[OSSR] Thri-Kreen of Athas

[Mechalich]

OSSR: Thri-Kreen of Athas
PRINTED IN THE USA


the cover art is flatly the worst piece of art in the book

I got bored and, being a pin-carrying entomologist, this seemed like something I would want to review. Also this was the first 2e book I ever bought as a digital pdf, back when WotC started releasing 2e books that way.

So, we’re setting the wayback machine to 1995. TSR still exists and though cracks are showing, there’s plenty of 2e production going on. The weird and wild Dark Sun setting to which this product belongs was four years old, and was just coming out in an ‘expanded and revised’ version that would be released at roughly the same time as this. That expansion and some other events transitioned the Thri-Kreen officially into a playable race, so presumably that’s what prompted this book.

It's probably worth noting that the Thri-Kreen had been around for a while by this point, having initially premiered in the Monster Cards back in 1982. Also, they're still going strong, having managed to get some measure of inclusion in all subsequent editions up to 5e. They've actually been around longer, at this point, than the lifespan of an individual Thri-Kreen (more on that later).

Monster Card Thri-Kreen

5e Thri-Kreen

There's been some work done over the years

At some point along the line WotC also got attached to these guys, and though they were included in the Expanded Psionics Handbook they were not released into the SRD (we got the Dromites instead, which is not even a consolation prize).


this is not a badass insect race

Anyway, this book specifically was part of the Dark Sun product line, and is very much a product of its setting and its edition. While the vagaries of 2e are well trod ground for me, the barren wastes of Athas are somewhat less so. So I'll appreciate comments and corrections from any setting vets we have along.

The Book and Credits

This book was a softcover, like the majority of 2e splats, in standard size. Somewhat unusually this book came with a fold out poster as well. The poster is gorgeous but impractical and contains the only images of the 4 Tohr-Kreen subspecies introduced in this book in existence anywhere so far as I know.

seriously, it's a cool poster

The design team was small. Tim Beach and Dori Hein are credited, with Dori Hein responsible for the sample adventure and Tim Beach presumably responsible for most of the rest. Tim Beach was a TSR employee and was responsible for an eclectic mix of sourcebooks for TSR but so far as I can tell this was his only entry in the Dark Sun product line. John Dollar was responsible for the black and white interior art and conveys a distinctive and consistent look for the Thri-Kreen throughout the book. His artwork was used in pretty much all of the 'revised' period Dark Sun products, so there's continuity there.

The text of this book is black on white, though the page margins are pinkish with the dark sun symbol or a thri-kreen head on the top. The text is rather small with a lot of white space in between and widely spaced headings. It makes everything look low density. I think they probably could have tightened it up and shortened things by a few pages if they'd really wanted to.

The table of contents, which is thankfully located at the beginning immediately after the credits page on page 2, outlines an introduction, seven chapters (chapter 7 is mislabeled as chapter 8 here), and an appendix. I’m probably going to just go chapter by chapter, since the organization is a little bit funky – not surprising for a 2e product like this.

Like most later era 2e supplements this is a fluff heavy book. There are a bunch of rules in here, but the organization is a mess, so I'll talk about them as they come. A lot of the material presented here presumably interfaces with various Dark Sun specialty rules that are not reprinted here, which can be frustrating, but there's nothing for it but to leap in.

[Mechalich]

Introduction

The opening introduction stretches from pages 3-7. This opens with a bit on the mythical history of the Kreen, in italics, for half a page. It is similar to anyone who has encountered corresponding founding myths in ‘Complete’ type books. This one, being told from the Kreen perspective, is…different. In some sense this is a bit pretentious, but this book is clearly pushing the alien psychology angle hard.

Sample quote: "During the Green Time, the kreen, much to their surprise, met mammals who could talk. Not quite kreen, they became known as dra-trin, the sleepers-like-people."

Shorter quotes will feature at the beginning on the chapter. While this one is a bit much considering the italics, the others are mostly paragraph length and are much more bearable. Having the Thri-Kreen creation myth is somewhat more justifiable than having one for elves or dwarves, considering how different these guys are.

Normal text follows and unpacks the Kreen myth into the general history of Athas. The kreen existed, they studied psionics ‘The Way’ and did not study magic. As such they were ignored by Rajat during the Cleansing Wars. It is noted that the kreen are not descended from halflings – which is a meaningful thing in the context of Dark Sun. They also introduce the two terms: Thri-Kreen and Tohr-Kreen, though it is not yet clear what this means. This book throws out a lot of terms in the Thri-Kreen language, most of which are impossible to pronounce terms that are very hard to keep straight.

They then outline the chapters and what they contain – which is mostly redundant because the table of contents is fairly complete. The remainder of the chapter is concerned with linguistics. This includes definitions of a few important terms, and we learn that Thri-kreen are nomads and Tohr-Kreen are settled. They also mention subspecies: Jeral and To’ksa, and something called zik-trin’ta, which are like bio-modded kreen supersoldiers apparently. And there are a bunch of different types of Tohr-kreen but you don’t care because this book isn’t about them.

