AD&D actually has an absurd number of “races,” mostly cribbed from actual myths or swiped from uncredited authors.
Githyenki: Nasty psychic guys with yellow skin, no body fat, and big swords. Don’t know where these guys are from. Look cool, though.
Lizard Men: One of many “half man, half X” monster types, where X is an animal of some type, and not, say, a dune buggy or a gas grill. If non-mammal, these are envariably cold and logical, interested in the survival of the species and little else. If mamilian, they’re invariably sensual and go into heat every few hours, to statisfy that deep need in our jungian shared unconcious to have sex with anthropomorphic animals.
AD&D has, belive it or not, at least three distint half-man, half frog races. That, to me, seems excessive. There are also a surprising number of half-man, half fungus type monsters. Slayers had Fish Men, (fish with arms and legs) which may have been intened as a slap at this kind of thing. Or else they just wanted to make the inevitable sashimi jokes.
Yaun Ti: Half-Man, half snake. They rate their own category because they’re pretty cool, and because they’re related to the Naga, which is actaully a mythical monster.
Suhigan: Half man, half shark. Included because they had two of the best weapons in Baldur’s Gate 2.
Wemics: Lion Centuars. There are about a dozen types of centuars, too. Lions, spiders, scorpians, octopi, and so on.
Ghab-Dur: Half man, half rock. I’m not making this up. They look just like the pickle monster in It conquered the world, except less green.
Grimlocks: The main distiction between these guys and any of the more Tolkinesqe “goblin” races is that they don’t have eyes. This does not really increse my terror of them.
Tri-Kreen: Praying mantis people who look suspicously like the Thranx (Who wrote those books? Alan Dean Foster?)
Illithids/Mind Flayers: Lovecraftian subterrainian monsters
Aboleth: More lovecraftian subterrainian monsters
Kura-Tur: Yet more lovecraftian subterrainian monsters. These use crossbows.
Troglidites: Non-lovcraftian subterainian monsters. It’s hard to take a race seriously when it’s main power is “stinking cloud.”
Beholders: A big ball with way to many eyes to take seriously. Apparently, they’re supposed to have a society of some kind. Presumably, much as primitive man formed societies to get beer, these guys form societies to get Visene.
Ogre Mages: Adapted from my favorate mythological monster, the ultra-freudian japanese oni.
And that’s just off the top of my head. I wonder what I could have acheved in life if I spent less time learning this kind of stuff.
Actually, in all seriousness, proably the reason that so many races in fantasy an SF seem to fit into Tolkin-esque slots is that Tolkin’s races are very architypical.
High races: Sort of an idealized human, better than us in pretty much every way, peerless craftsmen, peaceful by nature but can kick ass with the best of them when forced too. Usually live a very long time. Elves, Ogier, Vulcans, Mimbari, Slayers Dragons, etc.
Not so high races: Usually basically humans, but with one or two “strong points” where they outdo us, but several where they don’t. Humans usually treat with these races more or less as equals. Dwarves, Centuari/Narns, most ST races, Those ant centuars from Servant of the Empire etc.
Fallen Races: Usually a variant of high races, either corrupted by the Forces of Darkness, or rejecting thier peaceful natures. (no real tolkin race), Dark Elves, Romulans
Barbiarian Races: Pretty self explanitory. Usually lower tech, but make up for it with ferocity. May or may not have any peaceful dealings with humans. Goblins/orcs, Klingons, Drazi, sometimes Narns, Trollocs
Scrounging Races: Live off the waste of the other races. Usually consider themselves the top of the food chain. Kobolds, Skaven, Gully Dwarves, Pak’mara. (I loved the Pak’mara)
Servants of Darkness: Again, pretty self explanitory, and usually ment to be “cool.” May or may not be an actual “race,” though. Ringwraithes, Myrdral, Drack
Evil races: Another non-Tolkin architype. These arn’t ment to just move the story along, they’re ment to scare us. Usually, very alien. Illithids (pretty much any of the AD&D “smart but evil” races, actually), Others, Borg, Shadows, Vorlons, Slayers Masaku.
Unfortunatly, most good SF and fantasy has few if any alternate races, presumably to distinguish themselves from AD&D and Star Trek . . .
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“The stench of the collected rivven! I dispise them all!”
