[Crazy Idea] Has anyone had an experience letting players design the races for their characters?

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

So I've come to hate assigning race stats. Or assigning what races are available (including saying "humans only"). Honestly my favorite games have always been "make up whatever $#!+ you want to put in the 'race' slot and move on".

I could just use a point-buy system...... but I would rather prefer a very popular system like Pathfinder. And because it's just this one aspect.

So has anyone ever actually tried turning the race creation reins over to the players? I mean not just make up the fluff but design the crunch, too? (I mean there's the ARG Race Creation guide, but I often hear it's unbalanced so maybe there's not point in sticking close to it.)

[Cyrad]

Not recommended for reasons described here.

Instead, let your players describe the race and you stat them up.

[SheepishEidolon]

Would all your players actually appreciate such an offer? Because it's quite some work to dig through all these options and make decisions. I am pretty sure 3 of my 5 players would prefer a ready-to-go race, and the other 2 would only do the work to squeeze out some additional power, not because of fun.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Cyrad wrote:

Instead, let your players describe the race and you stat them up.

No. I hate making race stats in Pathfinder.

But I also hate the existing options. And furthermore imagine a setting where PCs can be any of limitless races. So a compromise is to give players the freedom if they choose.

SheepishEidolon wrote:

Would all your players actually appreciate such an offer?

I don't have any yet.