What species does your group tend to bump into the most? When I write adventures, I'll use exotic aliens or ones that I simply don't know that much about so that I can learn more about them, but when I'm making up an adventure on the fly or creating a spontaneous NPC for my players to encounter (shopkeepers and the like) I tend to use the same aliens again and again just because they are the most famiar to me. As such, my players tend to meet a lot of Rodians, Trandoshans, Arconans, and Twi'leks.

I'm curious if this is the same for everyone, or if I just have a severely limited imagination. What aliens do your players seem to always meet?

One man's exotic species is another man's next-door neighbor

That said, by rough estimation and loose design, I tend to run about 50-60% humans and the rest aliens. I usually don't have a problem thinking up a random species, be it Aqualish or Houk or Rodian or whatever. I do tend to stereotype my alien species though, so my PCs are more likely to encounter an Ithorian herbalist, a Toydarian merchant, or an Ubese bounty hunter than some other permutation of those species/careers

My players have been adventuring in the Unknown Regions on planets I made up, so I have been having some fun with the native aliens.

https://explorers-on-the-edge.obsidianportal.com/wiki_pages/luma

I created a 'primitive' race for the PCs to encounter, rough-skinned bright yellow creatures with four arms and two legs. They made friends with the PCs and the PCs helped them with some stuff before heading off on their own adventure.

Now the PCs are on their way to a different planet in the Unknown Regions, so who knows what they'll run into there!

I love using the traditional races like Twi'leks and so on, but it also feels fun to me to create brand new species and cultures.

My group ended up on Bespin last session so they ended up running into a group of Ugnaughts, that was fun.

It all really depends on where they are and how much I want to mess with them.

Primarily it's human (about 50-80%) with the "various species including ..." backdrop. Other species usually depends on where they are and what they are doing, of course, but I do like to do random things, like:

--Throwing a species that they wouldn't expect in certain positions, like a well-to-do Gungan offering them a job.

--Placing an "interesting" species in the background, like the single Kel Dor at the tapcafe or the lone Chiss hanging around the spaceport.

--Purposely noting an exotic species, like a Kaleesh, Coynite, Zeltron, Anomids, etc and seeing how they react to such a species being out of place.

My group will probably be en route to Nar Shadaa next game, so that will really shake things up.

I use whatever races, mostly from the Cantina and Jabbas Palace stable. What I actively try and do is not typecast them. Not all Kubaz are shifty spies and not all Weequay are thugs. I try and make for interesting characters like a Wookiee crimelord, something that isn't a bloody Hutt.

Lots of aliens easily typecast, in fact I think George Lucas enjoyed typecasting aliens. Had a Nautolan (kit fisto species) show up as a cab driver with a jamaican accent. Usually stick to the major races found in most games. I think I need to have more humans.

For me I can name off aliens left and right and often leave my players clueless or left to their own imaginations

I try to vary it by location. On many worlds, humans are very commonly the majority. OTOH, my players tend to stick to the fringes, and on places like Nar Shadda, anything (comes and) goes.

I try to keep thinga about half alien half human. I'll mostly grab whatever alien seems appropriate, or just whatever tickles my fancy at the moment.

Quite often I just make something up. I've never felt the need to restrict myself to the aliens depicted in the movies and books. Many of my best creations are from wholly made up species.

I tend to use a decent mix. I have a gallery on my phone of aliens, ships etc that I'm expecting to see in the upcoming session. Then I can just flash the picture as I'm describing the scene.

I'm forever hitting prtscrn running around the Old Republic as well. Some cool Nar Shadaa/Corellia vistas there

If the players are fighting a bunch of thugs, I just grab a handful of my wotc miniatures of varying species. If I'm using minis for that encounter. Otherwise I might say 'varyibg species' and let the pcs use their imaginations.

I run about 20% humans, with the rest alien. As for what species, I try not to overuse anybody, but the species in the EoE CRB tend to get the most screen time.

I tend to use a decent mix. I have a gallery on my phone of aliens, ships etc that I'm expecting to see in the upcoming session. Then I can just flash the picture as I'm describing the scene.

I'm forever hitting prtscrn running around the Old Republic as well. Some cool Nar Shadaa/Corellia vistas there

I have just been doing this!!

Say what you will about that game, the effort and detail that went into the environments is just phenomenal. I haven't used any of my screenshots yet but I hope to do so in the future.