Homebrew Races

So guys, when making homebrew races for any system, what details are important to include?

Some reason for them to exist in the setting. Don't put Kender in your game if their niche is already covered by other small races, for example.

>What the race looks like

Clearly you need to define the race and explain how it looks.

>What niche it fills

Why a person would want to play it, how it's strong, how it is weak. If you can't explain why a player would want to pick that race out among others, you likely don't have a very strong concept.

>How it fits into your setting

Social, political stuff. What they think of others and what others think of them. Things like the common stereotype.

>Game rules in your system.
The crunch. Try to make this interesting and give them a few things you can't get anywhere else.

Don't make it weak when it shouldn't be. And in that case don't make it a player race.

Exp. God, literal adult dragon, a Demon Lord.

If the race by itself would have a CAR then you either need to add level adjustment or not let players use it.

>CAR
>CR
duck my auto-correct.

As a point, what biological detail do you need to include? Stuff like average height and weight, along with age progression was included with most dnd races.

>allowing players to choose their own race
>not having population numbers for each country / region and using it to compile a probablility map for races and making players roll against it at chargen for statistically realistic race distributions

e.g. in this reality you've got about a 1 in 7 chance of being Indian, although in fantasy games where there are some races with very low populations you might need to go full autism and roll a simulated D1000 or D10000 to get enough precision

This also solves the homebrew race problem: "Sure, That Guy, your homebrew race can be in the game. But as you say he's the last of his race and the world population is about five billion, so your chances of rolling it are pretty slim*"

* you'd need to phrase it less autistically than this, but you get the idea

1.How other races feel about them, and how well admixed they are in populations.

2. Whether they have their own culture, or share a regional culture with other races (this is far more likely, but never touched upon in anything despite that).

3. What their conflicts with other races are.

4. Historically, what are some social racial movements (migrations, wars, genocide) which make up their understanding of their race as a group.

5. Regardless of their actual origins, where do they think THEY come from, and how do they explain other races.

6. What role they provide if they are admixed with other species. What tasks are they well-suited to, and how does that effect their lot in life?

Example: The Ashmen are a head taller and a hand narrower than normal men. They live nomadic lives in the blasted, rocky mountains of The Spear, a peninsula which juts out into the eastern sea. Ashmen have one peculiar feature, other than their near-translucent white skin: their faces are all nearly identical to one another, and lack any sort of nose. Ashmen are also notoriously difficult to disgust, and so when they are found (rarely) among the cities man, they tend to take rather repugnant jobs such as cistern dredgers, manure mongers, fish gutters, but also more esteemed such as midwives, torturers, and even priests. The history of the Ashmen has been lost to them, though they seem unconcerned by this. Theirs is a hard life among the rocks of The Spear, and a prospective attitude has served them well in finding their next meal among the region's nigh maneating flora and fauna.

Its rough, but now you 'get' the Ashmen.

Its better to be prosaic, as your characters arnt going to be walking around with a fucking ruler and an almanac. Give their size in terms of notable deviations from the norm. If they're tall, or broad, compare their height to an everyday thing. If they have scales, or feathers, be sure to mention their size and texture with a similar mundane reference. If they are long lived, simply say so. There's no need to be so specific, as it adds nothing to the game if your middle aged elf is 120 or 170.

>not having population numbers for each country / region and using it to compile a probablility map for races and making players roll against it at chargen for statistically realistic race distributions

That both sounds like a really fun idea, and something I would get absolutely lynched for if I tried to pull it with my players.