I came to this excellent and exciting game just recently when a group of us decided to "get back into" rpgs by playing once per month and switching out games and game mastering duties. I drew the Star Wars card and have purchased all the available material from FFG.

If you good people would indulge me, I'd love to see a discussion of and advice upon incorporating the vast corpus of the Star Wars canon into my game. I was only a casual fan coming into this (I hadn't even seen Episode III), but now I'm getting invested. I went out and bought the six films on DVD and plan to buy the Clone Wars Blu-Ray boxed set around the holidays. But there's so much more!

Which novels, game supplements, and comics do you think offer the most in terms of the flavor and feel of the game? From what I've read, the Expanded Universe has seen novels, short stories, and comics published that run the gamut from mystery to horror to space opera (of course). And while I'm becoming more and more interested in all of it, I have to start somewhere and it might as well be with good stuff for my game.

Things I've purchased in addition to the films so far, more or less at random: the first X-Wing novel by Michael Stackpole, the first six volumes of Dark Horse's Clone Wars collections, an old West End Games rpg supplement covering Episode V, Wizards of the Coast rpg supplements covering Tatooine and Naboo, Brian Daley's Han Solo at Star's End, which I read and loved when it came out (yes, I'm that old).

The campaign I'm running will hew closely to the fringer/criminal/edgy feel the game seems set up to support, if that's any help.

i would say the late seasons of clone wars, i my self use the old cartoon Droids, with the main quest is to find the Roon-stones,

on another note, dont you post on the WW boards aswell? i'm sure i've seen your name and icon there,

on another note, dont you post on the WW boards aswell? i'm sure i've seen your name and icon there,

Um, maybe? What are the WW boards?

White wolf,

White wolf,

Ah. Nope, not me then. Never played any of those games or read any of that fiction.

The best place to start with the EU is probably...

(1) Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn (starts about 8 years after Return of the Jedi)

(2) X-Wing novels - go from right after RotJ to like 3-4 years after and build into...

(3) The Courtship of Princess Leia

Shadows of the Empire is also good, set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Kshatriya has beaten me to it with the Thrawn trilogy (Though it starts 5 years after Ep VI, )

As for other sources of EU, I admit I've always been a big Jedi fan so most of where in the EU my interests lie doesn't fit into the EotE style, but beyond Star Wars, "Firefly" and "Serenity" are on netflix and share a common tone with EotE.

I'd definitely tuck into the Clone Wars series!

It has a great variety of people, places and settings in the Galaxy, and often gives perspective on planets and civilizations we don't see in the films, like Mandalorians and planets like Ryloth or Rodia.

I added a little flavor to "Long Arm of the Hutt" from having seen the Clone Wars episodes set on Ryloth. A sequence in the "Long Arm of the Hutt" adventure has the players landing on Nabat, a city on Ryloth. In The Clone Wars, this city was the site of a massive battle to free Ryloth from the occupation of a droid army.

So as the players moved through Nabat, I could describe the remnants of war damage or ways the city has been reconstructed since then, and I could use the Clone Wars as background for characters who grew up in Nabat.

The Clone Wars cartoon, in my opinion, is the best, most well-written, and strongest Star Wars stories outside of the actual films.

EotE takes place between Episode 4 (A New Hope) and Episode 5 (Empire Strikes Back)... If you want to take literal canon, I'd stick between that period of time. So anything between the First Death Star being destroyed to the Battle of Hoth is fair game.

If you want to expand the rules outside of that time, ultimately its up to you as the GM what you'd like to include as canon.

My personal groups, I run between E. 4-5.

Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge by Martha Wells is essentially "an Edge of the Empire game/adventure if the Heroes of Yavin were (part of) the party", it's that appropriate as EotE source material.

(2) X-Wing novels - go from right after RotJ to like 3-4 years after and build into...

Caveat: Just skip right to Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron books. The others are all focused on Corran Horn, Mary Sue extrodinaire. Ain't nobody got time for that.

I love these topics where fanboys come out of the woodwork

The Thrawn Trilogy deserves much attention, it is true. X-Wing is a little hit and miss. But the problem is that these series are set squarely in the New Republic Era, and the OP is looking for something edgy/criminal/fringer. All the Thrawn books have elements of this, of course, but not all of them are set during the Galactic Civil War or in the height of Imperial power.

To get into the EotE mode of thought, I highly suggest Allegiance and Choices of One by Timothy Zahn. These contain a small spoiler about the character of Mara Jade, but nothing you wouldn't happen upon while reading Wookieepedia And it's certainly not on the level of "I am your father." So if you don't care about finding out who Mara Jade is in the Thrawn Trilogy, then these earlier books (set in exactly the time period and location of EotE) are where it's at.

Yeah I was mostly suggesting the stuff dealing with Zsinj as it sets up Courtship of Princess Leia. But I didn't hate the stuff preceding it when the Alliance was trying to take Coruscant.

