The only time the Pentastar Alignment was mentioned in novels was in the short story in Tales of the Empire. Red Moon squadron running a sabotage and rescue against a slaver gang.
I'm 14% through a reread of Solo Command, after having reread Wraith Squadron and Iron Fist yesterday, and those books read uncannily like a TTRPG campaign.
love this! the WEG sourcebooks are such treasure troves, i recently read the one for Truce at Bakura and it establishes so much about the Ssi Ruuk's culture and mythos that you can't really get from a novel about them
The Far Orbit, is one of my favourite source books. I played a campaign of it years ago and it was an excellent experience. Lot of detail on the Nebulon-B frigate that no one talks about. The OG Imperial sourcebook from 1989 has the Jugganaut, basicaly unaltered from what we'd see in ROTS and later.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline website has archived many of the WEG publications, along with various other rare, obscure and even unpublished EU works. It's a veritable treasure trove for those who want to take a deep dive into Legends lore.
I always like trying to base how I played EaW off of how the sourcebooks handled the organization of the Empire and Rebel/New Republic. Their respective sourcebooks are a great treasure trove of the military and political organizations of the factions that rarely gets touched in any media because of how "boring" it is.
I actually did a custom player handbook for my own original sci-fi series. It helps a ton with mapping out ideas and lore. It makes you think about what make each species unique and can act as a sort of database moving forward.
My old West End books are my go to for anything Star Wars. I still break them out to read every so often. My Bounty Hunter guide and Cracken's guide to operatives are my favs. IMO with the exception of George, I think Zahn is possibly the most important lore source in Star Wars.
My local gamestore had someone drop off a treasure trove of old West End Games supplements and I have slowly snatched all of the ones I care to grab. Favorite by far has to be the Corporate Sector book or the Pirates and Privateers. Former for its details on a non Imperial enemy faction in the post RotS era and the latter for its detailing of how the greater galaxy interacted and saw the Galactic Civil War.
One of my friends only knows Grand Admiral Thrawn through the RPG books. It makes me crazy that he still hasn't read the Thrawn trilogy cause he would love it. However, it's nice to see West End Games get their due. They helped established the rules and details of the galaxy. Their role is really unappreciated.
I don’t read much so I bought heir to the empire as my first Star Wars book but on the book store on iPhone fortunately my apartment manager is a real homie guys in his 60s he gave me a hard copy of dark force rising and shadows of the empire , what a G !
Absolutely Love the WEG sourcebooks and the old EU novels. I played the game with pen and paper for years, and online even till today in various groups. Love it. Still call back to it in writing or simming.
I'm introducing a couple friends to the Star Wars FFG game soon on tabletop sim and while I do have my own table set up the one you show briefly on the video looks really good. Is it public, or for your own private use only? I listened to the few episodes of Edge of Despair on my phone before I got behind and catching up became a bit much xD
These source books would be relegated to S-canon, below the EU in the mid-late 90’s. But without them, there would be no lore for the EU beyond whatever little tidbit dropped by LucasFilm licensing or Lucas himself didn’t usually concern himself too much with things beyond the main characters, factions, themes and philosophy as presented in his movies. So if the licensing department or source or EU came up with a name for a background character or planet, he was usually like “yeah, sure, whatever.” Or he might suggest modifying this or detail, and maybe adapt that into his movies. So the sourcebooks were like golden lore for everyone back in the 80’s and 90’s.
@@michaelandreipalon359 I think the original Marvel comics run in the 70’s and early 80’s(?) were S-canon (like that dang bunny character). Whereas the Clone Wars CGI show was T-canon, but not Lucas canon. I don’t know where the early animated Clone Wars cartoon fit in with the canon. But the EU didn’t really solidify into a coherent continuity itself until 1999. Before then the EU which didn’t officially take off beyond Dark Horse’s ‘Dark Empire’ comics and Zahn’s ‘Heir to the Empire’ (Thrawn) trilogy, until 94’, was basically the Wild West. But, back then writers had more leeway, a more direct line to Lucas if they had questions. But those sourcebooks really were a unifying treasure trove from them.
