Shirren
The Shirren are a race from Starfinder. They're a race of hideous bugmen formerly part of a timeless galactic force of destruction called the Swarm. At some point a mutation caused a strain of this particular variety of bugman to develop a sense of free will and they broke off to go play nice with everyone. Because they now can experience free will, Shirren have actually become a bit... crazy about it. They take immense joy in any sort of personal decision and all the talk in their race write-up about pleasure centers makes it sounds like they may literally get off on making decisions. Indivdual Shirren can actually become addicted to the feeling of making choices and may start setting or adopting rules just so every trip for fast food doesn't give them an orgasm. They gravitate strongly towards religions because they see the fate of their souls as the ultimate choice. They deeply fear that they could somehow revert to the good old days of mindless nomming.
Like certain more mary sue aliens, Shirren sport limited telepathy in addition to being able to speak. It's said they often do this because other races find their mouthparts disturbing but apparently everyone is generally okay with having the same creature crawling into their subconscious. Although mechanically they have two arms, Shirren also sport two pairs of little arms they tuck to their chest like a lobster. These are 'mating arms' and they choose not to use them for much of anything besides exactly what you think. In keeping with Starfinder's fixation on every other race having a peculiar gender construct or reproductive cycle, the buggos have three sexes: male, female and host. A male and a female provide sperm and egg respectively before giving the wad of pre-Shirren to a host who adds in their genetic material and gestates it. In some colonies this works out a lot like real life insects with a queen (host) who is considered the mother of the young. In others everyone gets together in three-way marriage. Since they give birth to larvae, they carry them around in jars for the first couple of years of life. RP a new parent and shove that gross pickle jar in everyone's faces all the time.
PC Stats
- Ability Score Modifier: +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
- Bonus Hit Points: +6
- Medium
- Base speed 30 feet
- Blindsense
- Cultural Fascination: Gain a +2 racial bonus to Culture and Diplomacy
- Communalism: Once per day, as long as an ally is within 10 feet, roll again on a single attack or skill check and take the higher result
- Limited Telepathy: A Shirren can telepathically communicate with a creature within 30 feet, provided they both speak at least one language in common
Crunch
On a statistical level they're rather durable: they sport a high base HP bonus due to their chitinous exoskeleton as well as a racial bonus to Constitution. They also have a bonus to Wisdom for improved perception rolls and blindsense (not to mention improved Will saves). In other words unless your build needs Charisma (their penalty stat because their fucking chittering bug-monsters), they can play a slightly more durable if slightly sub-optimal version of anything. Despite their penalty to Charisma they can even make viable envoys, sporting a racial bonus to two of their most popular skills and having the HP and Con to offset the envoy's flimsiness. If you really must play Dr. Earwing, Ship Psychiatrist consider a theme that boosts Cha.
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Get it? Its Ed Shirren! Yeah, its not that funny.