And then we get a really deep dive. There’s a couple of paragraphs about how kreen have different mouthparts and can’t make certain sounds that humanoids do and use other ones instead. That’s a nice bit of entomologically accurate detail, but also precisely the sort of thing that is going to be totally ignored in game. Nobody actually does that.


I can't make the same sounds as a human? I never would have guessed.

The same thing can be said for the two full pages of kreen terms that follow. Aside from illustrating that the kreen don’t use that many letters and have a lot of similar sounds in their language, it doesn’t really matter. You’re not learning to speak kreen as a player. Seriously, I really did not need to know that the word for 'packmate' is tekmma'ak and I have no idea how you are supposed to say that.

Tim Beach was clearly committed to this stuff, but this was the kind of thing that really did not serve to move product and got TSR really bogged down, though 3e would eventually go down this road too when they got into the later stages of the production cycle.

Chapter One: Psychological Nature

So yeah, Tim Beach wasn't messing around when it came to alien mindset here, he went for it hard. Pages 8-22 are a deep dive into the invented insect minds of the Thri-Kreen that he dreamed up. This gets complicated and frankly bizarre – though I believe that’s the point, but I’ll do my best to summarize.

Previous renditions of the Thri-Kreen had established them as pack hunters – even though real-life mantids are solitary – so that was the starting point. The result gets weird. Beach chose to devise the Kreen are highly social built around a multi-level hierarchy. The base level is the Clutch, which he seems to have derived from an interesting aspect of mantid biology – the ootheca. Essentially, a female mantid lays all her eggs in a sack, and they hatch all at once. In the thri-kreen this establishes a ‘birth clutch’ which is analogous to a family unit.


Praying Mantis ootheca, holds a bunch of eggs that all hatch at once

A clutch is strictly hierarchical with a clutchleader and a distinct pecking order based on prowess from strongest to least. Clutch bonds are supposed to be pheromone-based and super-strong, transcending alignment – meaning that a good character with an evil clutchleader acts according to the dictates of the evil leader and generally doesn’t question them. Kreen aren’t supposed to leave clutches, ever, though they can join numerous ones, and if they don’t get along with someone they can just wander off and ignore the problem. Betraying the clutch is grounds for immediate execution by all other clutchmates.


Thri-Kreen have just one setting, red

Non-kreen can join a clutch – hey look they wrote in a mechanism for kreen to play nice in adventuring parties – but they are expected to do things the kreen way when it comes to clutch law. This has some funky implications for playing a kreen character, but I suspect these are easy enough to bypass in practice by avoiding having the kreen be the leader.


why would you put me in charge? that would limit the time I have to pose like a badass

This is pretty darn confusing, and you can tell it was recognized as such by the writers because the entirety of pages 10-11 is devoted to a short story intended to provide an example of how this sort of thing works in practice. Personally I think they could have gone with something a little more relatable, but late stage TSR had ambitions, and it shows here.

If you’re not confused yet, we can move on to pack, which is a grouping of clutches that shares interrelated members to form a network. This is actually illustrated graphically in effective fashion on pg 9. Packs are run by the strongest, same as the clutch, and 30-100 members – though this is apparently mostly a dictate of climate and packs in more fertile areas could be larger. Packmates are supposed to be treated mostly the same as clutchmates, but the clutch gets priority. This boils down to ‘family, then tribe’ in human terms.


different kind of pack

The Tyr region doesn’t have any nations, but apparently the tohr-kreen do have them, based around sub-species. The book won’t go into much further detail, which is frustrating.

Social organization out of the way, next up is The Hunt. Thri-Kreen are obligate carnivores, but their prey base is apparently anything that moves. They avoid hunting other intelligent creatures not out of moral taboo, but because doing so is considered dangerous and too risky. Eating sapients beings when sufficiently hungry is considered perfectly okay – so long as they aren’t part of the clutch/pack structure. So yeah, that’s there, and it’s um…squicky. There’s also the bit that thri-kreen prefer elves to other intelligent prey both because elves compete with them and wait for it, because elves taste good.


Thri-Kreen are completely serious about this

This went to a bad place. I believe that’s the point, since Dark Sun is supposed to be all dark and gritty, but in some ways I feel this is being somewhat unfair to the Kreen. Weirdly there is no sidebar about ‘this is only a game’ or some other disclaimer like White Wolf would inevitably drop in at this point. Nope D&D is just down with running the Thri-Kreen in this way, which frankly represents a massive over-estimation of the maturity of the player base.

Moving on the chapter describes hunting and feeding methods. Thri-kreen attack swiftly, prefer to close rather than engage with missile weapons – presumably because they are venomous and have five natural attacks – and eat their prey raw. Prey is shared according to dominance rank in the clutch. They can use animal parts instead of plant parts for herbalism, and may store meat if satiated. If food is scarce they will hunt sapients, raid caravans, and eventually even try their luck in human cities – where they may prey upon beggars and other helpless persons. In extremes they even turn to cannibalism, but never against their clutchmates.

