I’m curious to know which of the books (outside of the core books) you other GMs out there consider essential (or indispensable) for your campaign(s).
Also if you could let me know what type of campaign you’re running (EotE, FaD, etc) and why you feel that way about the book I’d appreciate it.
I spend most of my time in the Clone Wars, so for me Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic are must-haves.
I also find Nexus of Power useful for the focus on Force-strong planets (great for a campaign set when the Jedi Order still stands) and as someone who likes making their own NPCs Allies & Adversaries is a great guideline for off-the-shelf templates.
For any military-style campaign (which is most of what I do) I find Forged in Battle indispensable. It gives very good advice on running those sorts of campaigns, it gives a good selection of weapons, gear, armor, and vehicles, the species are great, and the additional environmental combat rules are pretty good.
Other than that, RotS and CotR, as Kualan mentioned, are really good. With the one caveat that if you aren't in that era the benefit gleaned will be greatly diminished.
Stronghold of Resistance is also helpful, but it is less integral and its benefit mostly lies in worldbuilding and accumulating knowledge (though it includes a good selection of weapons, gear, and armor). The species are a little bit niche though (except for the Quarren).
28 minutes ago, Kualan said:I spend most of my time in the Clone Wars, so for me Rise of the Separatists and Collapse of the Republic are must-haves.
I also find Nexus of Power useful for the focus on Force-strong planets (great for a campaign set when the Jedi Order still stands) and as someone who likes making their own NPCs Allies & Adversaries is a great guideline for off-the-shelf templates.
Did you try doing a homemade Clone Wars campaign before those two releases?
22 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:For any military-style campaign (which is most of what I do) I find Forged in Battle indispensable. It gives very good advice on running those sorts of campaigns, it gives a good selection of weapons, gear, armor, and vehicles, the species are great, and the additional environmental combat rules are pretty good.
Other than that, RotS and CotR, as Kualan mentioned, are really good. With the one caveat that if you aren't in that era the benefit gleaned will be greatly diminished.
Stronghold of Resistance is also helpful, but it is less integral and its benefit mostly lies in worldbuilding and accumulating knowledge (though it includes a good selection of weapons, gear, and armor). The species are a little bit niche though (except for the Quarren).
I had no idea that sort of thing was in Forged in Battle. My group has talked about a more military styled campaign too. Thanks for the heads up on that
For me (mostly EotE in flavour): Far Horizons for the social mechanics (though Genesys is probably better now); and Fly Casual for smuggling. On the F&D side, the one for Sentinels (AFB so I forget the title), partly because my son's campaign centres around one, but also for the urban charts.
I really like all the Rebels/Clone Wars books, but I've yet to start a campaign in those eras.
Like @whafrog , I dive into Endless Vigil a lot. Not only for lightsaber crafting, but the urban environmental suggestions, scenarios, and charts are extremely helpful.
Edge here. I think the only essential is a CRB. Everything else gives only flavour.
The Lords of Nal Hutta has great settings, encounters and plenty of fluff for classic edge campaigns, struggling with the powerful hutts.
7 hours ago, Flavorabledeez said:Did you try doing a homemade Clone Wars campaign before those two releases?
Oh, absolutely. I was playing Clone Wars long before they announced the era books. Sometimes I would use a simple reskin (e.g. use stormtrooper stats for clone troopers) but a lot of the time I would make my own homebrew stuff for NPCs and vehicles.
Although RotS and CotR are great they don't cover everything in the era (since its so big) so even today a Clone Wars game often calls for a lot of homemade stats.
The reason why I asked this question is because we seem to be getting some “compendiums” lately (Gadgets and Gear, Allies and Adversaries, possibly a Ship Collection). As a GM, these styled collections just make things easier to find.
There seems to be information of value to a GM in every Class book out there, but who could own them all? It makes me wonder if they might do a GM’s guide and include all of those things in it.
3 hours ago, Flavorabledeez said:There seems to be information of value to a GM in every Class book out there, but who could own them all?
Guilty...but it makes it easier to have gotten in at the beginning, and bought them as they came out, less immediate strain on the wallet...
2 hours ago, whafrog said:Guilty...but it makes it easier to have gotten in at the beginning, and bought them as they came out, less immediate strain on the wallet...
Yup. If it makes you feel any better, carrying all the books too and from game sessions has done my back no favours whatsoever.
