What are the best Babylon 5 source books?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

So I decided to make this its own topic instead of derailing an existing thread.

I loved the background book for the Vorlons and Shadows, Darkness and Light. Are there any other sourcebooks that are as well written or informative? I would also like to read more about the history of many Babylon 5 races and their technology, even about prominent space battles. What are the best supplements for that kind of information? Are there any I should stay away from?

Darkness and Light added a whole new layer to the Vorlons for me in the show, and Stravo's thread makes me see Sinclair in The Gathering and season 1 in a new light. Please help me expand my Babylon 5 experience with some nice new material.

Now to go dust off my Babylon 5 DVDs...

[Todeswind]

The RPGs are about it. JMS doesn't seem to have been particularly eager to let other people get control over his IP... at all. And considering how he got totally screwed by Paramount it isn't surprising. He never really stopped thinking that everyone was going to steal his ideas. Can you blame him for it? I'd be a bit hesitant as well.

[Stravo]

Bob,

I would say that the other sourcebooks which expands on the Vorlons and B5 history that is interesting is the Drakh and Third Space sourcebooks. I wouldn't waste my team with the race specific ones like the Narn or Centauri sourcebooks they are dull and don't expand on the more interesting aspects of the b5 Universe. Another excellent one which I did not anticipate on being any good was the Psi Corps sourcebook. It has a very good analysis of how the Psi Corps works, how deep those conspiracies went and how it all got started by the Vorlons then coopted by the Shadows.

Those are the main ones that I am aware of. I hesitate to recommend the Minbari sourcebook because overall it is just dull except for the description of the Minbari rebellion against the Vorlons - interesitng tidbit that comes out of that, the poison used on Kosh in the Gathering was developed during that rebellion.

These are all the Mongoose Publishing RPG. Also to expand past that I recently got one of the B5 novels that was published back in the 90's "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" it's Sinclair specific and essentially is giving us the back story we missed in the series of how he became Ranger One and was led down the path to become Valen, Highly recommend getting this book. I found it on Ebay for like $1.

I heard somewhere that there is a First One fleet supplement for B5 Wars that is very good but don't have first hand knowledge.

[Connor MacLeod]

I nabbed a bunch of the Agents of Gaming B5 Wars stuff back in the day they were still around (mainly because I was still dealing with Rabid Fivers)

I have some of the b5 RPG stuff including Darkness and Light and a few others. CAn't say I liked D&L as it felt like a deliberate effort in my mind to make the first ones copy other "advanced" sci fi races in novels (like giving the Vorlons effectors...). Of course some people say that about the ICS so...

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. I'm adding a lot of B5 stuff to my holiday wish list.

Also, I seem to have found a site that has ...a lot... of the information found in the book Babylon 5 Wars: Wars of the Ancients. It's a pdf, so I'm not sure about posting it here...