Fun times.


okay, this does happen, but mostly because people put them into terraria that are too small, it's pretty darn rare in the wild

As obligate predators, kreen view everything through the lens of the hunt, combat, trade, knowledge, etc. That actually makes them a great fit for a party of relentless murder-hobos, so lucked out there. At the same time, they don’t really have much in the way of individual ownership – things belong to the clutch – but apparently find no conflict between this group-oriented mindset and their own individuality. Sure, we’ll have a good time roleplaying that inhuman contradiction.

Apparently the Thri-kreen are pretty fatalistic. Death kind of sucks, but it happens, deal with it, maybe get reincarnated, maybe not. Act as ecologically-minded hunters. Fair bit of noble savage stuff making its way in at this point. That was probably unavoidable.

There’s several pages on Thri-kreen relationships with other races. Supposedly thri-kreen mostly view these interactions through a series of mental tests to determine worthiness to see if others can join the clutch. The kreen get along decently with members of most of the common races on Athas, except for elves – with whom they compete. This is written in a weird way. Elves hate Kreen but the Kreen are written in such a way that race-based hatred just doesn’t happen. They prey on elves instead because they taste good. This is written as a tragic situation, which I guess, but it really is rather squicky and I have no idea how anyone thought this was a good path to go down.

There’s a sidebar here about how Thri-Kreen don’t sleep, and how this is a problematic thing for mixed groups. Which, duh. I’m really not sure why they didn’t have Thri-Kreen sleep, or trance, or something similar. Yes insects don’t sleep, but there are no insects carting around sapient brains that would potentially need it.

That chapter concludes with a bit on magic and psionics. Thri-Kreen of Athas have no wizards. This was hardly a unique situation I 2e – dwarves didn’t have any either, but it is kind of weird. Wizardry in Dark Sun was generally nasty stuff anyway, so this reinforces the whole noble savage motif that’s been building up. The Kreen do have druids and priests, and they are apparently fairly badass at the 2e psionic system – horrible rules monstrosity that that was.


I have to use this? Crap

Overall this chapter lays the weirdness on pretty hard. It would take an impossibly talented group of players to embrace it fully. Opinions on the specifics of the fluff may vary, but the overall utility to a collaborative storytelling game is pretty low.

[Prak]

I love the thri-kreen, and look forward to the rest of this review.

It'd be a lot of fun to play a Thri-kreen characterized a bit like the warg from OotS, with touches of Chuck Norris jokes:




I do think you have a bit of a point on the cannibalism thing, but that perhaps it's exaggerated. Yes, there are groups where Johnny will have his Thri Kreen eat the paladin and then object being treated like the jerk because he was "in character."

But there are also groups where the thri kreen player will turn to the elf player and say "dude, calm down. You're making me hungry." and elicit laughs, and might eat an elf npc but never cause a real problem.

[Mechalich]

Yes, there are groups where Johnny will have his Thri Kreen eat the paladin and then object being treated like the jerk because he was "in character."

Well, the way the whole 'clutch-mind' thing was set up Thri-Kreen are actually almost physically incapable of harming other members of their clutch outside of recognized challenges. And presumably, any Thri-Kreen in a mixed group regards all other party members as part of a clutch. This actually means even an evil Thri-Kreen can't backstab the party.

The thing about eating other sapients and cannibalism is mostly that it provides bad incentives and runs against the strong taboos of most players. D&D already creates the troubling incentive to treat every NPC as a bad of money and XP. You don't need to add food source to that. And cannibalism for food reinforces some of the bad noble savage stereotypes that are being dumped on the Thri-Kreen already (though admittedly, in Dark Sun they're hardly the only species to go down this particular road).

The elf bit is particularly egregrious because it seems tacked on. I'm fairly certain that elves hate Thri-Kreen was a previously established thing and the 'elves taste good' was the ham-handed solution they came up with.

[Prak]

Eh, I mean, I'm the person who had to ask K and Frank to clarify the prerequisites for A Feast Unknown. I'm not someone squicked out by cannibalism. I do get the point on the Noble Savage thing, though.

[Mechalich]

Chapter Two: Physical Nature

I really don't know why this is chapter two and not chapter one. You’d think you’d want to put the physiological state first and then talk about the psychological state, given that physiology will drive psychology. Like the whole ‘Thri-Kreen don’t sleep’ thing that showed up in the previous chapter. Wouldn’t it have made sense to establish that first and then talk about what it means when playing? It just seems backwards.

Before going any further here, I need to make something clear about 2e Thri-Kreen, since I suspect most people are familiar with their later incarnations.


this is what Thri-Kreen looked like in 2e

From 3.0 and onward the Thri-Kreen were made into four-armed chitin-covered insect-headed humanoids. 2e Thri-Kreen are much, much more insectoid, and it shows. They're actually tauric in posture - being longer than they are tall, and there's a whole bunch of stuff that follows from having a build that doesn't resemble anything else out there - really not a whole lot of four-armed tauric bipeds in fantasy.

