Any tips on racial write-ups?

[Chaoszero]

I'm trying to use the 3e format for racial write ups (personality, religion, lands, etc.) but I'm having serious writer's block. Its not that I don't know the races, but that I'm having trouble with what goes where and whats important enough to include.

Is there a breakdown of how they wrote the races for any edition anywhere? Some kind of codified process?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Don't know of any codified process. I would suggest just write it all as it comes to you. Then chop bits out/add bits/re-arrange bits until you're happy. Eventually a style will present itself to you. If you want to make it look like the write-ups in DnD then use their ordering and cover the same topics.

cheers mate.

 

[Byronic]

Just write something down, anything. Even if you end up deleting it it's one of the best ways to get over writers block.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm trying to use the 3e format for racial write ups (personality, religion, lands, etc.) but I'm having serious writer's block. Its not that I don't know the races, but that I'm having trouble with what goes where and whats important enough to include.

That depeneds on who you're writing it for. If it's for the players in your group, I'd say the following things are critical:

* 3-5 sentence racial history/background of the race in your campaign

* A picture of the race

* Paragraph on culture/psychology/personality, including brief mention of homeland, interesting quirks, tendencies, etc.

* Typical names

That's it. From a player's perspective everything else is at best icing and at worst a straight jacket.

 

[yesnomu]

Taking a page from 4e here, you might also want to include a bit on what the race is good at class-wise, and some reasons to play one. They don't have to be as obvious as "play a dragonborn to look like a dragon", of course; insights into psychology and attitudes for a player to assume are useful.

Also: sample names are handy.

Most important part is definitely the picture, though.