What books do you recommend?

I'm looking to get into Star Wars Role Playing but I don't know where to really start. I have done some roleplaying in the past and I am more familiar with D6, but I have done some D&D. If anyone could help me, it would be appreciated.

 

The Revised Core Rulebook is a good primer for the d20 system.

The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook is good for Jedi (and some Force in general) and the Hero's Guide is a good "rounding out the edges" book.

 

Thanks

 

revised core rulebook
ultimate alien anthology
heros guide
dark side sourcebook
galacic campaign guide

oh hell.. just get em all

obtw.. unless you have really new players you can skip the invasion of theed box ((( the things i do for a chewbacca action figure))

 

Along with the RCRB, the Darkside book and Hero's Guide are definate must haves.

You know, with the Hero's Guide out now, it's not so easy to pick a favorite soucebook anymore.

 

my advice:

if you can only buy one, the Revised Core Rulebook is obviously key. it's also significantly better than the first edition, which is nice.

if you can only buy two, i would make sure to get the Hero's Guide. it's easily the best supplement and the most important book other than the core book. when you combine all the great character generation info (feats, skills, prestige classes, etc) with the superb Factions section, it really can't be beat.

third is the Ultimate Alien Anthology. 95% of all the alien species you'll ever need info on. fantastically comprehensive. if only Starships of the Galaxy was this big.

with these three books you can run virtually any game you could ever want without much problem. getting these three should be your top priorities. beyond that, it really depends on era and setting. my advice:

TOTJ/KOTOR era: Dark Side Sourcebook and Power of the Jedi are absolutely essential. also, get the d6 Tales of the Jedi companion if you can and adapt it. almost all the other books are mostly useless.

Rise of the Empire/Clone Wars era: Power of the Jedi should be your first buy. Coruscant and the Core Worlds is another good choice. Dark Side Sourcebook may be good, but the Sith are laying so low in this timeframe it may or may not be worth it. you may also find Starships of the Galaxy, Arms and Equipment Guide, and Secrets of Tatooine useful as well, but get all the others first.

Rebellion era: if you can find it, the d6 Imperial Sourcebook is an absolute must. buy it and adapt it to d20. the d20 Rebellion Era Sourcebook is pretty solid, if not as good overall as WEG's Imperial Sourcebook. Dark Side Sourcebook is good for things like the Inquistor and Emperor's Hand prestige classes. Starships of the Galaxy and Arms and Equipment Guide are very good for this era. Power of the Jedi is more useless than in any other era. Coruscant and the Core Worlds and Secrets of Tatooine are good choices, too.

New Republic era: Starships of the Galaxy and Arms and Equipment Guide should actually be your first buys after the three main books. depending on how you want to handle the Jedi Academy and such, Power of the Jedi may or may not be useful to you, and same with Dark Side Sourcebook. Coruscant and the Core Worlds is good also.

New Jedi Order era: New Jedi Order Sourcebook first after the big three, Power of the Jedi second, Starships of the Galaxy and Arms and Equipment Guide third and fourth. Dark Side Sourcebook is more useless than in any other era.

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overall, i would avoid Secrets of Naboo and Living Force Campaign Guide entirely. Tempest Feud is an OK adventure and also has decent source info on the Hutts and such. i'm totally underwhelmed by the Galactic Campaign Guide, but that's mostly because i'm not paying that much for something chock-full of GMing advice which i've already gotten elsewhere or learned from experience. however, if you're a novice GM, it may be worth it to you.

 

If you're interested in playing as a character instead of GMing go for the Core rule book and the Hero's guide. Between those books you'll keep yourself busy for quite a while. If you want to GM you're going to want as many of the books as you can afford. Fleshing out a campaign is a lot of work and the more detail you can give your players the better.

If you can find some WEG books from eBay, your local game store, or borrowing from friends I highly recommend doing so. I'm of the opinion the D20 books are written for the people have seen the films but haven't necessarily gotten into the EU very deeply. The WEG books had so little movie material to go on they were concerned almost entirely with EU material and campaigning. The WEG books were some of the first bits of EU material ever published.

 

lots of d6 books are available on eBay.

There are a couple of threads on which books to buy.
In adition to the basic Core Rules and Sourcebook, get:

Tramp Freighters
Stock Ships
Galaxy Guide 4 (aliens)
Galaxy Guide ? (more aliens)
Fragments from the Rim
Cracken's Field Guide
Tales of the Jedi Knights (expensive, but worth it)
Pirates and Privateers
Fantastic Technology: Droids
Fantastic Technology: Gundark's Personal Gear (the Red book)

also good are:
Thrawn Trilogy book
Lords of the Expanse & Player's Guide to Tapani
Bespin & Yavin

PM me if you need any help.

 

I've found that the most useful book is the RCRB (obviously), but they all seem a little deficient to me. I wasn't terribly impressed with the Hero's Guide (mostly because I've only played one Force-user so far and I didn't really like him, but I think that's just my personality, Force-users are too much like wizards and sorcerors from D&D (complicated), and I prefer gunslinging badasses anyway). Overall, I just make up a lot of stuff (as a GM, you have to be flexible and think on the fly a lot, or at least I do). I would highly suggest the Ultimate Alien Anthology (even though I don't have it, I just have the crappy one they put out a couple of years back :'( ). Other than that, I really couldn't tell you. I just sort of make up my own stuff as much as possible (after all, I feel that is the essence of role-playing).