@@Dexter037S4 I had to look it up. Lucas only considered his movies trilogies to be canon. From 2000 - 2014, it along with the none contradicting cutscenes and novelizations were concidered G-canon for George Lucas canon. As per Lucas, all lower tiers of canon had to fit with the continuity of G-canon or be labeled N-canon (Not canon). ‘The Clone Wars’ CGI show, its movie and ‘Rebels’ was considered T-canon for TV) The EU post 2000 is considered to be C-canon for the continuity. With a lot of earlier EU elements being demoted to S-canon for source or resource, along the sourcebooks, gaming elements and the some of pre-90’ novels like ‘Splinter in the Minds Eye’, and the earlier TV shows like‘Droids’ and ‘the Ewoks’ as well as the Marvel comics. Mainly because everyone was doing their own thing between 94 - 2000. D-canon dealt with cancelled projects, primarily at the time for ‘Detours’. N-canon for not canon nor continuity, was a special place for what-ifs, infinities and the infamous ‘Christmas Special’, among other reconned stuff. Post 2008, after Lucas got tired of answering about the EU, like “why did you have Mara Jade (whatever)..”. (Seriously, that and his views shifting views on Jedi relationships was his only issue with the character). So LucasFilm (while keeping the previous tiered canon system) reorganized. The movies and the Clone Wars CGI movie and show were canon, with the EU and S-canon, being effectively an alternate universe even though it was still required to fit LucasFilm canon and oversight. The Clone Wars cartoon series (2003) was considered C-canon along with the EU, even though it was done in-house (rather than contracted out) at LucasFilm and is now largely considered to be Legends, like the majority of the EU and most of the lower tiered stuff from S, D and N canon, like the weird Marvel comics and the Christmas Special. As such, it was de-canonized in 2014 after the Disney take over was finalized and relabeled as Legends, more commonly understood to be none-canon. I already knew this, but I was foggy on the matter of whether the old Marvel comics are now canon or not, as well as where did the Clone Wars cartoon fit in to both the old and the new canon system. And thought that it was worth posting, since if I’m a little foggy on it, probably many content creators on UA-cam are too, too many of which just follow what’s on Wookiepedia or work with their own head-canon as if that is canon. A little off topic, but the problem that I see now-a-days though is while in the past the idea of canon was set by LucasFilm licensing, Lucas, Leland and later Filoni, the Sequels really screwed it and Pablo seems to be making his own holocron about what is and isn’t canon.
You should do a video on the Lucasfilm Story Group - there's too many misconceptions on them. Furthermore - it was a good point to raise an era before the Holocron continuity database, where Lucasfilm Licensing chronicled information internally within large binders - titled 'bibles' heh.
@@CoreysDatapadyeah, I've been looking through various New Sith Wars related pages on Wookieepedia a lot recently and I'm REALLY annoyed at how rarely any of it got covered as the ideas that are there seem like good starting points for novels/comics.
Never got quite interested in the stats and the roleplay aspect, but boy, they still are highly recommended for the readable lore stuffs and occasional details. Can't recommend all the Marvel 1977 comics. Most are cringe camp that just can't fit well with the rest of Legends lore. However, a select number of tales like the Tarkin superweapon arc and that one-shot about an Alderaanian stormtrooper can still be worth remembering. Splinters of the Mind's Eye in comic book form is noticeably better, but the novel should still be read once. Also, The Lando Calrissian Adventures are surprisingly good despite their naming conventions. 5:32: The difference between a Dave Filoni and a Dwayne McDuffie, I guess. Was hoping for Rebellion game clips. That Empire at War predecessor is 90s Legends fanservice galore! Of all the haphazard and reckless haberdashery out there, Legends sure traded strict consistency with memorably good quality tales and fluff wisely, weirdly speaking. Ah, wish Wookieepedia can be eclipsed by a newer wiki akin to the ones for Doom, Disney's Gargoyles, Transformers, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and a select few others... Fandom wikis seem so artificial and mindflayed. Addendum: Strange Corey didn't mention the fact that these sourcebooks are actually free-to-get pdfs nowadays.
