… What else should Fantasy Flight do?

Now, many people will probably, say the usual, starship, race, gear, etc books.

These ARE great, but I had an idea.

Why not release setting boxed sets? Now I don't just mean time periods such as the old republic, or legacy era. What I mean is a boxed set about one particular planet or system. For my example, I'll use Bespin. The boxed set would include a booklet packed full of information and lore, all fluff no cruch, with the history, who's who and other tidbits of info - great for those of us who like collecting Star Wars stuff, and great for the non RPG player. Also include a double poster map of the city, possibly a refinery, carbon freezing chamber and possiby a cantina or something. Next, a nice little adventure that takes place in the location, and stats for some new items or vehicles, characters, etc, or ideas on how to use this setting. Stuff "needed" for the adventure such as tokens. Wrap this all in a nice sturdy, beautifully decorated box.

Now do this with other famous planets, such as Tatooine, Coruscant, Corellia, Hapes Consortium and so on and so on. This could make a product that many will buy to flesh out an area as it would work for all the books from Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and beyond. Not necessary, but enticing enough, and hopefully pretty enough to display on a shelf. Think of it like the Essential guide to whatever Star Wars books - an Essential guide to whatever boxed set.

The advantages of this are:

• Constant content for the RPG
• could be marketed to non RPG players, who want the lore.
• Much of the info is already written, but new players will want it, and old players will buy it again (search your feelings, you know it to be true) for updated info to the newest RPG system.

Now, is the idea perfect. Of course not. But, I think a viable idea for the RPG, and different enough from products of the past. Couple that with Fantasy Flights high production values, I think this could be a winner.

I would personally not want world boxed sets as I don't believe that there would be enough material on enough planets to warrant it. Instead I think that a sector of space would be a better plan. You could have the sector mapped, political and economic factors mentioned and even adventure ideas to the point of campaign level. The thing for me is that just to stat the works mentioned in the original three films that comes to about fifteen books, that increases dramatically when you add in the prequels and lets not go there for the expanded universe. This is too much expense for the gamer. At least if you limit it to sectors you have a fully playable area of space in one book. Also, the amount of work which goes into just one product, when you add in all of the lines FFG do and look at how long it takes for them to release one Deathwatch book, or one Dark Heresy book going as far as a boxed set would be a long and arduous process.

Just my thoughts

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I really like this idea, as you said, the setting books have been done before, and this idea could be a fresh spin on the star wars lore.

My thoughts go back to WEG's DarkStryder Campaign boxed set. With such talent already at FFG's disposal, this kind of thing is surely a possibility. I like the idea and would definitely shell out the cash for it While most planets aren't going to be able to fill a boxed, you could have sectors or systems. While you might have one box set for Coruscant/Imperial Center; you might also have one box for the entire Greater Javin, Wild Space, or Hutt Space; and then you could bring the focus down for significant systems like the Corellian system.

But yeah. Cool idea.

I don't think a source book (much less a box set) dedicated to a single planet would have a reliable return-on-investment for FFG, as it'd mostly be a GM resource and only useful if visiting that particular planet. WotC tried their hand at something similar with the "Secrets of" series early in the OCR's life, with Tatooine and Naboo being the only ones published.

I think somethinng akin to WEG's Galaxy Guides, focusing on a collection of planets (say half a dozen) with NPCs, plot hooks, and perhaps an adventure per planet, with a bit of new crunch thrown in (but not huge portions of it) might do better, particularly if it's softcover and has a fairly low price-point. Maybe something that's a pocket-size book, like the Explorer's Editions of various Savage Worlds tomes.

As for what sort of source books they should come up with… well, as much as i really do like this system, I'd prefer FFG to not push a whole slew of titles out between the various corebooks.

I sincerely hope that FFG doesn't go the RCR route of introducing bunches of new specializations with each sourcebook/supplement. I think two or three new specializations, ones that tie into the main theme of that particular sourcebook, would work best. To echo Sam Witwer on the latest Order 66 podcast (that I never listened to), I really don't want to see this system go the way of excessive and specialized crunch that each of the WotC versions (even Saga Edition towards the end of its run) went. Though I do honestly think Saga Edition had a good notion with "theme" books, such as the Scoundrel (Scum & Villainy), Soldier (Galaxy at War), Noble (Galaxy of Intrigue) books, which had material that other classes could make use of but had crunch and adventure ideas geared towards characters of those class types.

So in a similar vein, FFG could do a splat book for each of the careers, discussing role-playing tips, campaign ideas, theme-related adventure hooks, various NPCs, new gear and possible expanded or variant rules for that particular career.

Much as I'd like to see some more Force-related stuff, that's probably not going to happen until 2015 and the Force & Destiny book.

I would not want single-world boxed sets except maybe for Coruscant, Kashyyk, and Tatooine… there just isn't enough data on anywhere else to support it.

I wouldn't mind a cluster based boxed set… the clusters presented in WEG come to mind as ecent examples (and readily usable still).

I would love to see some nice nbox sets with planets/sectors explored but with a set of linked adventures included that happen in that setting, sort of a mini-campaign, with lots of extra plot hooks dotted about. WEG did this with its Mos Eisley Box Set and I think it worked out great. The SAGA book Scum and Villainy also springs to mind, not a box set but it includes a setting a a slew of adventures and hooks.

Seeing a new sector explored or one that only had a few mentions in past RPGs would be great. And as the game is set in a specific timeframe you wouldn't have to worry about what happened across the whole of the EU.

Galaxy guides would be great but I would prefer focused on specific aspects of life on the edge - smuggling, pirates, criminal organisations, bounty hunters etc. which could incorporate how to infortmation and appropriate new specs or talent trees, again much like the new templates introduced in the old weg guides.

Good point—supplements for Edge of the Empire should focus on what life is like on the Edge.

So, if there was a supplement about the Core Worlds, it'd be cool to explore what it would look like for a fringer group to visit Imperial Center.

"Galaxy Guides" or not, the best thing about them would be the perspective of the setting of the game.

It would be really great to see some sort of Mandalorian supplement in the future. Creating a Mando clan, learning the secret art of folding and forging Beskar armor, the fight against Death Watch vs. the Mandalorian Protectors, the dark saber, and upholding the old traditions would be so cool to explore!

It would be fun to create and pilot a Basilisk War Droid, take advantage of the outlaw tech at MandalMotors shipyards, or, as a Fett clone, search for a way to counteract the aging process of your biology. It would be exciting to roleplay the duality of the Mandalorian’s relationship with the Empire. On one hand, the Empire offers tons of mercenary work to the Mando’s paying top dollar (credit). On the other, the Empire strip-mines the planet Mandalore and its moons of all its precious Iron ore. Not to mention navigating through all the political upheaval after the civil war and fall of the Republic! I’d love to create a demagogue type character all decked out in miss-matched armor—pieced together from fallen comrades’ armor—who fights for independence and isolation from the Empire and the galaxy at large.