Now, I have to give Tim Beach a lot of credit for the beginning of this chapter. He confronted the elephant in the room head on: namely that the laws of physics prohibit having a functional insect of great size (unless you really crank up the oxygen concentration, but lets not go there). The result is five pages of fantasy physiology that serve to provide a reasonable cover for this particular problem and describe how the Thri-Kreen (and presumable every non-magical giant insect and insectoid in D&D anywhere) actually work under the chitin. At least I've never seen anyone else bother to try and explain this particular wrinkle.


seriously, you don't want to crank that O2 level

Most of this bioscience technobabble is pure fluff - it's a post hoc justification designed to make giant insects marginally plausible, but there's some rules information snuck in their. Thri-Kreen have a starting AC of 8 instead of 10, which is nice, and a minor bonus to blind-fighting because they rely on their antennae.

Overall Thri-Kreen morphology has been adapted to make them much more like chitin-coated vertebrates than actual insects. They have lungs, for example, and the heart has been relocated from the abdomen to the thorax. It adds up to a vast array of variation from the humanoid norm though. Most of these features will have limited impact on gameplay – and appear to have been designed specifically for that purpose (they specifically note that while Thri-Kreen experience injury in a different way from humanoids, it all works out the same with regards to healing and healing magic) – though some will, particularly the varied nature of the hands, which are completely unlike humanoid hands.

At the end of the day though, you're still miles from D&D standard. A Thri-Kreen is 7 ft. tall, 11 ft. long and weighs 450 lbs that runs half-again-as-fast as a human and can look forward and backward at the same time. So things will be different.

There are notes within these sections about differences between the two Thri-Kreen subspecies, the Jeral and To’ksa. These are principally cosmetic, but can get weird, such as having the To’ksa be more attracted to the idea of eating elves due to differences in antennae morphology (yes, this is actually a thing in game).

Thri-Kreen get tagged with some species specific vulnerabilities: can’t swim, allergic to ranike sap, and vulnerable to infection in humid climates. These vulnerabilities are modest in Dark Sun, but could be crippling in certain other games. Your Thri-Kreen ranger in Icewind Dale is going to have some problems.


this Grylloblattid thinks her Thri-Kreen relatives are insufficiently hardcore

So far, so manageable, but then we get to the section on reproduction, and once again things get weird. Thri-Kreen apparently mature age the age of 4 – though they haven’t finished growing yet. Apparently they commonly choose mates before even reaching sexual maturity, starting at age 3. They are monogamous, apparently, and mate for life, always with a clutchmate. Hilariously, author fiat has decreed that Thri-Kreen simply don’t have recessive alleles and cannot be impacted by inbreeding. This is retarded given how much intraspecific variation there is going on between various types of Kreen – which implies a lot of latent bad outcomes from allele fixation – but whatever.

Thri-kreen lay eggs, often in the same places as where the go to die, because why not. They bury them in the sand and then leave them to hatch. Parental care is limited at best among the Jeral and effective non-existent among the To’ksa (who may eat their young in times of famine), and infant mortality rates are 60% and 90% respectively.

We get interrupted by some rules here, which is actually interesting from a perspective of D&D archives, but it reveals a sort of proto-Savage Species approach. See, the Thri-Kreen entry in the monster manual is for a 6 HD beastie that can totally hack a starting character to bits. PC Thri-Kreen function differently and advance by level instead, though they get some bonus abilities as they reach certain benchmarks. As a result the rules arbitrarily divide ‘monster entry’ and ‘PC level’ thri-kreen into two separate groups. This system is cumbersome as fuck, but actually has a certain degree of inherent balance because as Thri-Kreen advance in level and their bonuses for being Thri-kreen stop mattering, they stop paying for them and they become mostly cosmetic features (except for the extra limbs part, but more on that later).

More on the life cycle and a piece of entomology that Beach actually nailed. Thri-Kreen as based off mantids and mantids have incomplete metamorphosis. That means the insect that hatches out of the egg is a scaled down semi-complete version of the adult, not a wriggly legless white-thing, and goes through several molts (called instars) in which it gradually becomes more and more like an adult. Thri-kreen go through a similar process, complete with having their own monster stats for the various instars (though these are labelled using D&D age categories). Each of these life stages is described in turn. One notable thing is they start out walking on four legs and only gradually achieve bipedal motion. Thri-kreen go through a molting process as they grow and as adults, which is described in some detail. This section also introduces the concept of racial memory which apparently gets discussed in detail later on. Ultimately a Thri-Kreen has completed development by age 6, after which they remain in stable adulthood until about 25, after which they go old and slow down before dying of natural causes sometime between 25 and 35. This is a really short-lived D&D race.