WEG made a great game with mechanics that gave a cinematic feel that most RPGs struggle with. However, a lot of the background info I. The sourcebooks was not to my taste. For instance, the origin of TIEs having no shields or life support came from these sourcebooks, and was copied ad nauseam by the later expanded universe novels and games.
I really want to, and I've gotten a group of players together to try to run one myself, but it's a big time commitment so I haven't been able to plan it out yet
When WEG lost the license for good, they seem to have posted a torrent. Would advise buying if possible, I think I've got a solid 80% of all the books they published after the 2nd ed handbook.
The only time the Pentastar Alignment was mentioned in novels was in the short story in Tales of the Empire. Red Moon squadron running a sabotage and rescue against a slaver gang.
Which is kind of a shame since they’re IMO the coolest warlord faction.
I'm 14% through a reread of Solo Command, after having reread Wraith Squadron and Iron Fist yesterday, and those books read uncannily like a TTRPG campaign.
It's no coincidence, Aaron Allston was big into ttrpgs. He wrote a bunch of guides and worked on his own campaign books.
Star Wars lore books were the best growing up, I loved reading the "New Essential Guides"
RPG sourcebook writers are absolutely the true MVPs of Star Wars' non-film storytelling. Great video as always, Corey!
Troy Denning is one of those writers.
love this! the WEG sourcebooks are such treasure troves, i recently read the one for Truce at Bakura and it establishes so much about the Ssi Ruuk's culture and mythos that you can't really get from a novel about them
The Far Orbit, is one of my favourite source books. I played a campaign of it years ago and it was an excellent experience. Lot of detail on the Nebulon-B frigate that no one talks about.
The OG Imperial sourcebook from 1989 has the Jugganaut, basicaly unaltered from what we'd see in ROTS and later.
Is that sourcebook's Nebulon-B as good as the ones in the X-Wing video game, perchance?
Juggernaut was basicly unaltered from ESP concepts. Rots version differs. A6 and A9 models came from somewhere.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline website has archived many of the WEG publications, along with various other rare, obscure and even unpublished EU works. It's a veritable treasure trove for those who want to take a deep dive into Legends lore.
Am surprised Corey didn't mention this. Not even a description link leading to that awesome site.
I always like trying to base how I played EaW off of how the sourcebooks handled the organization of the Empire and Rebel/New Republic. Their respective sourcebooks are a great treasure trove of the military and political organizations of the factions that rarely gets touched in any media because of how "boring" it is.
Off the top, I love the fact that this video is 11:38 long
Loved getting some of those old guides and sourcebooks from my local library as a kid in the early 2000’s like the essential guide to droids and tech.
It’s a shame we don’t have much comming out in terms of Star Wars TTRPG content anymore. Need some new FFG books, or a new edition
Immediate thumbs up for the WEG mention. My favorite part of my collection of RPG books are a few dozen original printings from them ♥️
I actually did a custom player handbook for my own original sci-fi series. It helps a ton with mapping out ideas and lore. It makes you think about what make each species unique and can act as a sort of database moving forward.
My old West End books are my go to for anything Star Wars. I still break them out to read every so often. My Bounty Hunter guide and Cracken's guide to operatives are my favs. IMO with the exception of George, I think Zahn is possibly the most important lore source in Star Wars.
I spent a lot of money collecting all the adventure journals. Also, Crisis on Cloud City has the first published rules for Sabacc.
My local gamestore had someone drop off a treasure trove of old West End Games supplements and I have slowly snatched all of the ones I care to grab. Favorite by far has to be the Corporate Sector book or the Pirates and Privateers. Former for its details on a non Imperial enemy faction in the post RotS era and the latter for its detailing of how the greater galaxy interacted and saw the Galactic Civil War.
One of my friends only knows Grand Admiral Thrawn through the RPG books. It makes me crazy that he still hasn't read the Thrawn trilogy cause he would love it. However, it's nice to see West End Games get their due. They helped established the rules and details of the galaxy. Their role is really unappreciated.
Shoutout to Yord apparently being one of the writer’s RPG characters that ended up becoming canon
Decided to search my name a while back and found out the Javin system exists and was made for the Wizards of the Coast RPG books.
Oh yeah, there's a reason I have PDFs of all the RPG sourcebooks.
