How about new races/species?

#1 I like races with multiple arms, but i never see them used well. Its pretty easy to think up a race, just make some kind of body and attach all of this stuff to it, and there you go, a citizen of GHasdfkja!

#2 i agree its easy to make races, but the thing that is the trick to making a good 1 is to get there stats worked out, like r they strong but slow etc, that is the hard part. You have to make them interesting and Fair, no Invincible creatures, but to answer your question i am happy with what we have, but it never hurts to have more :D
-Tricky

#3 Well races with big weak points are good, even if they are strong elsewhere. I actually like races that can pretty much be killed by anything, on the other hand.

#4 For those of you who play Dungeons and Dragons, go grab your monster's manual (2nd edition, 3rd doesn't have as many details)

For those of you who dont, check it out:
http://www.wizards.com/catalog/product.asp?TSR11552

#5 agreed, it's a cakewalk to make a name and what the aliens look like. but what about the race's history? interaction with other races? phobias, religions, physical and mental characteristics? those are all part of an alien race.
and yes, invincible creatures are no fun, even if you're playing as one. of course, then we can go on to have the virtually indestructible creature with one particularly blatant weak spot. but that's not what we're really talking about.

#6 I would have too agree with Jim here I've been playing dungeons and dragons for about 4 or 5 years now and if you wanna get ideas and/or unique creature's then I would suggest looking towards the 2nd edition monsters manual

#7 I'd say that creating something new (and good) on subject is rather hard. Basically, 90 percent of "new races" are rip-offs. And, what is even more frustrating for me - they all actually mimic human behaviour. Orcs are those dumb guys in the backstreet, elves are smart ones and so on. It applies to sci-fi as well.

Designers should toy more with backgrounds of races - what if culture of alien race had no concept of parents? What if they had no understanding of other races and would completely ignore them, thinking of theirselves as the center of Universe?

What if killing a messenger for them would be the sign of friendship? whatever.

This could develop lots of culture clashes between various races and make conflicts more deep.

Creature with 6 arms doesnt really differ from humans with two arms as long as they think in the same pattern.

I recomend Isac Asimovs "End of the Day" (not sure that it is correct title of story in English as I read it in Russian) to see how beautifully one can play with various concepts.

Story is about the race which inhabits planet where concept of night and darkness simply diesnt exist. As planet is located so close to the core of Galaxy that there is always "some sun" (yellow, green, red) in the sky, people simply do not know what night means. They also have no concept of other stars and planets as astronomy ican not develope in a place where there is eternal day.

The catch was that once in a million years orbits of suns changed so that no star was visible. It always brought destruction of civilization with itself as people thought of it as Armageddon, massive suicide frenzy occured and basically, civilization had to start from the begginings.

Its a wonderful story.

Also, to learn more about cultural conflicts, developers should study culture clashes between Christian, Muslim and orthodoxal cultures. There is plenty of things to get inspiration from.

#8 The English title of the story is "Nightfall." It is widely considered a sci-fi classic.

Your overall points are good. The only problem is that the more creative you are the more room for error, and that even if you do a good job some people may be put off by a lack of familiarity.

#9 True, James, but there has to be found some kind of golden balance, because, lets face it - creature with six arms is just a human with four additional arms.

About the lack of familiarity, I remember one of the first "second wave" MMRPGs announced. If Im not mistaken, it was called Atriarch. There were no humanoids at all - creatures players were supposed to play for were more like a giant blocks of meat and their social system promised in game was so bizarre, that I certainly knew that I dont want to play it. Maybe it would be a good game (not sure arent the guys gone bancrupt), but I wasnt going to try even.

So, finally, we are all stick with same good ol' elves. Elves sell. But make them more interesting at least...

BTW, after successful LotR wide screen invasion, all public will want is hobits, trolls and orcs. Oh yeah, and elves...