Favorite Fantasy Races?

[Toccata]

Ah yes, the Thri-Kreen, one of my favorite of the pc-accessible psionic races (kinda hard to fit a mind flayer into a party  ).
It's annoying that none of the other players in my group like them.

I just wish they hadn't been removed from the SRD.

[OverNinja]

Thri-Kreen: hated them in Eye of Beholder, liked them in Dark Sun and Spelljammer. Not much use though.

Scro: from Spelljammer; my players developed quite a hatred for a duo (captain & war priest) + their troops that gave them back their own medicine.

Siarrans: from Dragon Star. Don't know why I like these four-armed wanderers.

Vorox: from Fading Suns. Technicly not a fantasy race, but I like 'em. What's not to like about six-limbed, poison clawed intelligent pack-hunting predators and they're not even on top of their homeworlds foodchain!

K'ta'viiri: from Shadow World. So ridiculously over powered, that I wonder who gets to use them unless your game is Epic. For a supposedly dead race they're fairly active  .

And the much maligned Elves, especially Tolkien's. My race of choice when not playing a human.

[spinningdice]

Not really fantasy (or even particularly original), but I like the Seshayans from Alternity (IIRC there was a Dragon article to use them in D&D)

[Morgenstern]

Not really fantasy (or even particularly original), but I like the Seshayans from Alternity (IIRC there was a Dragon article to use them in D&D)

I converted those on the old boards. THey came out alright . I might still have a copy, hang on.

[Agent 333]

I've always been a big Centaur fan myself, though with release of LoO I've had a new dawning on love for Gorgons as well. I just wish someone else around here would run Spycraft and let me play any of the OotS species. Mostly a Centaur soldier carrying around a Nagamaki. C'mon, you know that's a cool mental image.

As for ones that haven't been covered yet? I really want to see a good rendition of Orcs done right. In the source material (Tolkien you gits!), there were at least as many varieties of Orcs as there were elves. Mordor Orcs, Moria Goblins, Uruk-hai.... they're all orcs!

[OverNinja]

.... they're all orcs!

Elves, actually   .

[agent oni]

Sentient apes. Lord Almighty, how I love sentient apes. Gorilla Grod is just about my favorite DC villain, especially as presented in Dini's Justice League. The little monkey men are cool, too, Gleek notwithstanding.

I'm also a fan of lizard men and naga, especially the bizarre variants (such as the fire salamanders I created for Burning Sands/L5R).

My first exposure to sentient apes was with the TV show, Sliders.  They were so cool coming out of the rift to invade an alternate Earth.

I wished Burning Sands CCG became popular enough for AEG to do an RPG for that setting.  Didn't the Naga appear in the Burning Sands as corrupted?

My favorite fantasy race to play as used to be the elves until PrivateerPress made playing trolls so cool.  Fellcallers are so much fun to roleplay!

[Morgenstern]

I just finished the orks Talent (basically the last race I need to detail before I can toss Classic Fantasy Races into the tiger's den - about a dozen feats to go on that book). My goodness they came out... vicious. They had so many easy and obvious penalties that there was tons of room to give them every kind of orkish awesome I could think of. Insamely tough, strong, and terrifying in combat. Their banned skill checks make them utter savages, while their sub-race feats are gonna give them some really amusing bundles of joy. I described one to Alex and his imediate response was "Ah. Uruk-hai". And not the White Hand gang because they are teh-supar-awesomest, but because they have the right non-combat benefits to offer a sort of threat none of the other ork hordes present. They are mobile. Very, very mobile. Other horde feats elaborate on a variety of potential tactics employed by the great horde to crush the unworthy. So far I'm grooving on them far more than I ever thought I would.

[Toccata]

Their banned skill checks make them utter savages,

I'm guessing Networking/Mediation is one of them?

[foproy]

i allways thought the orks from the elder scrolls were great. the god they worshiped was crap literally. ill post the history behind that one soon.

[Mister Andersen]

I remember when I did fantasycraft back on the AEG boards that I came up with Orcs that weren't evil, they just existed outside the moral spectrum of civillisation. And they were kinda like sharks - a wounded enemy was a soon-gonna-be-eaten enemy unless they had a real good incentive not to do so.

[Crafty_Pat]

I wished Burning Sands CCG became popular enough for AEG to do an RPG for that setting.  Didn't the Naga appear in the Burning Sands as corrupted?

Yup. And the Djinn were unbound kami, and the Ebonites' Black Stone was the same one the Darkness hid under to escape Amaterasu... I build a whole cosmology for that setting that was fluidly interwoven with that of L5R. Even built an RPG outline but never got the go-ahead to start writing. Ah well... That and the third of a book I wrote detailing the Shadow War between the mystic and shadow ninja of the Scorpion Clan will have to fade into the sands of time...