The West End Games RPG is pretty fun. I've only played it one time and the DM's style kind of wasn't great for me, but it was still a good time.
I don’t read much so I bought heir to the empire as my first Star Wars book but on the book store on iPhone fortunately my apartment manager is a real homie guys in his 60s he gave me a hard copy of dark force rising and shadows of the empire , what a G !
This is why I want to read starwars rpg books. They can combine Canon and legends stuff all to form a story we all could enjoy.
Absolutely Love the WEG sourcebooks and the old EU novels. I played the game with pen and paper for years, and online even till today in various groups. Love it. Still call back to it in writing or simming.
I'm introducing a couple friends to the Star Wars FFG game soon on tabletop sim and while I do have my own table set up the one you show briefly on the video looks really good. Is it public, or for your own private use only? I listened to the few episodes of Edge of Despair on my phone before I got behind and catching up became a bit much xD
These source books would be relegated to S-canon, below the EU in the mid-late 90’s. But without them, there would be no lore for the EU beyond whatever little tidbit dropped by LucasFilm licensing or Lucas himself didn’t usually concern himself too much with things beyond the main characters, factions, themes and philosophy as presented in his movies. So if the licensing department or source or EU came up with a name for a background character or planet, he was usually like “yeah, sure, whatever.” Or he might suggest modifying this or detail, and maybe adapt that into his movies. So the sourcebooks were like golden lore for everyone back in the 80’s and 90’s.
Nah, the Marvel 1977 comics and The Clone Wars 2008 deserve S-canon more, I guess.
@@michaelandreipalon359 I think the original Marvel comics run in the 70’s and early 80’s(?) were S-canon (like that dang bunny character). Whereas the Clone Wars CGI show was T-canon, but not Lucas canon. I don’t know where the early animated Clone Wars cartoon fit in with the canon. But the EU didn’t really solidify into a coherent continuity itself until 1999. Before then the EU which didn’t officially take off beyond Dark Horse’s ‘Dark Empire’ comics and Zahn’s ‘Heir to the Empire’ (Thrawn) trilogy, until 94’, was basically the Wild West. But, back then writers had more leeway, a more direct line to Lucas if they had questions. But those sourcebooks really were a unifying treasure trove from them.
@@eds1942 Clone Wars 03' fit into the EU, TCW was above it in T-Canon, but bothc ould be fit into the main canon.
@@Dexter037S4 I had to look it up.
Lucas only considered his movies trilogies to be canon. From 2000 - 2014, it along with the none contradicting cutscenes and novelizations were concidered G-canon for George Lucas canon.
As per Lucas, all lower tiers of canon had to fit with the continuity of G-canon or be labeled N-canon (Not canon).
‘The Clone Wars’ CGI show, its movie and ‘Rebels’ was considered T-canon for TV)
The EU post 2000 is considered to be C-canon for the continuity. With a lot of earlier EU elements being demoted to S-canon for source or resource, along the sourcebooks, gaming elements and the some of pre-90’ novels like ‘Splinter in the Minds Eye’, and the earlier TV shows like‘Droids’ and ‘the Ewoks’ as well as the Marvel comics. Mainly because everyone was doing their own thing between 94 - 2000.
D-canon dealt with cancelled projects, primarily at the time for ‘Detours’.
N-canon for not canon nor continuity, was a special place for what-ifs, infinities and the infamous ‘Christmas Special’, among other reconned stuff.
Post 2008, after Lucas got tired of answering about the EU, like “why did you have Mara Jade (whatever)..”. (Seriously, that and his views shifting views on Jedi relationships was his only issue with the character). So LucasFilm (while keeping the previous tiered canon system) reorganized. The movies and the Clone Wars CGI movie and show were canon, with the EU and S-canon, being effectively an alternate universe even though it was still required to fit LucasFilm canon and oversight.
The Clone Wars cartoon series (2003) was considered C-canon along with the EU, even though it was done in-house (rather than contracted out) at LucasFilm and is now largely considered to be Legends, like the majority of the EU and most of the lower tiered stuff from S, D and N canon, like the weird Marvel comics and the Christmas Special. As such, it was de-canonized in 2014 after the Disney take over was finalized and relabeled as Legends, more commonly understood to be none-canon.
