is a magical Virus.Magic returned 2011 and HMMVV was non existant before that Time !
So : No HMMVV Virus = No Vampires,No Ghoules,Etc.
Dragon Hunting ?
The same with Dragons. Only when Magic returned (2011) did the Dragons (re)awake
They where buried,hidden ,frozen, whatever, during the "No-Magic-5th World"
People knew from Dragons from Tales of the 4th World (which some Player consider to be the Earthdawn World) so,there might have been Dragonhunters,but they wouldn't have found any

IEs ....How Many are there ? 3,5,6 ? I Know of 2 or 3 (Harlequin,Ehran the Scribe, ?)
they are remnants/survivors of the 4th World near Powerless exept for their Immortality and Hiding from discovery or else..."Burn at the Stake Witch"
(there is a famous german Sci-Fi story of an immortal Alien,that walks along Earth History to help Humanity evolve,so that he can return home :its called Atlan.Rreminds me allways of the IEs)

But this is a little Offtopic and I doubt really helpfull to the Treehugger

with an offtopic Dance
Medicineman

I'm pretty sure i've seen mention of the Black Lodge and the Ordo Maximus being active during the downcycle (5th world), but cant remember witch book. Black Lodge means magic, Ordo Maximus means Vampires. Maybe with less power of course ...

For Dragon hunting, it's mentioned by Dunkenzhal in Aztlan :

There is a mention that the IE where able to keep their appearance masked during the 5th age, most notably the IRA conspiracy that created Tir Na Nog. Lesser magic was possible to some extend.
About the IEs in Threat they are evaluated to 25 i think.

The "witch-hunt" thing is interesting

There is a mention that the IE where able to keep their appearance masked during the 5th age, most notably the IRA conspiracy that created Tir Na Nog.

The IEs walked as Norms during the 5th World because they had no Magic (except their Immortality)
and Tir Na Nog was created by a spike Baby not an IE

Black Lodge means magic, Ordo Maximus means Vampires. Maybe with less power of course
Both are impossible,because there was no Magic in the 5th World(it returned 2011 ,thats a premise)
well at least no Magic on a constant base. certain Spikes appeared,but only short before the "Breakthrough" of Magic. Just Enough events to create a Handfull of Spike Babies.

Its a big Contradiction that a Vampire could exist ,before that which causes his existence came into being

with a contradictional Dance
Medicineman

I totaly agree with you Medecineman, that there are contradictions.
Nonetheless, if the Ordo Maximus has so much power, it's because it existed during the 5th age.
It may mean that they where just "mundane" vampires ... still having probably a few knacks available to them.
Vampires are not astral beings, hence they dont leave the world during the downcycle. What happens then when the 4Th age ends ? all vampires die ? i doubt it.
the "no magic during the 5th age" is not that of an absolute.
If there was a scale to measure mana levels, with 0 being no magic, 1 being the awakening and 10 the highest peak during the scourge, during the 5th age it was above 0 but below 1. At least that's my humble opinion according to my interpretation of the various sourcebooks.
Also, i'm pretty sure that IE's during the 5th age had their +1 agi +2 cha as well as pointy ears, since they do not goblinise.
A troll in space does not revert to human, even if there is no magic there, why should an elf "revert" to human ?

Hiding their ears during the iron age when latex wasnt available to make good make up must have been problematic ... hence the small magics to cover them.

We're out of the debate, because we're talking of IE's, while i wanted to have clues of what kind of magical feats could be achieved during the downcycle.

By some thing not of a magic in the high two digit numbers none. IIRC one book mentions that Harlequin (could be another IE or I'm mistaken completely) found really simple spells required hours if not longer to cast.

As said above, the Black Madonna novel features an immortal elve known as Brightlight claiming to be Leonardo da Vinci, and that John the Baptist was the true prophet and Jesus and all the Catholic Church are liars (Black Madonna was realased several years before the Da Vinci Code, but both heavily borrowed from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail). Then, a later SR novel, Technobabel, has Lofwyr saying the elve is a loony. It worth noting that Brightlight works led indirectly to the birth of Deus and thus to the 2065 Crash.

Also, Dunkelzahn's Will features two items related to Leonardo da Vinci :

Brightlight showed up only in may 2057, the Will is read in august 2057. But Lucien Cross probably had the opportunity to see the painting at Dunkelzahn's estate some years before inheriting it, and may have named his intelligence services after it.

Since your game timeline is in 2053, I'll point out that's the same year Cross Applied Technologies applied for extraterritoriality and "stole" a company called Bioleve from Ares. It prompted (along with other, older reasons) Damien Knight to dispatch an assassin to kill Lucien Cross. His bodyguard Jezebel Surateau took the bullet, lefting her disabled. Then Dunkelzahn warned Knight, once, and Knight did not dare to threaten Cross anew as long as the dragon was alive.

As I'm a bit lazy, I'll redirect you to The Seraphim draft I made up some years ago even if the proposal for it was refused for Loose Alliances (besides, SOTA:2064 later gave a different version for the Seraphim). The last section may give you an idea of a possible link between Leonardo da Vinci and the reason why Dunkelzahn wanted Lucien Cross to stay alive.

Nonetheless, if the Ordo Maximus has so much power, it's because it existed during the 5th age.
It may mean that they where just "mundane" vampires ..
Where does it say that they are so Powerfull ? Is it from the Novel?
Novels are not Rules

and "mundane Vampires" ?
Thats like somebody would've Aids but wasn't infected
Thats Impossible !
Either your'e a Vampire (infected by a magical Disease ) or Your'e Mundane
And Who says that Vampire existed in the 4th World ?
I played Earthdawn a while ago.I don't remember any Vampires
(but I'm no Earthdawn specialist ,so ?)
Vampires are Dual beings.
What Happens to a Mage when he's above the Gajasphere and he switches to
Astral Gaze ?
The same would happen to all Dual beings in a No-Mana-Area/No-Magic-Era.(every Combat Round )


OK BtT
while i wanted to have clues of what kind of magical feats could be achieved during the downcycle.

None, because there was No Magic .
Spike Effects startet only a few Decades before 2011 (AFAIK)
But Its your Game, You can decide which Magical Effects happened when or where

HokaHey
Medicineman

By "mundane vampires", I think he meant "vampires that aren't Magician or Adept". While all wendigo have the Magician quality since fourth edition, vampire may have the Adept, Magician or Mystical Adept quality (SR4, pas 294). The earliest edition were saying there was a higher than average percentage of spellcasters and adepts among vampires, but it was not known if the virus helped unlocking magical abilities or if vampires simply favored awakened target to feed.
There were sort of vampires, but their powers and origins were really different from their SR counterparts.

Custom create the characters so they "fit" the prequel. Ask your players ahead of time what kind of character would they like. The mechanics don't have to change. Also, if you are using 15th or 16th Italian city states. You don't get more Shadowrun than that with merchant princes, intrigue, international commerce. Hell, Venice practically invented the concept of extraterritoriality during the time of the Crusades. IF you use magic, keep it extremely low key. Low magic ratings (due to the extremely low point in the magic cycle), or make spells difficult or make them longer to cast (a la ritual magic). I think the idea is fantastic, and I've done the astral quest thing with WW2(No magic) and High Fantasy(All Magic) as backdrops so I can tell you first hand the rules work just fine for any setting.

Love those astral quests... especially the WW2 one... Brutal

I did a campaign set in 2031. I ended up having to do a time line of "inventions" to determine when certain cyberwear, magic, gear and "stuff" would become available. It was very interesting as a research project since I had to read many of the older books to make "accurate" guesses.