Edited by DafyddMy stack already weighs 18.5 pounds (without the paperwork) and I've only got 2/7 of the books! (and I'm not exactly Hercules)
Notable things missed in RotS/CotR:
Homing Spider Droid, Ambush droid (I can't remember the name, that thing from the Clone Wars movie on Christophsis), pretty much all of the clones that @Kualan statted (thanks buddy!), Recusant, large Recusant, small Providence, B2-RP, B3 super battle droid (more excusable because that is relatively deep legends), of course tons of NPCs (again, thanks Kualan), large vs. small Octuptarra and Crab droid (they got 1 variant of each), and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of stuff, but that's all I've got off the top of my head.
(and once again, thanks Kualan!!)
3 hours ago, Dafydd said:Yup. If it makes you feel any better, carrying all the books too and from game sessions has done my back no favours whatsoever.
The solution is to run games at home. Your back will approve heart-fully. 😀
4 hours ago, Dafydd said:If it makes you feel any better, carrying all the books too and from game sessions has done my back no favours whatsoever.
All humour aside, one of the things I love about this game is I have never cracked the rules open in mid-game. I carry the core book "just in case" but I have never used it. The dice, some adversary decks, Rory's Story Cubes, and some photocopies of relevant charts is all I've ever needed.
Agreed. I can count on one hand the number of book dives I've needed during a session.
All this talk of different career books makes me want to try a one-shot of "Oops, all Mystics" or the like. All players can access only the six specializations of one career. In fact, that sounds like a fun thread....
I own every book, but I have to admit I rarely (if ever) have to break them out mid-game. They're great for browsing outside of game-time either to familiarise myself with obscure rules that might be needed for an upcoming session or just to read up on some of the fluff, but for in-game I use the adversary decks or a printout of this excellent cheat sheet by the Alexandrian: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37660/roleplaying-games/star-wars-force-and-destiny-system-cheat-sheet
I swear by the adversary decks though (still waiting on Reps & Seps II) as they're great even if you have to improvise an NPC off the top of your head - there's enough cards now that there's always something you can use as a base-line to quickly grab and modify off-the-cuff.
The community also has a lot of great stuff (depending on what type of game you're running) over in the Compiled Resources thread that might count as Unknown Essentials.
I'm just the opposite. I constantly reference my books, often, if for nothing else, simply for ideas on how to spend Advantages or Triumphs.
15 hours ago, Kualan said:I own every book, but I have to admit I rarely (if ever) have to break them out mid-game. They're great for browsing outside of game-time either to familiarise myself with obscure rules that might be needed for an upcoming session or just to read up on some of the fluff, but for in-game I use the adversary decks or a printout of this excellent cheat sheet by the Alexandrian: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37660/roleplaying-games/star-wars-force-and-destiny-system-cheat-sheet
I swear by the adversary decks though (still waiting on Reps & Seps II) as they're great even if you have to improvise an NPC off the top of your head - there's enough cards now that there's always something you can use as a base-line to quickly grab and modify off-the-cuff.
The community also has a lot of great stuff (depending on what type of game you're running) over in the Compiled Resources thread that might count as Unknown Essentials.
Have downloaded that cheatsheet and will absolutely be usong it. Thanks
I primarily play Edge, with some Rebel and Force-y components tossed in. The two essential books for me are the Edge of the Empire Core Rulebook and the Genesys Core Rulebook (for social combat and motivations). The adversary decks are also always at hand when I GM. Now that Allies and Adversaries is out, it is working its way into the must-have pile at play time, since it contains some good prompts for rich on-the-spot NPCs.
I have run Jewel of Yavin and heavily modified Beyond the Rim and Ghosts of Dathomir, so during those session, those books were crucial. I have derived a lot of value from Lords of Nal Hutta, Strongholds of Resistance, Nexus of Power, and Age of Rebellion, primarily for their planets and creatures. Those books are more important in the planning stages than at the table itself. I don't have any of the career books at all.
I run Edge. Most of my sessions are based around the Hutts so Lords of Nal Hutta is my book of choice. I have made so many scenario ideas from that book it is sad that most will never get played.
For also like the Smuggler, Explorer, and Colonist books.
The books that were essential for my campaigns were EotE and F&D core rulebooks.
Each core rulebooks have been the only one essentials for each campaign I ran / still run in their respective settings. Other books are useful but not essentials.
I still get a lot of mileage out of WEG's old Rebel Alliance, Imperial, and The Corporate Sector sourcebooks