I already knew this, but I was foggy on the matter of whether the old Marvel comics are now canon or not, as well as where did the Clone Wars cartoon fit in to both the old and the new canon system. And thought that it was worth posting, since if I’m a little foggy on it, probably many content creators on UA-cam are too, too many of which just follow what’s on Wookiepedia or work with their own head-canon as if that is canon.
A little off topic, but the problem that I see now-a-days though is while in the past the idea of canon was set by LucasFilm licensing, Lucas, Leland and later Filoni, the Sequels really screwed it and Pablo seems to be making his own holocron about what is and isn’t canon.
@@eds1942 Lucas reorganizing canon after being tired of answering questions is such bullshit reason 😂
You should do a video on the Lucasfilm Story Group - there's too many misconceptions on them. Furthermore - it was a good point to raise an era before the Holocron continuity database, where Lucasfilm Licensing chronicled information internally within large binders - titled 'bibles' heh.
I was there Gandalf....three thousand years ago...
Didn't later RPG sourcebooks also do a lot to expand on the New Sith Wars from before the last 50 - 100 years of the conflict?
There's a few blurbs in lore sourcebooks, but very little ever looked at that period at all.
@@CoreysDatapadyeah, I've been looking through various New Sith Wars related pages on Wookieepedia a lot recently and I'm REALLY annoyed at how rarely any of it got covered as the ideas that are there seem like good starting points for novels/comics.
Never got quite interested in the stats and the roleplay aspect, but boy, they still are highly recommended for the readable lore stuffs and occasional details.
Can't recommend all the Marvel 1977 comics. Most are cringe camp that just can't fit well with the rest of Legends lore. However, a select number of tales like the Tarkin superweapon arc and that one-shot about an Alderaanian stormtrooper can still be worth remembering.
Splinters of the Mind's Eye in comic book form is noticeably better, but the novel should still be read once. Also, The Lando Calrissian Adventures are surprisingly good despite their naming conventions.
5:32: The difference between a Dave Filoni and a Dwayne McDuffie, I guess.
Was hoping for Rebellion game clips. That Empire at War predecessor is 90s Legends fanservice galore!
Of all the haphazard and reckless haberdashery out there, Legends sure traded strict consistency with memorably good quality tales and fluff wisely, weirdly speaking.
Ah, wish Wookieepedia can be eclipsed by a newer wiki akin to the ones for Doom, Disney's Gargoyles, Transformers, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and a select few others... Fandom wikis seem so artificial and mindflayed.
Addendum: Strange Corey didn't mention the fact that these sourcebooks are actually free-to-get pdfs nowadays.
The FFG system is pretty great too. I really enjoy how it works.
WEG made a great game with mechanics that gave a cinematic feel that most RPGs struggle with. However, a lot of the background info I. The sourcebooks was not to my taste. For instance, the origin of TIEs having no shields or life support came from these sourcebooks, and was copied ad nauseam by the later expanded universe novels and games.
Speaking of tabletop RPGs are you ever going to do a new series?
I really want to, and I've gotten a group of players together to try to run one myself, but it's a big time commitment so I haven't been able to plan it out yet
Can I get those old RPG sourcebook like Thrawn trilogy sourcebook and Glalaxy guide series today? Is there ebooks?
When WEG lost the license for good, they seem to have posted a torrent. Would advise buying if possible, I think I've got a solid 80% of all the books they published after the 2nd ed handbook.
Wish Corey gave a link to the pdfs in the description.
Joke's on you. D6, D20, Saga it's all sources for my current campaigns ;)
Was star wars the first brand to have this sort of "shared universe"? Or would you argue that marvel or dc comics came first?
Dark Empire is my favorite ❤
I sort of enjoy it as a one-off, but I don't think it fits very well in the larger story. Not uncommon with a lot of Star Wars content really.
Does anyone know where to find these books, especially the old ones that aren't currently sold?
You can get the WEG sourcebooks via free pdfs easily. Enjoy!
West End Games does not get nearly enough credit for the survival and structure of Star Wars
Of course the most important lore would get a video 11 minutes and 38 seconds long.... 😉
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