ah, you're a cute little 1st instar, aren't you

The chapter’s final two pages discuss venom and crystal – which are part of the same ability. Thri-Kreen have paralyzing venom added to their bites – though they only get to use this from 5th level onward (this is actually fairly early in a Dark Sun game, since no one starts at level 1 in those). They are immune to their own poison – which is a nice bonus. They can also use the poison to chew sand and turn it into a crystalline substance called dasl. It is not clear how this is supposed to work, rule of cool seems to be the primary explanation. This stuff is equivalent to steel but only half as heavy – that doesn’t sound like much but matters in the context of Dark Sun, where metal weapons are practically magical in their own right. Dasl can only be used to make certain kinds of weapons and doing so requires the Thri-Kreen give up their venom for a period of time – usually 10 days. This is obviously destabilizing to the game and the book contains several cautions about abusing it. These solutions are all insufficient – though the restriction to only producing certain tightly restricted types of weapons sort of works.


you aren't allowed to make this out of dasl

[OgreBattle]

What do thri-kreen taste like, to each other and humanoids?

where they may prey upon beggars and other helpless persons

Having a clutch of Thri-Kreen cops seems like a good way to keep the grittydark streets of Dark Sun clean.

[Mechalich]

What do thri-kreen taste like, to each other and humanoids?

That is an interesting question with a completely unknown answer. The Thri-Kreen, and presumably other giant insects (of which Dark Sun haveth a fuckton) have a unique physiology that doesn't match that of anything on Earth in order to exist (in contrast to the Earth-based answer which is 'like grasshoppers').

[Prak]

The thing with elves is that apparently the scent of a scared elf is like the Thri Kreen equivalent of fresh-baked apple pie, or chocolate chip cookies.

[Blicero]

Because mantis guys are tauric, is there any attempt to work facing rules into their movement mechanics? I have no idea if that is something 2e ever did, even with horses or whatever.

[talozin]

The thing with elves is that apparently the scent of a scared elf is like the Thri Kreen equivalent of fresh-baked apple pie, or chocolate chip cookies.

It's a good thing I am not a thri-kreen, because I am pretty sure I would not only support eating elves, but also having farms where elves are kept in a state of perpetual terror in case I get the munchies.


FUCK. YES.

[Username17]

The origin of the Thri-Kreen is stupider than that. They are pretty much a direct rip-off of the Phraint from Arduin.


An Arduin Phraint fights some Lizard Men Saurigs.



Ah yes, it does get dumber than that. So the Phraint were in turn originally inspired by the art from the Ice Devil. So Thri-Kreen are the result of TSR ripping off the fanfiction of people ripping off TSR's own art.

-Username17

[Foxwarrior]

That's a heartwarming story, Frank. It really shows that TSR cared about its fans.

[Eikre]

Mechalich, you seem pretty fixated on Thri-Kreen ambivalence towards eating sapient creatures as a slight against good taste. I don't know if you're trying to act scandalized to conform to the OSSR folkways or what, but for most people, the idea of a monster who talks like a person and then proceeds eats people is some really basic bedtime story shit. The Hobbit gets strung up by a band of trolls who have a conversation right in front of him about how they're gonna roast him and his buddies. That's a story that dads read to five-year-olds.

The notion of a Thri-Kreen coming around to huff and puff and blow an Elf's house down is pretty much the least shocking thing in D&D imaginable, particularly granting that they are specifically disinterested and lack any weird fetishistic love for murder, that they live in a hell-blasted desert landscape where Fremen water law and the total exploitation of resources is an existential necessity, and that they're featured in a game where player rack up substantial body-counts just as a matter of course. It would be a magnitude more bullshit if these dudes weren't snacking on motherfuckers.

[Slade]

To be fair, they only want to see eat Elves.
They are doing Gods work! (well, Gruumsh would be cool with it)

[Mechalich]

Mechalich, you seem pretty fixated on Thri-Kreen ambivalence towards eating sapient creatures as a slight against good taste. I don't know if you're trying to act scandalized to conform to the OSSR folkways or what, but for most people, the idea of a monster who talks like a person and then proceeds eats people is some really basic bedtime story shit. The Hobbit gets strung up by a band of trolls who have a conversation right in front of him about how they're gonna roast him and his buddies. That's a story that dads read to five-year-olds.

The notion of a Thri-Kreen coming around to huff and puff and blow an Elf's house down is pretty much the least shocking thing in D&D imaginable, particularly granting that they are specifically disinterested and lack any weird fetishistic love for murder, that they live in a hell-blasted desert landscape where Fremen water law and the total exploitation of resources is an existential necessity, and that they're featured in a game where player rack up substantial body-counts just as a matter of course. It would be a magnitude more bullshit if these dudes weren't snacking on motherfuckers.

