Starting a new EoE game and I'm stuck for a good starting planet for my intrepid crew. Party is the typical bounty hunter/smuggler scum and villany type mix, more crew of the serenity than the ghost, if you had to put them on the scale of smuggling ship bands. i'm looking for a decent world that I can sandbox out a little, without having to do a huge amount of work. I'm down with creating missions and hooks and the like, but I'd like to get the girrty feel of EoE right away via location. Looking at the outer rim territories and Hutt Space, but stuff either seems too sparse or too much to create. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

I went with Socorro. Enough details in the Black sands of Socorro WEG source book. This assumes any bounty hunters are unknown and keep their profession secret while there.

Socorro is good one. I'm also a big fan of Nar Shaddaa. It's like Coruscant but it's an entire city planet moon of scum and villainy.

I'm starting up a game in the Coreillian System. Great sourcebook, easy access to the rest of the galaxy, built-in hooks for characters who want to mess with both sides of the rebellion against the empire.

Socorro is good one. I'm also a big fan of Nar Shaddaa. It's like Coruscant but it's an entire city planet moon of scum and villainy.

My PCs visit Nar Shaddaa a lot, but their "safe haven" is always Socorro. Although the bounty hunter did shudder noticeably when he witnessed the taxing of a known bounty hunter by the stunted hutt Tiranga. Nobody will ever call Nar Shaddaa safe

I agree with the above mentioned planets of Corellia, Nar Shadda, and Socorro, to that list I would add for consideration the following:

Ryloth

Florrum

Bespin

The Corporate Sector (not a planet, but ya know, could be fun to run around a tweak the noses of the big evil multi-planet corporations)

Aggamar (A farm world mentioned in the old X-Wing novel series)

You could also take any one of the documented planets and just re-skin them. Maybe change the dominant species, planet vs moon location, and one or two natural resources and voila a fresh new planet for your players to play. After all, there are thousands or millions (?) of planets in the Star Wars galaxy. Give them someplace to play that is unique to your players' game.

Here is a link to a planet name generator (with options for other named categories):

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/planet_names.php#.VeoU_hHBzRY

Another vote for Nar Shadda for an EotE game, especially with the Lords of Nal Hutta book giving so much fluff and story ideas, thats my groups home.

I started my current campaign on Tattooine, but the PCs quickly found themselves in Nar Shadaa. They're heading to Ryloth where I've got a lot of story hooks and such for them. The plan is to sandbox the whole sector (Gaulus Sector), so they'll have a variety of troubles to get into.

Ord Mantell isn't a bad option.

I might change it up and go for a former Separatist world like Muunilinst. Lots of money, super corrupt, likely not faring well under the heel of the Empire. Lots of options for a crew willing to circumvent the authorities.

Aggamar (A farm world mentioned in the old X-Wing novel series)

Oh yah, oh yah!

(Nods head vigorously in agreement)

My campaign has been based on Tatooine. The PCs own what was Chalmun's Cantina and they didn't even get a ship until adventure number four. Half the games have been investigation-type adventures in and around Mos Eisley. There have been some trips into Hutt Space and the Corellian Sector and interactions with the Matukai.

After the upcoming adventure, the Corellian Sector Force will be reaching out to the player characters and asking them to join the Rebel Alliance. I may have the Empire burn their bar to get them motivated.

I second Ord Mantell. Nothing like junkyards nd casinos to give some down on their luck PCs a chance to shine.

We based ours on The Wheel. Plenty of information on it in the 'Beyond the Rim' adventure module. The module also has ideas for additional adventures on the space station other than the big adventure in the book. It served our group nicely. It's in the Outer Rim, on a major trade route, very shady characters, casinos, gladiatorial fights, a degree of 'imperial immunity', we even added swoop races one lap around The Wheel. It was also nice and different to have a campaign centered on a space station, and all it's seedy visitors, instead of on a planet.

Nar Shaddaa all the way.

Nar Shaddaa all the way.

That's another one of my favorites, but I'm fond of Ord Mantell for when I want something that's still shady but with a good mix of urban and non-urban sets.

Nar Shaddaa all the way.

That's another one of my favorites, but I'm fond of Ord Mantell for when I want something that's still shady but with a good mix of urban and non-urban sets.

Nar Shaddaa is just perfect I think for EoE. Being able to hide on one planet of tens of billions, the whole underworld thing I've barely scratched with my guys. I guess I just like the all or nothing aspect of Star Wars worlds.

Plus, gotta love the Hutt.

My first campaign will be starting soon. The group will start on Nar Shaddaa. I chose this moon due to my time spent on it in the Jedi Knight series and how I found it to be one of the coolest placest in the Star Wars universe. So much is going on you could tell countless stories in that mess of crime and chrome.

It's like one big Las Vegas in my mind.

It's like one big Las Vegas in my mind.

I think of Ord Mantell as Las Vegas. To me, Nar Shaddaa is more like a planetary version of Brazilian favelas.

To me, Nar Shaddaa is more like a planetary version of Brazilian favelas.

IMO, Nar Shaddaa is a place where you can find just about every type of city environment that can exist, plus a few more that none of us have ever conceived of.

I can conceive of a lot...

Additionally, there's also an option of starting out on a planet but not knowing where you are at (GM knows, but they do not). This puts an additional excitement into the campaign as they try to discover where they are at. Sometimes the players bring in their knowledge of the books and modules. That is, you say the name and they already know all the plots, contacts, and such.

How? Hyperspace accident, crash-landing, start off as prisoners, enslaved, etc... A Knowledge check of some sort may give them a rough idea, but there'd still be an element of discovery.

I haven't actually any plans on keeping the players in one place - at least, not for the beginning.

Partially it's because planet-hopping is a thing in Star Wars and there's enough material out there to easily do a 'planet of the week', but also because I started with the EotE beginner's adventure so they've already left Tatooine and their base is currently the Krayt Fang , with Ryloth already programmed in as the next stop.

This is because I want them to get out and make some contacts before they settle down and choose a direction. It also means that I can string together adventures, building up a network of contacts and ideas of what they can smuggle from here to there. (For example, the next adventure has them helping out a Twi'Lek clan who pay them in spice, with the one after that having them help a crew captured by pirates in return for that crew introducing them to a good fixer who can sell that spice for a premium.)

I'd also recommend the Star Wars Atlas, which covers a ton of big-name and minor planets for inspiration. Wookiepedia, too.