@Torbyne That's what I'm thinking...AWESOME. Psychic Soldiers with cybernetics and laser eyes FTW
I wonder if fidget spinners and gadgets would be popular with shirren?
I think they would consider it weird. They would not understand why other races might dread and avoid making choices or have a device make a choice for them.
Psychic Theme confirmed?What I am trying to find is ... if I were to abandon the "default" setting, could they be reflavored as "psionics"?You don't even have to abandon the setting to run a mystic as psychic.
And you don't have to play a mystic, or even a spellcasting class, if you want your character to have some noteworthy level of psychic power.
Sounds like it. ;)
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Fun fact: It's only Kostchek in the core book because we told Judy, "Dude, regardless of how awesome it is, we can't have a shirren named Kostchtchie in the core rulebook." :DPsst... minor correction: Kostchek
In fact: Kostchtch! Kostchtch has no regrets about their choice of name... though they might had some cultural misunderstandings about humans' ancient history. *waves appropriate arms dismissively*
Also, if you think shirren courtship is complicated, consider sedoretu, and the Oankali.
Fun fact: It's only Kostchek in the core book because we told Judy, "Dude, regardless of how awesome it is, we can't have a shirren named Kostchtchie in the core rulebook." :DPsst... minor correction: Kostchek
In fact: Kostchtch! Kostchtch has no regrets about their choice of name... though they might had some cultural misunderstandings about humans' ancient history. *waves appropriate arms dismissively*
Also, if you think shirren courtship is complicated, consider sedoretu, and the Oankali.
I'm 227 years old, and this is the first time I've lived outside the insular society of my birth. I don't think shirren courtship is complicated so much as . . . intriguing.
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i wonder if Shirren can even experience choice paralysis actually. Or would they just open up a few color sliders in MS Paint and go into seizures?I wonder is there are seedy option dens in Shirren settlements where choice-addicted shirren go to do things like make role playing game characters or build LEGOs.Or shirren that seek out professional "doms", not as a sex thing, but for brief respites from the pressures of having to make their own decisions and choices.
I don't think Shirren would experience choice paralysis. Paralysis means they are not making choices. And making the choice is what gives them pleasure. They basically bypass the Paradox of Choice entirely.
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I wonder is there are seedy option dens in Shirren settlements where choice-addicted shirren go to do things like make role playing game characters or build LEGOs.
So we have option bars, regular Bars, and virus bars...damn it how are we supposed do the traditional way you start a RPG if all the PCs go to different bars. ;)
So we have option bars, regular Bars, and virus bars...damn it how are we supposed do the traditional way you start a RPG if all the PCs go to different bars. ;)
Go to a bar that sells computer viruses, legos, and poison? Specialty bars are probably a thing, but general bars would probably get more business since they can have chains of bars all throughout known space. Catering to your every vice.
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Replace taverns with Spaceport lounges or Starfinder Society hostels?I wonder is there are seedy option dens in Shirren settlements where choice-addicted shirren go to do things like make role playing game characters or build LEGOs.So we have option bars, regular Bars, and virus bars...damn it how are we supposed do the traditional way you start a RPG if all the PCs go to different bars. ;)
For all we know, there could be a chain of bars called Thorax's that have scantily clad shirren, vesk, and lashunta serving 'antennae' that are actually spiced, roasted, leg meat of some commonly ranched, giant insect. Of course, the sexiest waitress would be the kasatha who can carry more trays than anyone while - get this - not wearing a scarf to cover her mouth, but rather just a simple, high collar - very risque!
I like him. :)
Shirren are looking like a very fun race to play.
Ok, but point of order, I'd like to know more about Shirren reproduction, more specifically, why Keskodai has only one kid.
Like, I'm no biologist, but a three-gender/sex system would seem to me to be evolved so that the hosts can carry the burden of the eggs after fertilization, implying that there is a lot of them. Having one egg at a time just seems like the host is an extraneous adaptation, especially considering that they are an evolutionary offshoot of what amounts to a non-adaptive Zerg or Tyranid equivalent.
The way I see it, Kesk might have only one child for purely social reasons. Maybe Shirren heavily regulate their own reproduction, especially on colonies, to make sure they don't overtax local resources.
Ok, but point of order, I'd like to know more about Shirren reproduction, more specifically, why Keskodai has only one kid.
Maybe like some insect species they're cannibals, and like some shark species they eat each other in the womb?
Maybe Chk Chk is already level 2-3 and needs to figure out where to put all those new skill points and that's why he's with his father wandering the cosmos trying find just the right combination.
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Ok, but point of order, I'd like to know more about Shirren reproduction, more specifically, why Keskodai has only one kid.
Like, I'm no biologist, but a three-gender/sex system would seem to me to be evolved so that the hosts can carry the burden of the eggs after fertilization, implying that there is a lot of them. Having one egg at a time just seems like the host is an extraneous adaptation, especially considering that they are an evolutionary offshoot of what amounts to a non-adaptive Zerg or Tyranid equivalent.
The way I see it, Kesk might have only one child for purely social reasons. Maybe Shirren heavily regulate their own reproduction, especially on colonies, to make sure they don't overtax local resources.
A three partner system of reproduction's best evolutionary advantage would be its contribution to biodiversity. More likely than not, the Swarm as individuals, if it is a controlling hivemind, lack the normal individual compulsions of reproduction that normal species evolve with (i.e. a biological urge to breed with another individual that doesn't have a similar genetic code to you). A three partner system for generating an organism's genetic code would be a quick and easy biological way around this. Similarly, the fact that shirren don't often produce multiple offspring could also be from their origins. It's better to have a bunch of individual hive soldier produce a quantity of offspring than only a few hive members who are specially designated for reproduction to produce the same overall number of offspring. That said, keep in mind that not every evolutionary development exists because it is "beneficial". Traits exist because they didn't prevent the organism in question from exiting the gene pool so to speak. If I have a weird adaptation, (i.e. I have vestigial antennae) and I can pass that trait on, it passes on. No concern for utility.