A lot of it has to do with the nature of the presentation. The text presents the Thri-Kreen as more or less incapable of even recognizing the idea of the sanctity of life - as oppossed to having chosen to consider it BS in the wastes of Athas - or why its a thing other species might care about. They perceive of hunting elves as more socially acceptable than other species because elves taste better - and therefore this justifies the extra effort involved. The whole thing presents the Thri-Kreen as animalistic and unable to develop ethical philosophy. The idea that Thri-kreen can learn to live in cities, understand laws, and yet never figure out that maybe they shouldn't be ambushing and eating elves in alleyways is insulting to the Thri-Kreen themselves. This book really wants to have it both ways sometimes: presenting the Thri-Kreen both as disposable D&D monsters and as a full-fledged sapient PC race.

[Lokathor]

I don't think that a species lacks the possibility of ethical philosophy just because they don't have some sort of concept about "the sanctity of life" that encompasses all possible life equally. That's a pretty bullshit jump in logic.

Both "ethical" and "philosophy" comes from the Greeks, and they had slaves everywhere.

[JonSetanta]

Well done! I wanted to become an entomologist as a child but pursued other hobbies instead.

Thri-kreen always caught my interest, but I never had the chance to play Dark Sun.

2e Psionics were so broken my friends tried at every opportunity to persuade me to put the fucking book away and don't look back.
One guy even remade spells from the PHB into psionics and reflavored a new class for me to play, I simply refused and wanted to go by the book because I trusted the official authors.
Stupid.

[Mechalich]

Chapter Three: Combat and Special Abilities

Okay, so far I've been very restrained, mostly because this has just been a bunch of weird insect stuff without any significant rules attached, and weird insect stuff is pretty much a 'your mileage may vary zone' with a bias towards people already inclined to play as a Thri-Kreen anyway. Now we've got some rules, some suitably insane I have no idea what's going on 2e rules, so expect the snark level to increase

And then expect it to go back down, because chapters 4 and 5 are almost pure fluff again and chapter 6 is more rules. This book fails at structure at the broadest level in a pretty hardcore way.

Chapter three goes from pages 37-52 and covers all the rules regarding Thri-Kreen that are not specifically related to making one into a PC. That's a lot of rules, and most of them are simply embedded deep within the text, you're lucky if you get a highlight so you can follow them.

First up is this thing called racial memory. Okay, I get it, Tim Beach was kind of in a bind in dealing with a sapient species that matures at the age of 4. Not a lot of time for learning, whether from experience or instruction. So, instead, Thri-Kreen get to inherit the instincts of their ancestors. What this actually means and how it works is really unclear. It doesn't appear to be magical, the mechanism is described is more like the Thri-Kreen are carrying around a bunch of extra neurons and they spontaneously form new synaptic connections when certain events trigger neurochemical reactions or something.

So for example Thri-kreen don't learn how to read, they encounter Thri-Kreen writing (not exactly a common thing) and suddenly remember how to read. It's a good thing there are no Thri-Kreen wizards (more on that in a minute) or this would be as unbalancing as fuck.


Wait, I just have to look at the spell to learn it?

You know what is unbalancing - the fact that racial memory is supposed to be the means that triggers acquisition of racial abilities tied to level - like leaping. Except, someone with the right psionics can burrow into a Thri-Kreen's head and unlock that knowledge right away at level 1. Yeah, that's not an incredibly obvious exploit written into the rules or anything. It's really stupid and the whole mechanism is frustrating.


standard practice is to bypass level-gating

A lot of these rules deal with 2e's cumbersome proficiency system. Such as Thri-Kreen being natural born hunters and therefore getting the Hunting non-weapon proficiency for free. Yay? They actually provide rules for using this proficiency, which I suppose means something when it comes down to surviving in the desert (which is one of those things that most D&D settings laugh about but you actually care about in Dark Sun). Of course you can abuse these hunting rules to 'hunt' enemies in the wilderness and have a pretty darn good chance of triggering a free surprise round - which is a big power boost in 2e considering the general lack of persistent defenses and overall low hit point totals.

Some other minor benefits: starting AC 8 (plus dex bonus, since thri-kreen min dex is 17), reduced blind-fighting penalty, enhanced speed (a Thri-Kreen in an all-out sprint can hit 30 mph, not too shabby), no need for sleep and therefore the ability to travel 20 hours a day, and reduced water needs and excellent water retention. So when it comes to desert survival, the Thri-Kreen are running circles around your human PCs and laughing really hard (well, except I don't think they can actually laugh). This is kind of funny because mantids are not particularly well adapted to deserts as far as insects go. Overall though, playing a Thri-Kreen is a great way to bypass most of the desert survival issues of Dark Sun, and even a single Thri-Kreen PC has huge benefits for other party members (and gets stuck on guard duty all the damn time, curse of the unsleeping PC).


embrace your inevitable fate

Thri-Kreen get three specific racial abilities that are level-linked. The first is leap which you get at level 3 (which in Dark Sun means you start with it). This ability allows a Thri-Kreen to leap forward 50 ft. or straight up 20 ft. They can also make leap attacks which count as charges and do double damage with their racial polearm weapon the Gythka. This is actually really badass, especially since there's no limitation attached so this ability is at least nominally at will (there is a restriction about requiring space to land, so it's not very useful indoors) so you can leap around and kite the shit out of your enemies if you're a spellcaster, and first striking from 50 ft away as a martial character is also rather helpful - especially given how 'disrupt the wizard' was at least marginally viable in 2e.


can I get a hell yeah?

