Your favourite race (Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi)

>tfw you've put hours of thought into the details of the races in your homebrew setting
>tfw you realize that your answer to this question is now an OC Donut Steel race
>tfw you finally accept that you have autism

Across the board: Beastfolk, Giantkin, and edgy elves.

Setting specific:
>WHFB
Beastmen of Chaos, Ogres, Wood and Dark Elves
>WH40K
Orks
>DnD environment
Drow, Goliath
>TES
Khajiit, Orcs, Wood Elves
>Warcraft
Tauren, Trolls, Ogres

Animu beastpeople. unashamedly, full-on ears-and-tails, animu beastpeople.

First, they strike well the balance of "civilized" and "beastly/exotic".
Second, let's be honest here, 90% of the time they are done in awfully fucktarded way (see: /pfg/ and any of 9000+ magical realm portrayals of them), so any even slightly competent portrayal of them is gonna look better than it actually is. They're really easy to write in fresh and engaging ways even if you're not a very good worldbuilder.
Third, aesthetics. Reasonably unusual, while still human enough - a golden measure between "normal" and "weird".

If i was to pick more traditional fantasy race, Humans, a solid choice for everything, or Dwarves - as much as i dislike their... wankier aspects, it's equally fun to play out their disadvantages and their strengths.

Mah nigga

I have a fucking fixation. I have to monitor it when I'm with a group or they'll figure me out.

I really like the Tines from Vernor Vinge's books.

They're packs of wolf-like mammals that operate as a compound intelligence. Usually a pack of 4-6 Tines is a single "person" and internal communication and "thought" is done via very high frequency sound. Having less than four members in a pack tends to degrade their intelligence to childlike levels and more than five or six tends to turn the pack into an incoherent mess. The individual members of a pack can't stray too far from each other, usually maybe 20 meters at maximum. Packs also can't get too close to each other unless they're mating or fighting, as they thoughts get mixed and they go berserk.
As they move on four legs they have to use their lips to manipulate objects, each member of a pack is like a single limb. Their lips are capable of precise manipulation of objects, as they look the nose of a spider mole.
The name "tines" comes from the metallic claws they wear on their front feet as weapons. They have early medieval level of technology with leather armor, stone castles and siege engines. They were uplifted to late medieval (gunpowder) technology by a few crashlanded humans and are currently undergoing an industrial revolution.

Either or rat-people.

I've got a soft spot for any race that has figured out industry/gunpowder.

Robots are best races.

Gotta love kobolds.

I've said this before here, I think, but the combination of tiny downtrodden underdogs, and vicious usually-evil fish-out-of-water who need to take their time to turn to goodness, has always greatly appealed to me.

Kobold fighter in particular is my favorite character concept. A rather more evil Samwise Gamgee, grudge-bearing and vicious but surprisingly efficient.

The best race is ALWAYS a mix. Half orc/half dwarf, half dragon/anything, half elementals...

My all time fav was my Half minautaur half silver dragon that I made to conter a sperg player.

You don't know true joy until you minautaur-charge your enemy from mid air because wings.

So many races are some variation of "Humans, but better" that for some reason I find Touhou's fairies particularly endearing partially from the fact that they're weaker than humanity, and they're not as intelligent, but they're still capable of persevering and going on adventures and living among them. I also like gnomes and halflings for the same reason, in that they aren't races of super heroes and will ocasionally look up to us while everyone else looks down. It makes them something worth fighting for.

Kobolds are the shit.

>or a race finally finding its footing in the wider world

Best version. A bit idealistic but it's still objectivly the best version with all sorts of wonderful world building potential.

That sounds cheesy as shit.

Fimir because they rape a lot

Veeky Forums's Starpies. I don't know why, but that struck a chord with me like nothing else. It also probably helps that I enjoy birds in general.

What are those?

I'm a sucker for Warcraft's Blood Elves.

Orcs. Fantasy orcs. Sci-Fi orcs. Alternate history orcs. Present day urban fantasy orcs. Fuck, I'll play the next closest thing if there's no orcs. I just like being a big green badass with a chip on his shoulder. Or a nice orc that's just misunderstood/hated for no reason.

To put it bluntly, a bunch of drug-addict space pigeons with a penchant for extravagant things.
Here's the 1d4 page if you want to know more: 1d4chan.org/wiki/Space_Harpies

Gnolls all the way. You can use em as cannon fodder for something more visually distinct than greenskins or roll them as fun fish-out-of-water PCs.

Goblins, especially the old school kind where they are a race of various assorted creatures, but still the same kin. I just like having them as manic little fuckers who one night might be nothing more than a trouble making nuisance, and another night a legitimate deadly threat.

...

Kobolds, gnolls and lizardfolks in equiel amount

Based on them of three npc's I had.

Gnoll berserker, her druid lizardfolk wife and there pet kobold warlock.

always half orc

put down throughout their life by both parent races now they are an 8 foot tall killing machine

Necron
Nothing cooler than evil skeleton techno-wizards
NOTHING

Not in a game, I think, but the Cray in the Bas-Lag series of novels by China Melville. Really all the races are pretty cool.

Little bastards are fun as hell to play. I just adore the lore they were given in 3.5.

Pft, I stopped trying to hide it. I play the well enough that no one cares. In fact the general condenses among my group is that my portrayal of them is quite endearing.

This guy knows what's up.
I like them for much the same reasons. Good cannon fodder that don't just WAAAAG! Till the last one drops. They take slaves so defeat isn't the end for the party, but their propensity to eat their slaves gives a sense of urgency to escape their clutches asap.

As pcs i like to play up their simple (not necessarily stupid) mindset, more akin to hyper intlegent animals rather than dumber than average humanoids. They use their smarts to fulfill their simple desires for food, sex and status rather than worry about philosophy or building a lasting legacy. Add to that their lazy bullying attitudes and you've got some fun personality built into the race itself, either to embrace or fight against if you wanna twist tropes. Much more three dementional than most low CR mobs tend to be without going the "noble savage" route like warcraft orks. Not that I'm knocking it, i just prefer to see my mobs shaped more organically by their environment and traditions. Allowing various tribes to have found different ways of living without having to change what they fundementally are, big simple bullys more interested in a full belly than searving any grand designs of gods or men.

...

I have fond memories of that thread.