This thread is a spin off from the "The Star Wars Expanded Universe, As a GM What Do You Keep and What Do You Throw Away?" (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?38450-The-Star-Wars-Expanded-Universe-As-a-GM-What-Do-You-Keep-and-What-Do-You-Throw-Away) by jeff37923 that I thought I'd start.
Reading through that thread got me thinking about what books I could buy from the the West End Games Star Wars line of supplements to round out my recent ebay and REUP core WEG d6 book purchases. I was always aware of the WEG books but was to poor a teenager to be able to afford any of them the first time around.
So I'd like to know what 3, or 5 or 20 of the best WEG d6 supplement books you think everyone should own in addition to the Core Rule books (be they 1E, 2E, Revised, whatever). Ans also "why" you think those books are must haves. Feel free to ramble on and pontificate to your hearts content as I am interested in the opinions of folks who've own and played the system with these books.
For WEG Star Wars I like to stay with the earliest products as much as possible. I feel like 2E had some good aspects, but overall 1E just seemed simpler and flowed better. Picking a few books is difficult, since they are so different in material covered. Depending upon which fiction you liked, you might lean towards one book or another.
One nice thing about WEG Star Wars is that it's easy to run a decent campaign without buying any sourcebooks at all. You can just take ideas from the movies or from some of the books and you are set. For example, I've run a game based on the original movie, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and the Daly books -- I had the key stuff in the core rules and would just "wing it" from there.
The books I thought were the best were:
* Rebel Sourcebook and Imperial Sourcebook (basic info from the ANH era, which is my favorite.)
* The Corporate Sector (if you liked Brian Daly's Han Solo books; they are different since there isn't a jedi emphasis)
* Thrawn Trilogy sourcebooks (if you like what Zahn did with the EU; I happen to like his stuff)
* Jedi Academy Sourcebook (if you like more jedi options)
By most used books:
Thrawn trilogy. Even if you don't use the Thrawn stuff direclty, it has a ton of aliens and ships and planets.
Imperial Sourcebook - lots of info about the Empire and how it works
Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters
Rules of Engagement, which was book about special forces and actually makes both militaries more realistic and less cartoony
Stock Ships, which is basically just deck plans for ships the players could use
When it comes to SW, I prefer games in the ESB timeframe, with the players owning a tramp freighter on the Rim, doing jobs for Rebels if they want, for the Hutts if they must, and always trying to avoid Imperial entnglements. Basically Firefly with aliens, droids, and blasters. Huttese instead of Chinese. No characters from the movies making appearances; the players are the stars.
5 for Rules, gear, and such:
GG6 Tramp Freighters
GG9 Fragments from the Rim
GG10 Bounty Hunters
GG11 Criminal Organizations
Platt's Smugglers Guide
5 for Worlds to explore and NPCs to meet:
Shadows of the Empire Guide
Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide
Platt's Starports Guide
The Planets Collection
Wanted by Cracken
Just the Imperial Sourcebook, really. I ran a campaign where some PCs were Imperials & some were Rebels that was excellent; got to see the inner workings (well, dysfunction) of the Imperial Military up close. :D
That depends on the campaign...
The Rebel and Imperial books, are ALMOST always the ones I choose, but the other three varies on what my players want to play. Currently, I'm playing in a Bounty Hunter specific campaign (Edge of The Empire) and is part of a Guild so the old Bounty Hunter book (Game Guide 10), Galladinium's Fantastic Technology: Guns & Gear (40025) and The Black Sands of Socorro (40154, because a player is actually playing Drake Paulsen) are the ones that suit us best.
But a purely Force User campaign? I wouldn't pick up the Rebel or Imperial books, but The Planet series (40051, 40057, 40072) and Creatures of The Galaxy (40080)
Star Wars RPG 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded
The Movie Trilogy Sourcebook
Imperial Sourcebook
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
Tramp Freighters
Bounty Hunters
The Planets Collection
Platt's Starport Guide
Corporate Sector Authority Sourcebook
An honorable mention is the Star Wars Introductory Adventure Game because it is great way to bring in newbies to the game and it completely compatable with the Star Wars 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded rules. How good is it you ask? Within 15 minutes I had a bar full of drunken nerds create characters and we started playing, it was that quick and easy.
Now, lets say that you want to spend the least amount of money, you could still go really far using just the Core Rulebook and referencing Wookiepedia for additional information.
EDIT: Oh, and you can't go wrong with going to the d6 Holocron and downloading the Season 1 Star Wars: Rebels Sourcebook for free.
I've been going back and forth on this for a couple of days.
