Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
I might go with 1816 for the changepoint. The Year Without a Summer, first year of a New World Order after the world wars ended in 1815. |
I'm rather fond of that as a changepoint, as I have a few other magical alternate histories that diverge there.
While Western magical traditions are faded by then, they do exist to some degree, and there would be people in Europe and the colonies/former colonies thereof who were already practicing it, and would notice that it seemed to be working 'better.' Depending on how the GM decides that magic works (not just in the sense of game mechanics), artists, poets, and other dreamers might also develop some ability with magic, especially when they're locked in a villa in Switzerland with terrible weather outside and nothing much to do inside.
Of course, at some point you'd need to decide on a magic system. I'm fond of Path/Book Magic (in this context, probably Effect Shaping with two or three levels of the Adept advantage), but for Shadowrun, something like the standard GURPS spell system might fit the source better - depending on how close you want to get to the other game's system.