EotE CRB page 43 RAW:

"Step 3: Selecting Species

In Edge of the Empire, players have a wide variety of options to choose from when choosing species to play. The billions of worlds in the Star Wars galaxy

confer nearly unlimited possibilities. The diverse crowd in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope offers but a glimpse at the sapient creatures

who inhabit this far away universe.

This section provides detailed rules for eight major species types, though this should not dissuade players from choosing species not listed here.

Star Wars is not Star Wars without its aliens. Players should be able to encounter new life forms in their adventures and also have the opportunity to roleplay them.

The very nature of the fringe is to break bounderies and find new possibilities - The only limitation is imagination."

RAI: Players should be able to come up with and play their own Species?

What do you think? Do you or your gm let players pitch their very own species idea and would you or your gm allow them to make them with or without your help?

Yes, definitely. But always, always work with the GM to make sure the stats are balanced and the the GM doesn't oppose the idea for whatever reason.

My player wanted to play a Gungan. We created the stats together. I wanted to create a Besalisk. I worked with myself to create the stats together...

If it’s a known race in Star Wars or fits in the overall Star Wars mythos and style, and is not already covered by FFG, I don’t see any problem with players working with their GM to come up with something reasonable.

That said, just between the official FFG races and the ones from the “Unofficial Species Menagerie”, that’s almost 100 species right there. And that doesn’t begin to touch the additional number of species covered in the thread “Great Movie Alien Compendium”.

to do this properly and balanced, unless you are just re-skinning another race's appearance, We would need to know the values FFG gave to each racial ability and so forth.

How much is a "free" rank valued in their considerations for a species. How much is regeneration?

without this knowledge, or a fair amount of studying and cross referencing information to try and figure this out yourself... you will likely end up with an under-powered or overpowered Species choice. And that will escalate from player to player.

I have seen it happen in many game system

Should GMs let players help stat out various species to play... I'd say yes, as long as the GM works with the player to make sure the new species isn't the "OMG, so Uber, must play..." type of creation that I've seen a lot of people come up with when statting their own races/species for games.

to do this properly and balanced, unless you are just re-skinning another race's appearance, We would need to know the values FFG gave to each racial ability and so forth.

How much is a "free" rank valued in their considerations for a species. How much is regeneration?

without this knowledge, or a fair amount of studying and cross referencing information to try and figure this out yourself... you will likely end up with an under-powered or overpowered Species choice. And that will escalate from player to player.

I have seen it happen in many game system

This can be pretty easily determined by looking at the various existing species' and their starting XP. It isn't simply characteristic based. Either way, it seems most species get a defining trait for free.

It's a big galaxy, so I say go for it. But always with the GM's permission.

Whatever they like subject to my approval.

I'd have no issue with it. So long as the stats are balanced I see nothing wrong with it.

I would be more inclined to have them reskin an existing race from the books than build something from scratch. I would also look at why they want to play something special, is it because they like that race or are they trying to powergame.

to do this properly and balanced, unless you are just re-skinning another race's appearance, We would need to know the values FFG gave to each racial ability and so forth.

How much is a "free" rank valued in their considerations for a species. How much is regeneration?

without this knowledge, or a fair amount of studying and cross referencing information to try and figure this out yourself... you will likely end up with an under-powered or overpowered Species choice. And that will escalate from player to player.

I have seen it happen in many game system

I don`t really think that is a problem in this system.

The more, the merrier, I'd say, as long as they're balanced and don't throw off the game.

And incidentally, if Savage Bob, or anyone else, has added his "Great Movie Alien Compendium" into my character generator, I'd be more than happy to include them with an upcoming release

The more, the merrier, I'd say, as long as they're balanced and don't throw off the game.

And incidentally, if Savage Bob, or anyone else, has added his "Great Movie Alien Compendium" into my character generator, I'd be more than happy to include them with an upcoming release

How have the fanmade species in the builder been balanced thus far? Doesn`t it take a bit of effort to throw off the game and mess up the balance in this system?

I'm going to be the dissenting voice and say that GMs should only allow players to have Bothan characters. All PCs are Bothans, all the time.

If a player wants to have a different race, then their Bothan character can wear a sign that says "Twilek" or whatever.

to do this properly and balanced, unless you are just re-skinning another race's appearance, We would need to know the values FFG gave to each racial ability and so forth.

How much is a "free" rank valued in their considerations for a species. How much is regeneration?

without this knowledge, or a fair amount of studying and cross referencing information to try and figure this out yourself... you will likely end up with an under-powered or overpowered Species choice. And that will escalate from player to player.

I have seen it happen in many game system

I don`t really think that is a problem in this system.

Maybe, maybe not..

Doing the work to figure out what value each creatures special abilities are could be a lot of work. Also, do they have a method? or are they just assigning arbitrary values to each? Knowing what the value of a free rank is, is one thing, but the value of the rank may not be exactly clear, because it may give a player the first rank or even the second.

