Lit Fantasy Flight Games and the Star Wars TCG

I've never actually read a reference book or RPG guide

Of course I plan on remedying that soon by getting the Readers Companion, as well as the guide to the Force, the Atlas and the Guide to Warfare. Are any of the old WEG guides worth reading today?

And even then, you really should read Cloak of Deception with it to make the first film make any sense. So two books

 

Dark Empire Sourcebook
Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook
Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook
Imperial Sourcebook
Basically, read the sourcebooks.

 

How dare you leave Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim off that list!
I'd also add Alliance Intelligence Reports, Cracken's Rebel Operatives, and Wanted by Cracken to the list.

 

Everything from WEG is worth reading.

 

Those things are expensive

There's always used copies, I guess. And, erm, digital copies...

Nah, assumed you'd read it, just saying that you have to read two books if you want any hope of enjoying Episode 1. Y'know, beyond Liam Neeson.

 

I, and my associates, have the utmost respect for copyright laws. Really we do. Really. And we have no idea where these "digital copies" might be located or how many images on Wookieepedia might have come from said "digital copies." No idea whatsoever.

 

I'd also add Secrets of the Sisar Run and Mission to Lianna.

 

WEG is MY Star Wars. I take all of the franchise in stride, but WEG is the heart and soul of my love for it, and has been for 19 (!) years now.

A lot of it will feel old to a reader coming to it now - it was written in a day when the Clone Wars and the fall of Anakin Skywalker were mysterious past events danced around so as not to interfere with the hush-hush, rumored-to come prequels. Other elements have had their context changed by authors building on them in unexpected directions, or by authors unaware (or unwilling to follow) what was written in admittedly obscure books. That said, much of it still holds up pretty well. Here are five books I think are particularly stand-out for folks who've never played an RPG in their life:

The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook - The most comprehensive source on the Battle of Endor out there, this also includes several vignettes by Kathy Tyers. It also includes "Deposition 9483749/12982 {Verbal}" (later retitled for its appearance on Hyperspace as "The Deposition of Han Solo"), telling the tale of how a restless Solo decided to take over an Imperial Star Destroyer at Endor. It is one of the sharpest pieces of EU writing I've ever read, capturing Solo's voice perfectly.

The Dark Empire Sourcebook - If you want to make sense of Dark Empire in the context of the larger Expanded Universe, you need this book. It probably suffers more than the rest from "obscure sourcebook gets overlooked" syndrome, but then, a single paragraph in this book was the inspiration for Matt Stover's Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

Rebel Alliance Sourcebook: This one edges out its counterpart, the Imperial Sourcebook, on account of the strength of several of its chapter-opening vignettes. "The painkiller was extremely effective."

Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim - This has a bit more gaming-related material than other works on this list, but the discussions in the last few chapters of news, alcoholic beverages, and popular music make up for it; no other SW book establishes a sense of a "living breathing place, where people live, work, play, and die" as GG9 does. The hilarious glossary of Rebel SpecOp slang is icing on the cake.

Star Wars Adventure Journal #7: Okay, I could fill this whole list out with Adventure Journals; they're packed with good stuff. But this is the best among them. I could tell you why, but it's late, and Dan Wallace can do it better anyway.

 

Ris_jSarek: Good job, you actually made me want to take a look at the WEG guides.

I'm actually currently making my way through the Adventure Journals. Well, I took a bit of a break of them. Unfortunately, it seems some of the early ones are great stories mixed in with a few duds (Alexandra Winger... sheesh). Have found a few hidden gems, though, and haven't reached #7 yet.

 

That they did and the franchise didn't stop there, although for the next 14 years it seemingly did, for some people.

In all seriousness, WEG was a game tailored to a group of adventurers. It has to be small-scale in order to seem internally consistent. That's why we barely see things beyond what a group can take on alone.

What irks me is when people took that as a basis for how everything in SW is, even after the prequels and the tv show came out and showed larger-than-ISD craft in warfare that weren't named Executor or Eclipse, for instance.

 

Exactly. Moderates like us never were anti-super ships. Far from it! Nor were we ever against there being multiple classes of them. The main difference came down to more extreme maximalist position that ISD's were just little picket ships flitting about the Outer Rim while battle lines of multi-kilometer warships were the "real" Navy.

Yeah, I always wished that the liberation of Coruscant in 2.5 ABY was more epic. The New Republic Navy made a big showing, with Home One, Mon Remonda, and a alot of other Mon Cal cruisers, as well as the captured ISD's Emancipator and Liberator. Plus tons of frigates, corvettes, bulk cruisers, assault frigates, and other vessels. I always was under the impression that the NRDF deployed at least a few hundred warships for the attack.

--Adm. Nick

 

Your revisionism is nearly as bad as Na'al's.

 

Bah! Old school fans like me still think in the Bantam-era post-ROTJ dating system.

6.5 ABY just doesn't look right.

--Adm. Nick

 

Making them something special, as they should be, you know like in the movie.

The movie itself already made clear they are meant to be "abnormal" by calling it “Super” and having only one show up.

Properly because none ever lasted long enough in a real battle anyway

The movie itself already makes clear that they are supposed to be a major warships, just by showing us by how much smaller the stuff the Rebels have is. Though originally they would have actually had the role of the TIEs.

Can't blame them for making it Star Wars -> about a small group of Heros.

Even then, why not build dedicated space defense platforms that are way more useful in defense and way less expensive. They are literally only there as parade barges and potential deterrents that only keep succeeding in failing on epic scale.

Pretty much all Warfare in SW would be raids and skirmishes, as space is just too big for anything else, unless both sides agree to let a major showdown happen.

Actually the ROTS space battle is bafflingly strategically pointless, but then most of the Clone Wars are.

Sure Isard was semi-insane, but forcing the Rebels to hold Coruscant is not the worst approach to ruining them.

 

Not if it shatters the Rebellion and allows her to take it back as liberating heroine, further legitimating her rule. Though at least in her mind.

 

That's how real navies work, why should SW be any different? The majority of ships in the movie and tv show universe span from corvettes to cruisers, pretty much like in real life.
The navy's centered on carrier groups and submarines to provide the heaviest offensive power, though.

 

WEG was a bit before my time sadly...but from what I have seen show up on the wook, it certainly seems like it captures the Star Wars feel better than most things - wondrous yet familiar, gritty and individual yet epic in scope....

In particular, the wildlife stood out at me. Most stuff you see today is...well, like a cat with a few feathers or something....functional, but really bland in comparison to the unique looking creatures of WEG and their well thought out ecological niches.

This is true of almost everything else as well, if not to the same extent....even the better modern work feel a little recycled and stale, at least visually.....beh, here I am getting nostalgic about games I never played and books I've never read.

Fantasy Flight Games has done a very good job of expanding on the Warhammer universe though, introducing elements that fit perfectly while still feeling fresh, so I hope they can do the same with Star Wars.