Ability #2 is venom. For one instance of combat per 12 hours (in fairness, not having to sleep does play havoc with /day ability rates) a Thri-Kreen can use their venom as many times as they want on bite attacks (if there are additional combats in that timeframe it doesn't come online until round 4). This being 2e combat rules, there is no penalty or drawback to making bite attacks in addition to weapon or claw attacks, so this amounts to every round for the Thri-Kreen in melee. Save vs. paralyzation (not poison, because 2e saves are dumb) or be paralyzed for some number of rounds (dependent upon size, most likely 2d8 or 1d8). While paralyzation in 2e wasn't the instant death it became in 3e, it was still really, really bad and a good way to end up dead. While making the save gradually becomes something of a gimmee at higher levels, this ability is pretty darn powerful for a martial Thri-Kreen in the mid-levels.

Ability #3 is dodging missiles. This is a really wonky ability that provides a flat 60% chance to dodge any nonmagical missile attack from 1 opponent per round while doing nothing else. That's of incredibly niche utility since there's probably almost always something better you can do. Still, two out of three isn't bad.

Now Thri-Kreen do have some disadvantages. The most important is that they qualify as size L, which in 2e meant eating higher damage category damage for pretty much all weapon attacks. They also cannot support themselves using arms alone. This is important because it means they can’t climb anything (though they can leap 20 ft straight up, so that’s kind of a wash). They can’t ride mounts or effectively be used as mounts. The book lists two specific issues – an allergy to something called ranike sap and the ability to get nasty infections for just being in cold or humid environments. They are also vulnerable to weapons designed specifically to damage chitin, which causes AC reduction.


it's not quite that bad, but it's still not fun

All this stuff is incredibly wonky. Balance being totally dependent upon whether these things specifically show up or don’t, environmental design, what type of monsters you're likely to right regularly and a bunch of other things. It’s easy to imagine a campaign where Thri-Kreen would be utterly overpowered – pretty much anything that spends a lot of time in desert wilderness – and also one where they’d be mostly useless like an urban one.

The next page consists of a listing of new or modified non-weapon proficiencies for Thri-Kreen. The non-weapon proficiency system never worked particularly well and lacked utility in the first place and these highly specialized abilities certainly aren’t helping, but I guess it’s nice to know that Thri-Kreen enjoy painting each other’s chitin with cool designs.

There’s a long section on new weapons and stats. These include three special new kreen weapons chatkcha, kyorkcha, and gythka. The chatkcha and kyorkcha are throwing weapons that are basically nasty crystal boomerangs. They can be thrown twice per round and caught upon return, giving them an efficiency that almost approaches bows. There are some special maneuvers thrown in. Rules are given for non-kreen to use these things, but they suffer such penalties that it just isn’t worth it - also the Kreen don't really like non-Kreen having dasl stuff will be probably eat you. Thri-Kreen receive chatkcha weapon proficiency for free – which is actually a nice bonus if you’re a spellcaster, since it’s probably the most effective ranged weapon you’re allowed to use. The Gytha is basically a double spear. Several other thri-kreen weapons are listed, most are nothing special.


thankfully efficacy is not dependent on pronunciation

So, next are some actual rules for Thri-Kreen in combat, which gets complicated because they have four arms and are proficient in their natural attacks. That means a Thri-Kreen, regardless of class, gets to make 5 attacks per round. And if you think that's bad, the text follows with a sidebar on Weapon Specialization in Bite and Claw, making their natural attacks more powerful and more frequent. A Thri-Kreen gladiator with specialization in both Bite and Claw gets 8 attacks one round and 9 attacks the next, all with specialization bonus. They hedge against this by suggesting such a rule is 'optional.' Which is a terrible policy of allowing something that is pretty obviously unbalancing as 'optional.'


not quite that many, but getting there

Later in the chapter there's a sidebar about specializing in two-weapon fighting to wield four weapons at once - which is actually probably less useful than just going claw and bite crazy excepting the ability to wield multiple magical weapons and stack up bonuses. Regardless, the ability to stack up tons of attacks (and thereby unleash massive amounts of Str bonus damage if you've got it) is pretty hefty. 2e math is incredibly messy, but the hypothetical Thri-Kreen gladiator specializing in natural weapons is likely to have more attacks in a combat than the rest of their party and their enemies put together.

After all this stuff about weapon advantages the Thri-Kreen do get hit with a significant disadvantage: they can’t wear armor. This is less important than it would be to most characters since the Kreen have natural armor and a huge dex bonus, and they can still use magical armor boosters. Also, since Dark Sun has heat rules that make armor use punishing for most characters, this is mitigated further. Kreen do get to use shields, if they wish to forgo extra attacks.