Also the value of a Setback or boost die may be different based on the utility of the skill checks it effects and how many skills it effects. Regeneration could be powerful compared to having claws that give you a +1 dmg to melee?

and then when a player comes up with something that isn't covered by the current species? Like a creature that can spit acid? or a Glob of sticky goo?

Yes, for the most part, I would look for a species with a similar ability, but it would be nice if Game designers would give Gms a Quantifiable development method to help maintain balance...I have seen many Gms create stuff that showed that had No sense of system balance what so ever.

to do this properly and balanced, unless you are just re-skinning another race's appearance, We would need to know the values FFG gave to each racial ability and so forth.

How much is a "free" rank valued in their considerations for a species. How much is regeneration?

without this knowledge, or a fair amount of studying and cross referencing information to try and figure this out yourself... you will likely end up with an under-powered or overpowered Species choice. And that will escalate from player to player.

I have seen it happen in many game system

I don`t really think that is a problem in this system.

Maybe, maybe not..

Doing the work to figure out what value each creatures special abilities are could be a lot of work. Also, do they have a method? or are they just assigning arbitrary values to each? Knowing what the value of a free rank is, is one thing, but the value of the rank may not be exactly clear, because it may give a player the first rank or even the second.

Also the value of a Setback or boost die may be different based on the utility of the skill checks it effects and how many skills it effects. Regeneration could be powerful compared to having claws that give you a +1 dmg to melee?

and then when a player comes up with something that isn't covered by the current species? Like a creature that can spit acid? or a Glob of sticky goo?

Yes, for the most part, I would look for a species with a similar ability, but it would be nice if Game designers would give Gms a Quantifiable development method to help maintain balance...I have seen many Gms create stuff that showed that had No sense of system balance what so ever.

Balance in this system really only applies for the PCs so that they all start on the same approximate footing and are given the same chance to spend XP as they see fit... GMs are free to give NPCs whatever they feel the NPC should have.

So, given how few species have come out of FFG, I'm guessing that tons of abilities haven't even been put in place to try and figure out what they are worth.

I wouldn't worry too much personally. Racial differences about 100+xp awarded are more or less erased after a few sessions, so anything short of death rays from their eyes just isn't going to be a big deal.

If I had to deal with that situation I'd take the name of the race and the various abilities the player thinks the race would have then I would sit down and write up the race, using the same format in the books. I'd come here and post the new race and give you folks a week to comment. Then based on the comments I'd make adjustments to the abilities and text or just set the thing on fire never seeing the eyes of man again.

Also I'd try to check if they hadn't already written the race up in one of the other books I don't have. If it was already written up I'd direct the player to buy the book and contribute it to the gaming collective.

It's been y experience that most players who want to create new races/weapons/magic items/classes/or whatever else needs new rules are just trying to munchkin up a new kind of (butt) kicking stat monster. But I'll give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

I agree with just grabbing an existing race and re-skinning it. Lots of times with PCs it's typically more about look and background rather than stats.

While I'm not against it, it's very hard to balance player expectations and comparative strength. I'm not saying it can't be done, but there are certainly some species that are much better suited to certain paths than others. Picking and choosing racial abilities and combining those with a particularly ordered stat array can make things significantly wonky out of the gate. Over time, it might calm down, but it could really screw up the game if the Xarflarf can do everything amazingly well.

This is especially tricky with species that start out with a Force rating...

RAI: Players should be able to come up with and play their own Species?

With GM approval and/or supervision? Why not!

I agree with just grabbing an existing race and re-skinning it. Lots of times with PCs it's typically more about look and background rather than stats.

yeah! and i think, even if you stay in the "one stat on 1, one on 3" region you are ok. For me as a player i wouldn't be brave enough to give the toydorians the stats they have. But I am thinking about Kaminoans. Maybe Brawn 1 and Intelligence 3? Free rank on medicine or knowledge, something like that. And even if you pick a total-self-made-up race, the "normal" humanoid races are ok, if you start making up "super hutt warrior subrace" then the GM can say no.

One of my players told me he wanted to play a Jawa Demolitionist that started hating the empire when everyone he knew was killed after he sold an R2 unit and a protocol droid to some moisture farmers...Yeah, sure, like I was gonna say no to that. Sadly the mechanical benefits of Ganks lured him away from that idea

If you can't find some sort of agreement with the GM for balancing reason, take a human character and build it till it fits the bill, then paint it green and give it a beak or whatever you need.

On the other hand as mentioned before, there are now 33 official species. honestly, I think there's enough for everyone and for every character concept but I agreed to exceptions regularly.

Whatever [species] they like subject to [GM] approval.

Pretty much sums up how I feel about it.

If they want a specific race, I'd probably stat it up myself to avoid exploitation. Figuring out the relative values of racial traits, at least in a reasonably crude sense, isn't that hard, and on a small scale (e.g. a game table), crude precision is more than sufficient. I also tend to balance on the *low* side of the scale, so to avoid inadvertently creating something over-powered.

...take a human character and build it till it fits the bill, then paint it green and give it a beak...

This.

If one of the other 3/1 species fits the bill (no pun) better, then start there. I would avoid the 4/1/1's unless absolutely necessary.