[Bengt]

Originally Posted by khorboth

I try to come up with original concepts in general, but...

If something already has a name or is so close to something with a name as to be virtually indistinguishable, I just use the established name.

So, if I find myself using a race of underground folk who are adapted to such environments, they are called dwarves. If there are immortal, ethereal folk, they are called Elves. If there's a tall tree with pointy leaves, it's a pine. Etc.

Especially if you want your players to be able to navigate your world with ease, there's a limit to how much novelty you can throw at them at once. In a book, it's easier to have characters simply behave like they know the world (see Asimov's The Gods Themselves or Weiss & Hickman's Death Cycle) than to have players react appropriately in a very alien environment.

To that end, It depends also upon the length of the game. If it's a short game, I go for the familiar except in plot-relevant ways. If it's a longer game, sometimes I do some bigger world building. For such a large game, I have a large home-made fantasy world where I have my own take on many things. I stayed pretty close to Tolkien's view on Elves, but struck off on other races pretty dramatically.

Related to that I think if the PCs are from the world in question it can help if the the tropes and archetypes are familiar. If on the other hand they are from elsewhere, e.g. portal fantasy, having unique races etc can reinforce the fish out of water feeling.