[Valentina]

Elves. Harmony with nature, self-knowledge, and societies that manage to produce citizens that aren't wildly self-destructive are some of my favorite things. That and peoples who manage to avoid some of the really stupid things human indulge in under the guise of "racial identity" are a big plus. I get plenty of Human in my daily diet, no need for it in my fantasy thanks.
Elorii of PCI's Arcanis were near and dear, until I began to find out my Eloran PC have never actually been to her own nation or set foot into it's grand cathedrals. Thanks. I've been assured and reassured it'll make sense in due time, but in the mean time I'm nothing like pleased.

Cat Women. Yup! I must want to have sex with my pets, as was once quipped. =]
Fusing to of the best things to have warm and purring in one's lap, and an honest acknowledgment that being closer to the animals We Were is a positive attribute. Humans hide behind clothing, shun proximity out of fear for loss of self while self-polluting ceaselessly and hate that which makes us so like each other. These are things to dare to accept, and cat women do it with a laugh.
Oh, and yes gender specificity. Felicia of Darkstalkers/Vampire Savior, not WoD skin-changers or Kit'zi or furries. Yes, it's libido convenient too. And sometimes it's just refreshing to play someone who's more forgiving, relaxed, and generally in tune with how things could be then I am.

Dark-Kin. Because some days you just want to be Tainted and full of a rage so vast it can consume anything. And because defying and transcending such is the stuff of epic heroism in it's purest state. A DK was my first, and only thus far, authentically Terrorist character. Someone so full of hate anything that hurts The Enemy could be embraced.
All that, and whopping big horns. >=]

Don't like:
Dwarves: I'm not Lawful, nor part of a society that's seen fit to determine everything I'll do from my first breath to my last. Love having them along, happy to see one at my back, but nothing I've yet wanted to be.
Well, ok. Dwarven Martial Artists could be highly cool. Loooow center of gravity and a mindset that's a perfect match for potent slow-growth internal arts like Bajiquan and Tai Chi Chuan. Awesome. ^^

Half-Elves: C'mon. Be something positive for once, please?

Hobbits: Halflings are tolerable, but LOTRO has only reinforced my distaste for narrow-minded trifling busy-bodies. The most useless things in creation, The One Ring not withstanding. Kill and eatz da stunties.

Humans: Yeah, because we deserve to end up being the center of the cosmos in every fantasy scenario. I've come to love WH:40K for it's positioning Humanity as the hated, xenophobic, moronic tide of mediocrity cleansing the universe of otherwise amiable neighbors Cuz God Said So and that's good enough. Again.

Infernals: Seriously, when did being Truly Good become such a sump-suck that these one-note chumps became cool? I blame Silver and Golden age comics for making heroism look so fecking stupid. Infernals are just evil. And I mean just like never doing anything else. How did my generation become so savagely abused that siding with the bullies, albeit worldly ones, became attractive?

Neutral Alignment: Mechanically perfect; capable of rationalizing any behavior and responsible for no action.  Feck you, WotC. Double feck all the mod writers who keep putting them in as mega-powered masterminds who're conveniently immune to Smite Evil and Holy Weapons/effects.

[Aziraphale]

álfar: Elves. Nordic Style. These are the ones that Viking mothers used to tell naughty little bezerkers stories about to make them behave. Terry Pratchett based his elves on these guys.

"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake...
Nobody said elves were nice.
Elves are bad."

Much more interesting than contemporary elves. Though i do like Eberron's take on elves, especially their take on the drow.

Vampires: Male: Tall, Dark and Sexy. Female: Tall, Dark and Sexy. And most importantly, Vampires have Style.

Auditors: A race of cosmic Bureaucrats. That sold me on them.

Yokai: The shapeshifting spirits of Japanese lore. Includes Kitsune(fox), Okami(wolf) and Bakeneko(cats).

[Number Three]

I wished Burning Sands CCG became popular enough for AEG to do an RPG for that setting.  Didn't the Naga appear in the Burning Sands as corrupted?

Yup. And the Djinn were unbound kami, and the Ebonites' Black Stone was the same one the Darkness hid under to escape Amaterasu... I build a whole cosmology for that setting that was fluidly interwoven with that of L5R. Even built an RPG outline but never got the go-ahead to start writing. Ah well... That and the third of a book I wrote detailing the Shadow War between the mystic and shadow ninja of the Scorpion Clan will have to fade into the sands of time...

You know, there are peoples on the internet who would love to preserve your unknown accomplishments.    A few of the veteran volunteers on the L5R Interwebs (Ling and Lucas Twyman, to my knowledge) even like to put on LBS tournaments at the Big (U.S.) Summer Cons.

Also, MOAR.