I am going to admit that my Star Wars experience is limited to movies and tv (don't be hatin') For this RPG, what books would be good to read to help me better understand this "edge of the empire" experience? Thank you.

Definitely Tales from Jabba's Palace .

Conveniently, I just wrote a post about this for my blog.

For my money, I recommend the Han Solo Adventures , the Han Solo Trilogy , and Kenobi .

-Nate

Sigh.

Those are all great.

But the best one to read is Shadows of the Empire , hands down. Steve Perry writes the book of events that happens between Empire and Jedi . The events that happen don't really matter. But what he does is outlines some of the best parts in the current chapters we play in Edge of the Empire, the Black Sun and its enigmatic Prince Xizor.

After that I would always and forever recommend the Thrawn trilogy by Zhan. I pretty much consider the Thrawn trilogy to be the three books any real Star Wars fan needs to read if he is going to read ANYTHING. Thrawn is a badass, Talon Karrde is cool, and Pellaeon and Mara Jade are major players in the Star Wars universe from those books forward.

I think the official name is, Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zhan. It details the events that happened after the battle of Endor and what happens to the New Republic & Imperial Remanent

I think the official name is, Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zhan. It details the events that happened after the battle of Endor and what happens to the New Republic & Imperial Remanent

That's the beginning of the Thawn Trilogy. Heir to the Empire , Dark Force Rising , and The Last Command .

Enjoy!

Not Star Wars, or books for that matter, but if you are old enough Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, an old film like Dark of the Sun, new ones like Lord of War and the like are also good for helping you get in the right frame of mind. If these are a little mature for you try Firefly (actually probably the best option on the list; it was based on the concept of "what was Han doing before he linked up with the rebellion?").

The thing to be thinking is that this section of the game is about criminals, con men, smugglers, mercs, thugs, spice dealers, and other types you wouldn't want to owe a favor to.

This is a little off theme for Star Wars, so its not uncommon for GMs to take the players to the alliance after a couple of adventures.

Great ideas everyone, thank you!

For an Edge game, you want to focus on the criminal elements. The late A.C. Crispin's Han Solo trilogy, Scoundrels, and Tales from Jabbas Palace are key. The Boba Fett series of one-shot comics from Dark Horse are also good, quick reads. You also might consider tracking down some of the old WEG Galaxy Guides like Fragments from teh Rim and Criminal Organizations, Black Sands of Socorro, and what have you.

I'll try to avoid major spoilers in my recommendations.

EU in general I'd say go with the X-Wing series, which starts about 6 years after the Battle of Yavin (6 ABY as the calendar nomenclature for the EU goes). Still a lot of Alliance/New Republic vs big Imperial holdouts/warlords and the campaign to take Coruscant.

Definitely also the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. It picks up in 9 ABY. Not much depth to go into without spoiling. It's rather well-written. Several characters in those books keep on as important people in the EU.

X-Wing does set up some things like the main antagonist in The Courtship of Princess Leia (which, itself, depicts the lead-up to Leia's eventual marriage, which features in the Thrawn trilogy).

Since the Han Solo trilogy has already been mentioned, I'll throw in the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy (The Mandalorian Armor, Slave Ship, Hard Merchandise), various Tales novels (New Republic, Empire, Jabba's Palace, Bounty Hunters), and I'll second Shadows of the Empire .

I know its not a favorite to some, but "I, Jedi" has some good stuff for how pirates organise and interact with each other when they're not busy shooting at you.

I found Tales of the Bounty Hunters to be rubbish. I can't recommend it at all.

Lots of people are mentioning Timothy Zahn as a great author to introduce you to the Star Wars EU. I would take it a step further and say that his novels Allegiance and Choices of One are very Edge of The Empire-friendly. They're set in exactly the same time period and setting as a classic EotE experience. Problem with X-Wing and Heir to the Empire is that they're set in the New Republic era, and Edge of the Empire is much more about the height of the Galactic Civil War.

Beyond that, Shadows of the Empire is cool.

The only EU stuff I quite liked were the WEG SW supplements, the Zahn books, and Shadows of the Empire. The rest leaves me really cold, to put it mildly.

As Ghostofman mentioned, 'Firefly' informs my EoE experience as much as anything by Lucas, and modern series about criminals like 'Breaking Bad' and 'Sons of Anarchy' are great for getting the right atmosphere. (Even though our party are mainly not crooks, we have to interact with a lot of crooked elements...)

I found Tales of the Bounty Hunters to be rubbish. I can't recommend it at all.

All I can remember of that book is that the IG-88 story was beyond stupid. I think that story and 'Rogue Planet' put me off Star Wars books altogether. The only one I've read since was the one Alan Dean Foster did, because I like him. But it sucked, too.

The X-Wing series has already been mentioned but of those books I can recommend the Wraith Squadron books. The timeline is off but the Wraiths do some pretty cool capers that are more fringe orientated then the rest of the series.

Also a new one was released, Mercy Kill which is way forward in the timeline but so far has been pretty cool.

The only EU stuff I quite liked were the WEG SW supplements, the Zahn books, and Shadows of the Empire. The rest leaves me really cold, to put it mildly.

Agreed. If you can find some cheap used supplements for the original SWRPG by WestEnd Games, those are filled to the brim with interesting background information. Highly recommended.

If you absolutely have to pick up an EU novel, I'd say the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is the only way to go.

But I pretty much hate everything in the EU.

The new Razor's Edge is also good for this era, and pretty enjoyable. Han, Leia, and some pirates.

Hate is a pretty strong word.

There is some stuff I dislike in the EU, but there is some stuff that is actually really well done.

For example, I dislike the Yuuzhan Vong story arc. Read halfway through it and stopped, and refused to finish it. It was just lame, all the way through the series.

But, it was followed by the Legacy of the Force Series which was actually really well done.

Then came the Fate of the Jedi series which I felt took a step backward from Legacy. As much as I liked the rebirth of the Sith (and I did), I just found the entire character and concept of Abeloth to be almost as far fetched as the Yuuzhan Vong.

In short,there is much more to the EU then just Shadows and the Thrawn Trilogy. Not all of it is good, but there are some hidden gems in there that are actually well done.

I would also add my vote to the wraith squadron series.

If we can narrow things down, what are the best novels set between 5 BBY and 5 ABY that don't focus on Jedi or other Force users?

Not Star Wars, or books for that matter, but if you are old enough Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, an old film like Dark of the Sun, new ones like Lord of War and the like are also good for helping you get in the right frame of mind. If these are a little mature for you try Firefly (actually probably the best option on the list; it was based on the concept of "what was Han doing before he linked up with the rebellion?").

The thing to be thinking is that this section of the game is about criminals, con men, smugglers, mercs, thugs, spice dealers, and other types you wouldn't want to owe a favor to.

This is a little off theme for Star Wars, so its not uncommon for GMs to take the players to the alliance after a couple of adventures.

In this vein I can very much recommend Deadwood:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_(TV_series )

The character's are great and it the plot can be mined for a lot of Edge stuff. It's pretty much the wild west anyways