Star Wars Expanded Universe.

[Doomboy911]

Ok so for starters this isn't a discussion of the expanded universe this is requesting help in finding reading material.

A friend of mine insists that if I'm to play his star wars games I must have a great understanding of the star wars universe. He and I have a little trade going where I watch the star wars stuff and he watches Avatar: The last Airbender. Unfortunately (or luckily) he has roughly 27 hours of television while I've got only 11 hours to watch. So I need a way to fill this up. He insists that watching the films again using the machete method shouldn't count and neither should watching them a second time to pick up on things I may have missed. So now I'm trying to find extra hours, he suggests expanded universe and I suggest terrible things to him for saying such a thing but I can't find any way to fill the time the only way I'd be interested in expanded universe is if it touched on the only thing I actually liked in star wars. Bounty hunters and smugglers, luckily (or unfortunately) I do not know anything about the expanded universe so I don't know any books about this.

So mighty internet can you make any suggestions of books of the expanded universe that focus on the only cool thing in star wars?

[Manga Shoggoth]

Well, the Thwarn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire/Dark Force Rising/Last Command) does have a smuggler subplot (More, I think, in the second two).

However, I've not read much EU - the above and The Courtship of Princess Leia is about my limit...

[SmartAlec]

Smugglers and Bounty Hunters, hm. Well, the book (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Scoundrels) Star Wars: Scoundrels comes well recommended.

[Devonix]

Really depends on when the game is set.

[Doomboy911]

Smugglers and Bounty Hunters, hm. Well, the book (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Scoundrels) Star Wars: Scoundrels comes well recommended.

And it looks awesome can anyone think of stuff around the old republic era. I'm sure that's when the game will get started.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Read Heir to the Empire; read its immediate sequels if you like Talon Karrde or Mara Jade.

Read X-Wing: Rogue Squadron; read all its sequels if you like Mirax or Booster Terrik.

The free-to-play MMORPG does let you play both a Smuggler and a Bounty Hunter and is called The Old Republic, but it's basically the last place you want to "learn about the Star Wars universe", since it pays about as much attention to setting lore as World of Warcraft.

Tales of the Bounty Hunters is a collection of short stories that would probably work for you; also consider Tales from the Empire, Tales from Jabba's Palace, and Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Stuff directly relating to the Old Republic is a little tricky since it a) comprises several thousand years and b) is mostly either completely terrible or a very long video game.

[Mando Knight]

"The Old Republic era" as published spans four thousand years, from the Great Hyperspace War in 5000 BBY to the end of the New Sith Wars in 1000 BBY up to the Ruusan Reformations. (It technically goes back another 20000 years, but they haven't written much about that time)

Narrow it down by war: Great Sith War (Exar Kun, Ulic Qel-Droma, and the Mandalorian Crusaders)
Mandalorian Wars (Revanchists against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders)
Jedi Civil War (KotOR, Revan's Sith Empire against the Republic)
Dark Wars (KotOR 2, the remnants of Revan's Sith Empire under the leadership of Traya's apprentices assassinating thousands of Jedi in the Rimward sectors)
Great Galactic War (and the ensuing Cold War and Galactic War, all fought between the "real" Sith Empire and the Republic, the latter two being the setting of the MMO)
New Sith War (The Sith Brotherhood of Darkness against the Jedi Army of Light, ending with the destructive "Thought Bomb" that destroyed the leadership of both armies at what would be known as the Valley of the Jedi on Ruusan)

Unfortunately for you, most of the wars in the Old Republic Era were direct conflicts between the Sith and the Jedi-led armies of the Republic. The wars where the Sith weren't directly involved still had the Jedi as the Republic's war leaders. There's no getting away from Jedi in the Old Republic Era.

[snoopy13a]

The Old Republic is a rather large time frame. You have the Exar Kun and Nomi Sunrider storylines with the old Dark Horse comics. Next you have the Revan/Jedi Exile storylines from Kotor I & II. Further, you have another Jedi-Sith war in ToR MMO. Another point of interest is the Darth Bane storyline. And that's only scratching the surface a bit. All of these take place at distinct timelines so it is tough to narrow things down.

If I were you, I'd make a character from some backwater planet who is ignorant of galactic history and geography. That way, you don't have to learn anything :smallbiggrin:

[Doomboy911]

The Old Republic is a rather large time frame. You have the Exar Kun and Nomi Sunrider storylines with the old Dark Horse comics. Next you have the Revan/Jedi Exile storylines from Kotor I & II. Further, you have another Jedi-Sith war in ToR MMO. Another point of interest is the Darth Bane storyline. And that's only scratching the surface a bit. All of these take place at distinct timelines so it is tough to narrow things down.

If I were you, I'd make a character from some backwater planet who is ignorant of galactic history and geography. That way, you don't have to learn anything :smallbiggrin:

Yeah but in order to properly under(blah blah blah)stand the universe I have to get a rich (blah blah blah) feel for the intricate and* fascinating universe. I can only apparently accomplish this by studying and understanding the world. So sayeth my dm.

To which I say Tatooine, laser gun, and light whip. Anything that disagrees can enjoy an extra round to the head. I'm going to walk into any bar enjoy the silence as everyone stares and sit down. Those with enough bravery lounge around me as I regale them with the tales of slaying every insufferable beast that comes my way and catching so many bounties that the friggin' huts are coming to me for loans.




*Blah blah blaaahh

[AstralFire]

I really recommend that you read Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. Its B-Plot focuses beautifully on the smugglers and scoundrels (not so much the Bounty Hunter) while the A-Plot is a relatively cerebral thing about Jedi, all in a pulpy frame. It's the best book in Star Wars, bar none, because it touches on everything good about the universe.

I cannot recommend it enough.

It was good enough to make me enjoy Mandalorians. I hate Mandalorians.

[Thrudd]

Not Old Republic, but you would probably like the Dark Horse comics stories about Quinlan Vos. They take place in a lot of seedy underworld sort of settings. He is sort of a Jedi spy who skirts the dark side and uses unconventional methods to get things done, associating with scoundrels and criminals throughout. His stories span the time from around Episode I until after Episode III. There's a trade paperback omnibus that collects all the Quinlan Vos stories into one big volume.

[hamishspence]

There's a few pre-Clone Wars bounty hunter comic stories- some focusing on Jango, one on Zam Wessel (the shapeshifter in AoTC), and one or two on Aurra Sing (Boba's mentor in the TCW TV series).

The Old Republic MMO has an encyclopedia which has some detail on the Bounty Hunter subplot of the game.

[BWR]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301045)thread covers a lot

[Darth Credence]

For your specific situation, I'd focus on the comic books. There was a lot of work put into the art on those how it relates to ship and weapon design, and I think you can get a better feel for what your DM is pushing you towards.

The good stuff is mostly available through Dark Horse Comics. They have a digital store that has tons of comics available, although it doesn't take long for that to get expensive. I've read mostly the stuff set in the movie eras, but I know that there is a Knights of the Old Republic series and just a The Old Republic series.

In fact, I just had a look at the role-playing game, and if you are using the Wizards of the Coast game with the Old Republic campaign guide, then there is a pretty obvious choice. John Jackson Miller is one of the designers of the guide - he is also an expanded universe author. He just published the book Kenobi, which started slow for me but became quite good after a while. He also was the writer for the entire run of Knights of the Old Republic, as well as the follow up series. He wrote a series of shorts called Lost Tribe of the Sith that I wasn't a huge fan of, but were released free as ebooks if you want a place to start with him. I would bet that his work would be the most useful for a campaign using that guidebook.