There are going to be 8 playable races in my campaign: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings/Gnomes, Half-Orcs, Werewolves and Cats (because certain friends of mine gravitate towards furries), and Lizardfolk.
Halflings aren't Hobbits - that word is trademarked, hence why you don't see it in D&D. But nor are Halflings just pint sized humans. I am combing the roguish, light-fingeredness of Halflings, with the curiosity and inventive ingenuity of Gnomes. They can be called either or, but they are all in all generally spry, clever, laughable, and likable because their cherubic faces belie innocence like that of a mischievous child.
I'm giving werewolves the easier said, generic title of Lycans. The catfolk are a desert dwelling people, like the Khajiit of the Elder Scrolls, but they don't completely have the face of cats. More like this Skyrim mod - (think Broadway Cats). This race I am calling the Grimalkin. Check the definition, it's pretty cool and fitting.
Half-Orcs and Halflings often reside in close company because the former serve as the protectors and heavy lifters of the latter. Halflings are much less judging of the Half-Orcs "barbaric" demeanor and lineage - in fact, they hold to the idea that both races are "halflings". Horks, as there are called (often derogatorily, by other races) don't have a home territory, so they share lands with the happy-go-lucky Gnomish folk. I did this because both races are liminal in terms of their looks and place in the world.
The reptilian lizardfolk look much like those of D&D Dragonborn, but since that, to me, conjures up an image of any Skyrim character, I'm choosing instead to call them Draken. I was thinking of calling them Dragonkin, but that name already exists and seemed too redundant with Grimalkin. They range from naked and barbaric, humanoid dinosaurs to very civil and reserved clerics of the "old blood". They are very wise and the strongest of all races, with the ferocity and magical aptitude of their dragon forefathers.
Elves and dwarves are your pretty standard mountain and forest dwellers. Their spiritual outlook on nature and society differ as much as their physicality. The personal appearance of both races varies between tidy and clean shaven to unkempt and rag-tag depending on the class/occupation the individual has chosen.
And last, but never least, humans are the most varied of all the races. Their skills and strengths begin as average as is fair, but their option of chosen class is wide open; whereas the rest of the races have particular leanings suited to their natures.
I plan to not have Draken and Grimalkin as available races in the beginning because I already have specific ideas as to how I'm going to introduce them to the world later.
Enough chatter. Here's the rough numbers and positioning of race, class, attribute, and skills. I'll probably have to design and print my own character sheets to keep track of everything, but in the beginning session(s) I'll likely just have people using graph paper.
It's not exactly d20, but more like d10...to start with, anyway. The idea is that races and classes (obviously) have their own perks when it comes to skills and attributes. If I begin everyone at less than 10, they have room to grow, eventually progressing to 20. I plan to make that a difficult goal to reach by requiring more and more XP to up skills/levels. And that's assuming that people want to play that long and/or that the character isn't killed off and replaced with another.
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