Note: I feel like I should clarify in advance that I don't have vestigial antennae.
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Like, I'm no biologist, but a three-gender/sex system would seem to me to be evolved so that the hosts can carry the burden of the eggs after fertilization, implying that there is a lot of them. Having one egg at a time just seems like the host is an extraneous adaptation, especially considering that they are an evolutionary offshoot of what amounts to a non-adaptive Zerg or Tyranid equivalent.
Maybe they pick the three best-formed larvae, and each parents gets one from the union? Perhaps even one (or more) of the parents take on a full-time parenting role, and raise 'the litter,' while parents who have other roles, such as careers, or adventuring, taking up a lot of their time, get only a single larvae to raise? (And presumably are expected to send some money back to their homebound co-parent(s), with the larger brood to support.)
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That said, keep in mind that not every evolutionary development exists because it is "beneficial". Traits exist because they didn't prevent the organism in question from exiting the gene pool so to speak. If I have a weird adaptation, (i.e. I have vestigial antennae) and I can pass that trait on, it passes on. No concern for utility.
This is true on a generational level, but not an evolutionary one.
Consider cave fish. All over the world, fish that find their way in to lightless caves eventually evolve to be white and blind. Why? What evolutionary advantage is there to being white in an area where there is no light to see by? Ditto for blindness... the fish can't see anything whether they are blind or not. So why wouldn't the ability to see just 'pass on' from generation to generation?
The answer is that everything has some degree of 'utility' involved. The pigments which give a fish coloration take energy to produce. Thus, a fish which has an adaptation causing it to produce less of these pigments will have an advantage in a lightless environment... it doesn't suffer the usual drawbacks of being unpigmented and has more energy than the other fish. Ditto for eyes, which require energy to grow and function... first naturally blind fish that comes along is going to have an advantage over all the others. If food is low, the white/blind fish are going to need less of it and have more energy available to get to it first... making them more likely to survive.
Thus, an individual with a mutation that caused them NOT to expend energy growing and maintaining a vestigial antenna (or doing so with a smaller one) would likewise have an advantage and in the long run push the vestigial antenna out of the gene pool.
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*waves appropriate arms dismissively*
"I wave my appropriate arms dismissively" is SO my new go-to conversation ender.
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*waves appropriate arms dismissively*"I wave my appropriate arms dismissively" is SO my new go-to conversation ender.
I think I would prefer to modify it to be more universally accepting of alien physiologies and say, "I wave my appropriate appendage dismissively".
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I think I would prefer to modify it to be more universally accepting of alien physiologies and say, "I wave my appropriate appendage dismissively".*waves appropriate arms dismissively*"I wave my appropriate arms dismissively" is SO my new go-to conversation ender.
And, when referring to aliens, I would certainly agree. But, anatomically speaking, anything on *my* body that requires the noun "appendage" instead of "arm" is, I assure you, not appropriate to wave. Dismissively or in any other fashion.
Perhaps males and females make one egg per host at a time, but a host can have 8-10 eggs at once. Which means the swarm reproduce via... orgy?
Perhaps males and females make one egg per host at a time, but a host can have 8-10 eggs at once. Which means the swarm reproduce via... orgy?
If they choose to.
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I wonder is there are seedy option dens in Shirren settlements where choice-addicted shirren go to do things like make role playing game characters or build LEGOs.So we have option bars, regular Bars, and virus bars...damn it how are we supposed do the traditional way you start a RPG if all the PCs go to different bars. ;)
And all the Vesk are probably hanging out at the fight club bar, wrassling and stuff... We are gonna need a big bar, with slot machines and virus dispensers and option tree gizmos and a fight ring in the middle! Oh yeah, and drinks!
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And all the Vesk are probably hanging out at the fight club bar, wrassling and stuff...
Gator wrasslin' done right.
I wonder is there are seedy option dens in Shirren settlements where choice-addicted shirren go to do things like make role playing game characters or build LEGOs.So we have option bars, regular Bars, and virus bars...damn it how are we supposed do the traditional way you start a RPG if all the PCs go to different bars. ;)And all the Vesk are probably hanging out at the fight club bar, wrassling and stuff... We are gonna need a big bar, with slot machines and virus dispensers and option tree gizmos and a fight ring in the middle! Oh yeah, and drinks!
The first rule of Fight Club: tell everyone about Fight Club.
And all the Vesk are probably hanging out at the fight club bar, wrassling and stuff...Gator wrasslin' done right.Sometimes you wrassle the gator, sometimes the gator wrassles you.
Vesk girls know what they want.
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Vesk girls know what they want.And all the Vesk are probably hanging out at the fight club bar, wrassling and stuff...Gator wrasslin' done right.Sometimes you wrassle the gator, sometimes the gator wrassles you.
I now have a new character idea: a ysoki soldier who tries to impress the vesk woman he's in love with by wrestling bigger and bigger opponents.
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So, this is going to seem weird, but does Chk Chk have a canon birthday? 'Cause I'd like to send the little bugger a birthday card when it's time.
Thank you James for this amazing iconic character! Not only did it make me laugh, it also served as inspiration for my own mystic character.
The Meet the Iconic series is far and away my favorite blog series. May it never end!