How much do you use real world historical references in your game setting? I can't say this comes up all too often, but I am curious how much other GMs change the canon SR history to accommodate Real World historical anomalies? Since SR 1e was released in 1989 there are 23+ years of Real World history that doesn't have niche in SR history.

Did the towers fall Sept 11 2001?

Did Iron Maiden release Dance of Death in 2003?

Did the Blackout on August 14 2003 have the same impact on the existing SR power companies?

Did Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 have a significant impact on the SR world?

I know as a GM its a personal choice what to include and exclude in your game but I am just curious how other GMs handle this if it ever comes up. I have seen a couple early 21st century references by players in current games is why I am asking.

Generally speaking, it's best to ignore specific moments of recent actual history, or at least ignore the impact. A lot of shitty stuff has happened in the SR world since, say, the Deepwater Horizon incident, so even if it happened that way in SR history, it's pretty far down on the list of major ecological disasters and probably doesn't get talked about at dinner parties anymore.

The two best ways I've found to deal with modern references at a table are these:

1) Pretend the reference is actually some other reference that's relevant to the characters, but phrased differently so that the players get it. SR characters in the 2070s might not get a reference to the Blackwater mercenaries, but there's probably a current SR-lore equivalent. Everyone can then get on with their lives.

2) Assume that the reference is entirely legit, and don't think too much about the details. In this model, the reference is nebulously recent enough to have some sort of relevance, or merely outdated. This way the reference gets to kind of 'float' in the timeline as needed. "Hey, this is almost as bad as the Deepwater Horizon explosion" -- "The one in 2023 or the one in 2052?" -- "Man, they really need to stop calling them that..."

It's also possible that the Deepwater Horizon incident never could have happened. February 10, 2010 was when the VITAS plague first hit. Roughly 25% of the global population was wiped out.

As for Iron Maiden, this would be assuming that copies of their albums survived the first crash of 2029 and Crash 2.0 in 2064. It's possible, yes, but then we're talking about an album that is over 70 years old as of SR5. With the amount of data lost it's quite possible there are historians in the Shadowrun universe who believe Spinal Tap was an honest to God real band. Iron Maiden is a big band now, yes, but honestly how many of us now listen to music that was popular in the 1920's & 1930's with the devotion of a fangirl to 1Direction now?

I'm more freaked out by the "Dukakis won the Presidency" thing. And the, "Yeah, Harry and William both died, leaving a 3rd Prince we don't have in reality."

I don't include real world events in my timeline. I try to keep things as canon as possible and usually don't even reference real world events.

Typically there isn't a lot of need to reference "that" far back, since there's so much to work with. Take some time to get into SRs history and there's plenty of shit going wrong to not have to worry about RL issues as well. Plus if you look at earlier editions where "pocket secretaries" in the '50s were the slow child equivalent of phones today, kinda breaks the fourth wall.

I did have some fun running a game set in 2012 though, with VITAS, the beginning of the NAN revolution, the Awakening, etc. My advice would be to leave out all the real life business unless there's a specific reason.

Agreed. I almost never have to use real world events. When I do, it's more me just using real world landmarks and things that predate any of the sixth world alterations.

And generally, even if you do include events, the time lapse is so much that it doesn't really matter.

Or not use some real world alterations. For example, Stapleton Airport in Denver, CO, no longer exists. In Shadowrun, it's a hub for aircraft, semi-ballistic, and suborbital flights well into the 2070's, and is the busiest civilian airport (presumably in Denver). Granted it was decommissioned briefly and rebuilt (per reference in Spy Games), but as of right now only the control tower remains. Even most of the runways are now long gone.

Actually... Stapleton is now a Housing and Business district. Quite nice, actually.
Semi-Ballisticts out of Stapleton would be ludicrous indeed... Better out by DIA, actually.

In lore they did explain the reopening of Stapleton but yeah living here it's really silly to think it would be reopened. But you know Denver in shadowrun has always felt off to me.

One trick I like to do is make in game specific references that haven't happened yet, like a contact that decks himself out in outdated 2040s fashion. It allows you to be specific but actually say nothing.

I would like to thank everyone who posted for the timely responses. It was great to check on this thread today and see so many of you had given your thoughts on such a potentially open-ended literary question. As most you agreed, its not like this question comes up so often in game to make it something to focus on so i can completely see why its much easier to just rely strictly on canon SR history. Yes the Dukakis election factoid made me smile a bit. Considering the near-apocalyptic events in the SR universe would have cut back the population quite a bit as well as the current lifestyles altering life expectancy, there has got to be a few "elderly" people who would remember those times... after all they would only need to be 75!

I was considering using a scene or two or perhaps a job offer by an "old-timer" who wants something personal returned from his history so he hires runners. This item being not very valuable in today's street market except to rare collectors. My original idea was to have the runners collect a 1964 Ford Mustang as well as the 1989 25th anniversary Mustang... being the gentleman was born in the same year as the car. As flavor to the meeting with Mr. Johnson have him trail off on how things were back in his day...

Anyway, thank you all again for your time and answers. Greatly appreciated.

Never trust an old-timer.

I remember when i thought that way now i just tell rambling stories that go nowhere, like the time i went to Shelbyville wore an onion on my belt which was the style at the time...

That's it, you win the internet. Good game everyone, we can all go home now.

We keep to the sr history,

It depends on the group. If this is a one-shot with people new to SR, yeah, the history they remember still applies, let's keep rolling.

Otherwise, Shadowrun is an alternate timeline which diverged around 1989.

Never trust an old-timer.
Never trust an elf.
Never deal with a dragon.
Heck, let's cut the middle man and not trust anyone. It's the only way to be sure.

And thanks to possible nanites/programs invading your body and taking over your mind, you might not even be able to trust yourself.

Have a great day.

I for one welcome our new AI overlords.

Hedging your bets, Fueldrop?

I find it's best to have a plan for every eventuality.

Granted, I don't get to set fire to anything in this one, but you occasionally have to make some sacrifices.

Then you may want to look into a little spell we're working on, Phoenix Cure[Nanite].

It's sort of a modification of the Cure Disease spell, but set to locate nanites and for the curing part I figure microapplications of fire can never go wrong.

Ideally once perfected this should destroy a nanite infestation, fusing their tiny bits into inert particles for the body to eventually reabsorb or flush out.

As there are a wide range of different forms of nanites, each version of the spell is specific to one 'build', so typically a sample of the type of nanite to be targeted will be required to design the final spell for it.

So far in our testing, soft nanites have proven fairly easy to destroy without causing much too collateral damage to the host body, imagine having a spike fever of 105, while destroying hard nanites usually requires a bit more Force put into it and there is usually a bit of healing up afterwards required.

Generally I treat the Shadowrun universe like an alternate universe (with it's own alternate timeline) rather than the future of this world.

How are you getting around object resistance/LOS?

You don't need to see a disease to cast a spell to remove the disease. A mage casts it on the diseased individual. Same would work for this spell, I imagine. The nanites would be a mechanical (vs. biological) abnormal condition.