It wouldn't be perfect but if I was limited I'd take:
1. Core (2E R&E, maybe the 2E REUP that Rancor Pit did)
2. Imperial Sourcebook (Getting a feel for how the Empire works from a top down perspective is much more important and useful than stats for another kind of Stormtrooper. And the stats don't hurt either. :D)
3. Rebel Alliance Sourcebook (See above)
4. Tramp Freighters (It's a good little starting sandbox in the Minos Cluster. You also have the ship mod and trade rules there which can generate a lot of player side content.)
5. The Planets Collection (The less basic content I have to generate, the more NPC specific stuff I can work on.)
well, based on what I own, the core book (revised and expanded (although I'd probably actually use the revised updated and expanded fan edit which incorporates stuff from all the books and than some)), the movie trilogy source book and Tales of the Jedi.
I didn't get into the d6 SWRPG until after WotC got the licence, so I've only been able to get one or two books at the local used book store here and there.
I have them all in PDF and all the SWSE books tho, does that count?
no? well, bugger...
I was a much bigger fan of SW D20.
I got years of use out of the following five, all first edition and I like them because they're great for pretty much any era; everything is easily adaptable.:
The Star Wars Sourcebook
The Imperial Sourcebook
The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
Galaxy Guide 8 - Tramp Freighters
The Star Wars Rules Companion
I always used first edition and we gamed mostly in the civil war years, hence the Imperial and Rebel books, but the system was so flexible that we also used these books for other eras, especially after Episode 1 came out. We figured the structure of the Imperial forces couldn't have been that far removed from the Clone Wars, so we just used the Imperial book for the Republic and the Rebel book for the seperatists. It'd work just as well with the newer movies, I reckon, but it's been 20 years since our last major campaign...
Yeah, I think I'd like to get the band back together, now.
Thanks for all the great feedback and suggestions. I think I'll go with the Bounty Hunter/Free Trader/Privateer focused books, as to me it seems like the most likely sort of campaign to run in the setting.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1023721I was a much bigger fan of SW D20.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2214[/ATTACH]...:D
What can I say? I ran a multi-year campaign with it.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1024124What can I say? I ran a multi-year campaign with it.
That's nice, but not what the thread is not about.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1024124What can I say? I ran a multi-year campaign with it.
Me too. Star Wars RCR was bar none the most fun d20 based RPG I ever ran. A couple of years back using a Lulu coupon, I printed out about 2000 pages of material for d6 Re-Up, much of which can be adapted easily enough to a d20 based game. Heck before there was a d20 Star Wars, I had converted ships from WEG Star Wars to the Buck Rogers XXVc RPG.
I also used it as the underlying system for my Legion of Superheroes campaign.
Did you at least use the vastly superior Saga Edition?
Which supplements have useful game mechanics/non-fluff that isn't already contained in the Reup edition?
I haven't looked at Reup, but I found the Tales of the Jedi Companion very useful, but not for the era stuff. I used it because it put all of the 2e Force powers in one place. Of course, I'm sure that's out there online somewhere too.
I also liked Pirates and Privateers too. Nothing you couldn't make up on your own, but that's true of most of these books.
Quote from: RabidWookie;1046143Did you at least use the vastly superior Saga Edition?
I remember buying d20 Star Wars 1st edition BiTD, realising it was utter garbage, and not buying any more non-D&D stuff from WotC.
Quote from: RabidWookie;1046143Did you at least use the vastly superior Saga Edition?
It was a little problematic to use a system that didn't yet exist. :D
Outside the basic book:
Tramp Freighters
Bounty Hunters
Platts Smugglers Guide
I use these even now as reference material for my FFG games (and a lot of other WEG books).
Quote from: RabidWookie;1046143Did you at least use the vastly superior Saga Edition?
I didn't. Also ran a highly successful business 1 year + campaign with the revised d20 book. I own all of saga but haven't ever played it.
I'd go with:
Rebel Alliance sourcebook
Imperial sourcebook
Platt's Starport guide
Bounty Hunter galaxy guide
The Black Sands of Socorro
I was also a fan of the Craken's Guides and the Adventure Journal.
Quote from: Tait Ransom;1046789I'd go with:
Rebel Alliance sourcebook
Imperial sourcebook
Platt's Starport guide
Bounty Hunter galaxy guide
The Black Sands of Socorro
I was also a fan of the Craken's Guides and the Adventure Journal.
That's suspiciously a lot (like 80%, I never got Platt's) like my list. Hmmm...
I prefer First Edition and my go to books would be:
Imperial Sourcebook
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
Tramp Freighters
The Planets Collection
Quote from: S'mon;1046148I remember buying d20 Star Wars 1st edition BiTD, realising it was utter garbage, and not buying any more non-D&D stuff from WotC.
Totally different opinion here. I loved Star Wars D20 Revised. It was a great game, with good sourcebooks.