New to the forums, haven't played SR in a looong time. I'm sort of kicking around an idea in my head for a campaign that will end up being set in Turkey (Istanbul) and I'm looking for any background information I can find on the surrounding area. I have Runner Havens which talks a *little* about Istanbul. I'm perfectly okay with the idea of just making it all up myself but I don't want to inadvertently stomp on top of any pre existing setting information. Unless it's really stupid. Or boring. Or I just feel like it.

The Shadowrun Wiki isn't always the best put together or up to date source of information, but it at least can give you some basic information and a few leads on what particular books to look through to find more for just about any topic.

Unfortunately, you have about a 35% of what you want either being in Polish or German, but hey... we can't have everything.

~Umi

This list is probably missing a few things, but it is a start.

Main sources:
Shadows of Asia: Overview over all countries. 3rd Edition.
Corporate Enclaves: Dubai, mostly. 4th Edition.
Sixth World Almanac. Update on a number of nations. 4th Edition.
Target: Wastelands: An overview of the Arab desert and the Sahara. Sandworms, no kidding. 3rd Edition.

Lesser Sources:
Hazard Pay : Stuff on deserts. 4th Edition.
Clutch of Dragons: Hestaby blows up stuff in the MidEast belonging to Lofwyr. Lofwyr is displeased and does nothing. Also, a lot on Aden and therefore, the MidEast underworld. 4th Edition.
Damage Control: Follow-up on Clutch and Corporate Enclaves. Set in Dubai, this adventure .... well, the guy on the title really says it all. 4th Edition.
Dragons of the Sixth World: Stuff on Aden. Some stuff on Teheran. 3rd Edition.
Fields of Fire: Stuff on the Five Minute War and Desert Wars. Also, the 20.000 Daggers. 2nd Edition.
Loose Alliances: Stuff on the New Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Renaissance Movement, two of the major inner-arabic social currents. 3rd Edition.
System Failure: Follow-ups on Ibn Eisa, the NIJ's leader, and his apparent resurrection after a Mossad hit (hint: braaaains). Also some stuff on Arabia during and immediately after the Crash. 3rd Edition.
Survival of the Fittest: Campaign about dragons doing dragon things that dragons don't do anymore because of Storm Front and ... let's just not talk about that. One run is set in Tehran. It is not a nice place. 3rd Edition.
Runner Havens: Istambul and Caravan. Two cities brushed over very briefly. 4th Edition.

Obscure/bizarre/not-quite-canonic sources:
War!: Evil Arab Global Sandstorm Corporation steals Somalia's water for reasons of evil. No, really. 4th Edition.
Black Madonna: A novel with it's finale set in Basra. It is rather bizarre.
Jede Wette: German-only novel largely set in Dubai.
Fatimahs Tränen: German-only novel set largely in Afghanistan. m/m romance. I found it rather interesting, but it tends to put readers off.

-- Actually that's not unreasonable.
-- The unreasonable part is that somehow ships are inefficient at transporting water into the country, despite the alternatives being pretty much described as unworkable. Especially at the bounty price the Ethiomalian government is paying you could retire after a single freighter load from down the coast.

Istanbul itself (Constantinople until recently) is probably most extensively described in Runner Havens, Shadows of Asia and State of the Art: 2063. Of which Runner Havens' is actually the most comprehensive description I believe. It is a free city and a mercenary haven. 10,000 Daggers are based out of the city. Surrounding West Turkey (actually not completely clear whether Eastern Thrace is still Turkish) is a secular republic again. It borders East Anatolia, the eastern part of former Turkey, which is controlled by fundamentalists. So the main Turkish conflict is between the two groups. A bit further east, there now exists an independent Kurdistan, the Kurds keep mostly to themselves though.

But if you focus on Istanbul, I would actually also look to Europe. Right next is the Balkans of course, which has criminal organisations and smugglers, ethnic and religious conflicts, Great Jihad holdouts, New Jihad hideouts, corp military advisors, mercenaries and UN Blue Helmets for good measure. You have Greece, a federation of city states. You have a pretty dominant Ukraine with the megacorp Bioenergetica Ukraine as I would say the most important faction in the Black Sea, also meddles in Transcaucasia. There is the arcane-archaeological angle if you are interested in that. The Atlantean Foundation is active both in the Ukraine and Southern Greece. To the south there is ruined Cyprus. Istanbul is part of a political union called Philike Hetaeria (should be in Runner Havens) and the NEEC also keeps an eye on the situation lest anything unpleasant comes this way again.

