I'm looking for some kind of background book that outlines the political, military, civil structure of the Empire and Rebel areas etc.

If you played Battletech, back in the day, Fasa used to sell these cool "house" books that told you about everything from military structure to, traditions, to judiciary methods of a given faction. I'd like something similar.

The Star Wars book selection seems so vast that I assume something must have been published in the past (?). I'm looking for more of a reference book than a novel. But if a novel happens to meet requirements please let me know. Appreciate any suggestions.

Some very good books are the "Essential" series. They are large sized, full color soft cover books. Two you might like are the Essential Atlas and the Essential Guide to Warfare. A third option would be the NEW Essential Chronology. They cover everything from early Sith to New Republic, but have quite a bit about the rebellion e are pre-Disney, so a lot of it is no longer canon, but still easy to read and reference. I'm sure there are some old RPG books with more of what you want, but I never got into those.

If you can find it, the old Imperial Source Book for the WestEnd Games RPG is my Bible for everything Empire. I doubt if anything in it is canon anymore after the prequels and Disney, though.

I would highly recommend finding the WEG Imperial Sourcebook as well.

While not canon anymore, they had access to a lot of production notes, etc from Star Wars that isn't around anymore, and it felt like Star Wars. If anything I would say it's the most influential piece on stuff that came around. There are a couple of things that are a bit wrong. Executor's size being one. (The model that was scaled with it is about 8.5x the size of the 3rd ISD model, so they overcorrected the error.) They detail a lot about how the empire operates, it's where the VSD showed up, as well as most other non ISDs. In the original trillogy, there were 2 Imperial capital ships shown. It's where garrisons come from, and provides background on a lot of it. It's on Amazon used.

I love the system, it has a very Star Wars feel. It's not just D&D in space. Especially with the Wild die it uses (one die has not quite crits, but complications on a 1 and adds if you roll a 6, which could cascade. Complications being like successfully sneaking up on a stormtrooper, then right as you are behind him, *snap*.) It doesn't cover the Old Republic much, as there wasn't anything from Lucas then. There is a fan created Revised, Expanded, Updated version which incorporates some of this.

Ditto with the above - the Essential Atlas and the Essential Guide to Warfare are great - and closer to being up-to-date, but the WEG Sourcebook was also formative of my notions of the Empire. There's also a sourcebook for the Rebellion. If you want to just get .pdf copies of these, check out the downloads sectio n on the D6 Holocron:

I would highly recommend finding the WEG Imperial Sourcebook as well.

While not canon anymore, they had access to a lot of production notes, etc from Star Wars that isn't around anymore, and it felt like Star Wars. If anything I would say it's the most influential piece on stuff that came around. There are a couple of things that are a bit wrong. Executor's size being one. (The model that was scaled with it is about 8.5x the size of the 3rd ISD model, so they overcorrected the error.) They detail a lot about how the empire operates, it's where the VSD showed up, as well as most other non ISDs.

If you can find it, the old Imperial Source Book for the WestEnd Games RPG is my Bible for everything Empire. I doubt if anything in it is canon anymore after the prequels and Disney, though.

Actually the VSD first appeared in the Han Solo Adventures series - called there a "destroyer of the old Victory-class" "close to a kilometer long" - it's pretty clear where WEG got their Victory-class Star Destroyer from.

While the Sourcebook itself isn't canon now - Rebels and other newcanon works have been drawing from it. Ars Dangor, Sate Pestage, Armand Isard, etc have appeared in newcanon books (albeit as cameos) - the Imperial Security Bureau play a fairly big role in Rebels and novels, and there's the Inquisitors in Rebels too.

Carrack -class vessels, Immobilizer-418 class interdictors, Lancer -class frigates, Quasar-Fire class carriers - it's seems that people like Luceno, Dave Filoni, etc are WEG fans .

These may help, or not.

Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide

Book of the Sith

Bounty Hunters Code

Jedi Path

There are a couple of things that are a bit wrong. Executor's size being one. (The model that was scaled with it is about 8.5x the size of the 3rd ISD model, so they overcorrected the error.)

Ah, you've seen the Brass Star Destroyer article then:

http://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-mysteries-exacting-executor-measurements

Problem is, if you believe the book From STAR WARS to Indiana Jones, the Executor was "conceived as eleven times the size of the original Star Destroyer from Star Wars" - with a conning tower exactly the same size as the original's one.

The Executor model's tower was 4.2 cm in diameter.

The 33.5 cm Brass Star Destroyer (using the tower width = 1/6 ship length ratio that seems to be standard with ISDs) would have a 5.6cm wide tower.

So, even the Brass Star Destroyer is not necessarily exactly to scale with the Executor.

The newcanon seems to be sticking with the 19km figure that was foreshadowed with Saxton & Luceno's Inside The Worlds of Star Wars: Trilogy, anyway.

Hi, to the above tips I would strongly recommend West End Games "Star Wars Rebel Alliance Sourcebook". I read it on Holocron.com and then had to track it down (second hand) and buy it. It is well-written and has excellent and stirring detail on the Alliance. From a naval point of view, parts West End Game's supplements the Brak Sector Campaign, Starfall, Pirates & Privateers give nuggests of flavour and scenario ideas.