The Lando Calrissian Adventures and The Han Solo Adventures are a little bit dated and a lot campy (at least by my reading), and they both introduce characters and races that are never heard from again, but they still have a lot to offer. Both trilogies are centred on Edge-style characters, and you get a good look at the lifestyle of smugglers/scoundrels who are fighting just to keep their ship flying or themselves in the sabacc game. There's a great sequence in one of the Lando books where he's importing some legal goods to a world, and he gets hit with so much bureaucratic red tape (in the form of fees, fines, and bribes) that he loses money. In the Han Solo trilogy, Han and Chewie make money or earn favours, but spend it all repairing and maintaining the Millenium Falcon.

Lots of Edge-appropriate motivations and plot-hooks in both of those trilogies, which are cheap as collected e-books, if you can do it that way.

I love these topics where fanboys come out of the woodwork

The Thrawn Trilogy deserves much attention, it is true. X-Wing is a little hit and miss. But the problem is that these series are set squarely in the New Republic Era, and the OP is looking for something edgy/criminal/fringer. All the Thrawn books have elements of this, of course, but not all of them are set during the Galactic Civil War or in the height of Imperial power.

Sure, but the time on the calendar isn't as important. Anything in the canon with the right feel can be a worthwhile read. If it's edgy/criminal/fringer then it's relavent. Shadows of the Empire, some of Xwing, Thawn, all have stuff those elements. Therefore they are reasonable suggestions for someone looking to get more into the EU.

I love these topics where fanboys come out of the woodwork

The Thrawn Trilogy deserves much attention, it is true. X-Wing is a little hit and miss. But the problem is that these series are set squarely in the New Republic Era, and the OP is looking for something edgy/criminal/fringer. All the Thrawn books have elements of this, of course, but not all of them are set during the Galactic Civil War or in the height of Imperial power.

Sure, but the time on the calendar isn't as important. Anything in the canon with the right feel can be a worthwhile read. If it's edgy/criminal/fringer then it's relavent. Shadows of the Empire, some of Xwing, Thawn, all have stuff those elements. Therefore they are reasonable suggestions for someone looking to get more into the EU.

Shadows takes place after IV through V and depending which version of Dash Rendar books you read, basically stops around VI. All of Shadows is relevant, but it shows the world through the eyes of a more Neutral/Rebel smuggler, compared to Han, who kinda gets swept up in the whole rebellion thing due to Leia . I'd look at the reverse as well, seeing corruption and the Imperial Core worlds, lower levels of Coruscant and even the Mara Jade books goes into the realm of 'Outside of the Empire'

This is all great, thanks everybody. Thanks especially to those who mention actual titles, as those are easier to track down than descriptions!

Keep it coming!

I lean more on TCW than the movies to see what "real people" are doing in the SW universe. The movies just don't go into it. Except for the Zam Wessel chase in E2, the movies are locked in the bubbles of the Alliance and the Jedi Council. You get a much better picture of everyday life in the SW universe through TCW. There are several episodes which explore the underbelly of Coruscant, or pirates on the fringe. Best episodes for that, IMHO:

Lightsaber Lost

Bounty

Duchess of Mandalore

Lethal Trackdown

Padawan Lost + Wookiee Hunt

Revival

The quadrilogy starting with A War on Two Fronts

Lots more there, and more yet if you want some AoR military-oriented stuff.

Not really a fan of Zahn, I know it's heretical but IMHO he's vastly overrated. However, his most recent, Scoundrels, was really enjoyable. Have to say I also really enjoyed the recent Kenobi as an example of the troubles a Jedi can get into when he's alone and trying to blend in. Lastly, the Medstar duology remains one of my favourites.

I love these topics where fanboys come out of the woodwork

The Thrawn Trilogy deserves much attention, it is true. X-Wing is a little hit and miss. But the problem is that these series are set squarely in the New Republic Era, and the OP is looking for something edgy/criminal/fringer. All the Thrawn books have elements of this, of course, but not all of them are set during the Galactic Civil War or in the height of Imperial power.

Sure, but the time on the calendar isn't as important. Anything in the canon with the right feel can be a worthwhile read. If it's edgy/criminal/fringer then it's relavent. Shadows of the Empire, some of Xwing, Thawn, all have stuff those elements. Therefore they are reasonable suggestions for someone looking to get more into the EU.

The calendar isn't important, but the pervasive oppressiveness of the Empire (and the Emperor) is important, IMO. That's why I suggested those titles.

Just went and read the publishers summary of Razors Edge. Looks like I've got another story to make

Just went and read the publishers summary of Razors Edge. Looks like I've got another story to make

I'll note that not only does it "shimmer" with Edge of the Empire-ness in themes -- hell, its plot is practically an Edge of the Empire adventure told from the Heroes of Yavin's POVs* -- but even in its "scale"... no clear information on the make or size of the Aegis or the Gamble, and there's a conversation between Crix Madine and Luke Skywalker aboard the Independence (a MC80 Home One type), but otherwise the largest-known starship involved in the plot is... a Silhouette 5 corvette.

* The deuteragonists are (practically) a Edge of the Empire party of PCs, right down to Obligation.