As for the Middle East itself, Israel has taken control of Lebanon and grabbed a small piece of Syria. Palestine seems to be finally independent. Religion-wise things appear to have calmed down after the New Islamic Jihad was uncovered as a Shedim front organisation. The Caliphate is stable. Corps are exploiting the region, business as usual. Well, Saeder-Krupp moved their Middle East HQ from Istanbul to Dubai, but that's a while back as of mid-2070s. So the only major conflict is Lofwyr against Aden it would say. (You can probably tell, I find the European setting more interesting, at least right now.)

Although it wasn't listed in Feral Cities, Tehran was attacked by a great dragon in the 2060s (not sure about the date) and the islamic republic was overthrown. There is minor fluff about it in one of the missions. Anyway, it's a city with no formal government partially in ruins with about 10 million still living there. Logic would dictate that the city would be a major crossroads of smuggling traffic between asia, africa, and europe.

Actually, logic would dictate that a new formal government of some sort would be established to replace the old one, even if it's just a city council or something.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Just look to the French Revolution. Sure, a lot of the "governments" that cropped up during that time failed rapidly, but they were still formal governments, and they kept on coming one after the other despite the chaos of the times.

~Umi

You somehow got that mixed up. Aden destroyed Tehran in 2020, he killed 2 million and another 8 million fled. The city could never be rebuilt as the dragon still controls its ruins. While some people live or operate there it is nowhere near a functional city. The capital of Iran moved to Isfahan and the Islamic Republic still exists.

Wow that looks like a not a whole lot of information spread out over a lot of books. Looks like my bank account is going to take a wallop. It sounds like the biggest players are the New Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Resistance Movement and the 20k Daggers so Fields of Fire, Loose Alliances, and System Failure... Clutch of Dragons sounds important and then maybe Survival of the Fittest if I want anything dragon-y. Anything else you guys think is a *must* buy?

As far as Tehran becoming a major smuggler city the lack of sea ports would probably keep that from happening although it sounds like conditions are ripe for it being a generic albeit dangerous underworld haven.

Not in anyway important to what I'm working on here just out of sick curiosity, any books have some good info on India?

Also thanks for the help, you guys rock.

Well, it also depends on when you want to play.

2061-2064 - Badr al-Din Ibn Eisa is shot and resurrected in the Year of the Comet, starts the New Islamic Jihad, religious conflict fires up in the Middle East until the crash of 2064 and the uncovering that NIJ is controlled by shedim. Unconnected to this (except for Aden's minor involvement) the Rite of Succession for Dunkelzahn plays out between the great dragons.

- Loose Alliances, Survival of the Fittest, System Failure

2064-2070 - Skipped time between SR3 and SR4. Post-Crash phase. For the Middle East that mainly means corporate consolidation (takeovers by Global Sandstorm). The whole business with Israel absorbing Lebanon must have happened then. But I don't think it was ever described.

~2073-2075 - Conflicts between dragons, some direct Middle East involvement via the Dubai incident. Aden and Lofwyr are in conflict over the Middle East so that helps.

- Clutch of Dragons

I don't have Fields of Fire in this short timeline, because that's mid-2050s. Also I don't think it says anything substantial about the Middle East. The Desert Wars are actually in North Africa. Loose Alliances and System Failure are not that relevant beyond the Crash of 2064 and its aftermath because the New Jihad plot arc ends and the NIJ becomes an underground terrorist group. Of the two books Loose Alliances probably is the more relevant for post-2070, but not without extrapolation. Also System Failure has a strong focus on the Crash 2.0. There is maybe 5 pages detailing the reveal of NIJ. The faction descriptions for the Middle East in Loose Alliances are something like 15 pages, maybe a bit more if you add the archaeological organisations. Survival of the Fittest has little to do with the Middle East except for one adventure that focuses on Aden and Tehran, so I don't know whether you would find it that useful.

Clutch of Dragons on the other hand is more recent and just in terms of what Aden is up to, probably interesting for playing in the region. (Dragons of the Sixth World would be its equivalent for the 2060s era.)

For a 2070s campaign I would suggest Shadows of Asia, which is 2064, but it describes most countries in the Middle East and things haven't shifted that much. And then the Corporate Guide to see which corporate players are involved in the Middle East. Maybe the Almanac if you want the latest updates on the Arabian Caliphate (only 2 pages) and also some info about Egypt (another 2 pages).

Shadows of Asia has information on India. It has been a while since I read the description, but I think it is one of those places that got hit with VITAS so conveniently it is now exactly as populous as contemporary India and therefore hardly anything changed. Except there is magic now (not a big difference for India if you ask me ). Might be wrong about this, but don't expect to much.