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[GlyphGryph]

The Hruntar tend to wear cloaks and other hangy bits, yes. They tend to go for pretty garish mismatches of color - some have said it's because they see in a slightly altered visual spectrum. Most just think its because they have terrible taste. Hats and leg ribbons are also popular, but jewelry is less so unless its got cloth involved.

Some Hruntar paint their shells, but this is seen as unseemly by respected members of the community.

The Ulv...  I'm not sure about. Suggestions are welcome. ^_^

Next, we can look at the Varlyc, a canine inspired race, or the Sarpen, which are similar in some ways to nagas and aren't TERRIBLY original but I love them so much.

[darkflagrance]

^ That reminds me of a felid civ I created that often wore garish clothing because they couldn't see colors and most shades made no difference to them in putting together outfits, whether the natural colors of the materials they used or the colors of clothing they stole.

[Psyco Jelly]

That reminds me, If you don't mind me hijacking your thread a little. In a pathfinder campaign I've ran, a very prominent non-humanoid (for the most part) race are Aranea.

Aranea are a magical race that are as much Fey as they are Spiders. They can shift between a nearly human form (excepting fangs and spinnerets on their lower back.) and a nearly spiderlike form (Excepting the appendages nearest their eyes ending in humanlike hands.), but their most common form is somewhere between them. They have the abdomen of a spider, with legs ending in four-digit manipulators with small claws. They have a prominent hunch on their back, and a vaguely human-shaped head and arms with six pitch black eyes. They have innate sorcerous powers.

As for the culture, they are vagabonds, moving between many different homes, but never leaving their home forest of Torn. Their ancestral home is actually the caves  deep under it, but were forced to leave during "the catastrophy" which they refuse to talk about, but was really a centennial flooding. They have found refuge primarily with the Elves, but it is a tenuous one. Their spiderlike appearance brings with it negative reminders of the Drow.

One of the characters in it had a brief romance with one of the Aranea, though it was mostly that he felt sorry for her. They even had a child, but he was forced to leave it with the Aranea. Just a testament to my own success with such a thing - even though they aren't entirely non-humanoid.

[Armok]

This reminds me of this thing I thoguht up for some fantasy game years ago, I even made a picture:

Spoiler: BIG IMAGE (click to show/hide)

Had thought up loads of info about it that I don't really remember and am to lazy to type out anyway, but the most important were that it's supposed to be a kind of Tardigrade with internal anatomy even more ailien than it's outside, that it's a swamp living ambush predator, that it had a bunch of rather mary-sueish things like multiple grasping tentacles and electric stuff like an electric eel, and that it came from a distant sophisticated culture inspired by certain portrayals of Saracen culture compared to medieval Europe.

[Glowcat]

If we're all throwing our own suggestions around in Griffin's thread, I'd suggest that if you seek originality in what is alien, try a Hive-mind race that simply cannot think or operate as humans do without a great deal of effort.

Say, as a species of sentient fungus whose intellectual capacity and personality changes with the state of the colony. Each facet of its personality is tied to a certain semi-independent portion of the colony that grows on its own. However, when a node has grown enough it automatically explodes into a cloud of spores, as a natural process of the species's asexual reproduction. Sometimes enough spores remain to recreate the previous personality (after a brief regeneration cycle), but eventually the original personality node is eroded or mutated enough that it is lost to the colony -- which is often enough to drastically alter a colony's identity. Since it cannot generate movement on its own, a fungus colony must possess a host capable of its own animation. This ability comes naturally to the species and it can form a parasitic domination over any creature controlled by a central nervous system -- living, dead, or undead. When one of these colonies takes up adventuring, it is either motivated by a strong desire to discover a means of preserving its identity, or because its current identity is one that is naturally inclined to seek excitement.

If one seeks an interesting play concept there are plenty that already exist. I mean, just take a random episode of Dr. Who until you find something that sounds so strange it could be fun to play as.

Just imagine how a party would operate if one of its members were something like "The Silence".

<players after they've just escaped from a dragon>
Player 1: "Did we forget anybody?"
Player 2: "Hmm... nope."

<back at the dragon lair>
*crunch* *crunch*
Dragon: "Did I just eat something?"

[Supermikhail]

Well... Er.

Someone posted a link to the Wikipedia cryptids list in Max White's thread, on this same topic, and through it I found this site, and am now posting the link here, in a thread inspired by Max's thread. For what the creatures are worth, the illustrations are pretty cool.

[GlyphGryph]

Glowcat, that actually reminds me of a species I'll be posting later that is Parasect inspired.