What is your personal methodic of creating fantasy races?

Come up with a cool central idea or concept, and run with it from there

>>54005573

Try and think of niches and themes that haven't been done to death already.

I'll often go with some ideas from IRL history that I've read about recently. Never a straight expy, it's more of a mix and match thing.

>>54005573
>take a fetish or a joke
>worldbuild around it until it's not obvious anymore

from time to time I add bits of info to an alien race brainstormed over the years for the sole purpose of being private fap fuel, but it has reached the point I could throw them into whatever setting and none would notice.

>>54005573
Fuck whatever I was doing before, I'm switching to your pic's method.

>>54005573
Take X fantasy race, change one random aspect (Big or small details) and fill it out from there.
Ex: Elves but with arms that branch into two at the elbow, total of 4 hands. They're fragile as hell, a little more alien looking, good at using multiple multiple weapons and manufacturing items but struggle with ranged weaponry. Very fond of shields considering they can easily carry three of the things and keep most their body covered, but the extra arms get in the way of aiming bows and guns.

>>54006223

Putting googly eyes on dog butts?

>>54005573

I come up with something that I think looks cool, and then I build back from there. Why does it look like that? What does it do? What does it want? How does it fit into the rest of the world?

>>54005573
I have a vendetta for races that can be functionally replaced by humans, see dwarves and halflings, so as a rule I always make sure a race is either or both of physically distinct from humans in some way beyond appearance or have a culture so alien that it won't be compared to any popular historical culture.

Usually this means I start off with the physical appearance or a practice and build out from there, with the additional goal of having them fill a unique role within the setting. Sometimes all this really means is adding a tail and architecture that involves use of it though.

>>54006365
>autist doesn't understand redundancy

>>54005573
I base them off old legends and stories, especially repeated or compelling concepts.

The first thing to understand is that being interesting is more important than being original.

>>54006292
Cat butt, actually.

>>54007200
>>54006292
I was thinking on whatever animal's ass I can get googly eyes on really.

I just imagine them all as Muppets. None of my players have realized it yet.

>>54005573
I usually stick some googly eyes on an animals ass and call it a day

I create their enviroment and adapt their culture and appearance based off how they would need to survive there.

Then I see if nearby races could welcome them and breed with them. Create sub species based off that if I want.

File: tumblr_inline_orpqkcEF2G1rdpcax_540.jpg (38KB, 540x509px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 540x509px

there is no method to my madness my settings are a clusterfuck and from chaos eventually comes order.