The Imperial Sourcebook for West End Games’ Star Wars RPG is one of the best sourcebooks ever written and a must own for any serious Star Wars nerd (even if the Expanded Universe is dead, RIP).

Written by Greg Gordon as an intelligence report compiled for rebel leader Mon Mothma, the book extrapolates what we saw of the Empire in the movies into a feasible (and wide ranging) explanation of its operational procedures and capabilities. And so we get stats and schematics for all sorts of weird vehicles, ships and troops, as well as elaborate charts for the order of battle, a glimpse at the inner workings of Imperial intelligence and COMPNOR – the Commision for the Preservation of the New Order – and notes on how both the military and navy are organized across the galaxy. We even get an explanation of the boxy rank badges worn by officers in the film. Need to know how many turbolasers a Super Star Destroyer has? Got ya covered – 500 batteries (the SSD’s silhouette on the size comparison chart spreads over 8 pages, amusingly). Ever wonder what a Zero-G stormtrooper might look like? Got that too. Also, scout troopers with flippers for aquatic worlds. I kid you not.

I’m not sure how useful the book is in running a campaign. My Star Wars games always avoided large-scale military conflict (and honestly mostly featured accidental rebels (read: criminals) rather than soldiers. But if you were to run a commando game, something like Rogue One, the Imperial Sourcebook would allow you to present an Empire that is massive, meticulously organized and terrifying, if one only glimpsed in small doses.

If not, you have a book that gives a delightful, if hypothetical, greater context to the villains on the screen, and that’s fine too.