The final portion of the chapter is about magic and psionics. This whole section is a mess, hampered massively by the ad hoc nature of 2e rules and the terrible nature of the 2e psionics system. There’s no type classification to help sort out the various immunities and stuff the Thri-Kreen get. A good example is the magical item rules. Thri-Kreen can’t wear pretty much any magical clothing or rings, but can use gems and jewelry. These restrictions would probably be crippling in 3e – since it would translate in several fewer magic item slots, but are far less imposing in 2e and particularly in Dark Sun, where magic items were less prevalent and less impactful overall. Still sucky though, and it warps game balance in all sorts of wacky ways.

There are long sidebars listing spells and psionics that have to be adjusted for Thri-Kreen. Notably, Thri-Kreen are immune to charm person, hold person, and sleep, which is a nice set of spells to get to ignore. The set of psionics adjustments lists a whole bunch of powers that have been nerfed or just have wacky effects when it comes to Thri-Kreen. I don’t know the psionics system for 2e well enough to say if this impacts game balance in any substantial way. Given the dumpster fire that was 2e psionics I want to say that probably no one does. You can, however, use Molecular Rearrangement to get a +1 damage bonus to each claw – so of course you do that.


rules not appearing in this book

Much of this section is written is godawful vague language. Like "Animal affinity (science) rarely benefits the thri-kreen." The hell does that even mean?

Generally the Thri-Kreen get abilities that make them a highly effective race for the purposes of martial classes, and actually perhaps equally or more effective for psionics. The best approach available seems to be the high strength Thri-Kreen whirling dervish of death as a gladiator, but they wouldn't be especially disadvantaged as druids or psionicists.

[Mechalich]

Chapter 4: Thri-Kreen Society

This chapter is about everyday Thri-Kreen life and basic societal structures. It goes from page 58-73. Chapter 5 just scales up from this.

This chapter hews the 'noble savage' route pretty darned hard. Which, okay, this is a species of obligate carnivores living in a desert that is largely unsuitable for pastoralism (and where it is happens to be claimed by other people). Still this narrow focus hurts the use of Thri-Kreen anywhere else, since it's not clear what the scenario that allows the Thri-Kreen to develop into the more complex Tohr-Kreen civilization could possibly be.

Beach coins the term ‘Democratic Tyranny’ to describe the societal organization of the Thri-Kreen. This makes no sense, but I’m pretty sure that’s the point.


pretty sure he wasn't talking about mantis people

The idea is that the Thri-Kreen mirror a system where everyone has a voice with an explicit understanding that the importance of each voice is dictated by their place in the pecking order. So the orders of the leader are followed implicitly, but otherwise the individuals get to do what they want. I’m sympathetic to the freaky insect people having a weird social system, but this would be god-awful to try and actually play, and it renders all-Thri-Kreen games essentially impossible.

It's worth noting that this clutch and pack based social system trumps alignment. This doesn't really make any sense and devalues the individuality of the Thri-Kreen rather than choosing to reinterpret what alignment ought to mean to creatures who think in this sort of clutch-then pack-then individual orientation. Still, this is mostly a case of alignment is awful in how it simply doesn't fit a species without a human-based worldview.

The pecking order of clutches and packs is determined by formal challenges, which are basically straight up fights until someone surrenders – but fighting to the death is bad, m’kay? Challenges between two packs are more formal – number of champions is to be decided, and only natural weapons are allowed (which makes the claw+bite weapon specialist the resident pack champion), and there are various terms. This system only applies between Thri-Kreen, if non-Kreen want to engage in this system – which is way more efficient than fighting the whole pack by pretty much any calculation – they have to find their own Kreen champion.


challenge accepted

Next up, religion and the gods. The Thri-Kreen, interestingly, are atheists.



This is weird for D&D but fairly reasonable for Dark Sun – where there really aren’t any gods. They still have elemental shamans and druids though, but their racial memory makes it clear that there are no gods, so there’s not internal religious conflict. Must be nice. They do believe in reincarnation, and have generalized concept of heaven and hell. They possess reverence for The Great One, which is actually a Dark Sun specific monster called an Avangion – basically the uber-good guys – if the right racial memories are triggered.

The Lifestyle section, which follows, explains that Thri-Kreen mostly live day to day, which is fitting for obligate hunters in an environment effectively devoid of seasonal change. They do have a coming of age ceremony that involves making their first chatchka. Thri-kreen have no gender roles and little differentiation, except that pregnant females are to be protected (but pregnancy is only 15 days, again, must be nice). They mate for life and prefer to have sex in private – which is noted as something of a risk because it means isolation from the group. There are no parent-child relationships. Young may be left to fend for themselves, but are otherwise raised by the clutch.

Social organization divides the Thri-Kreen into hunting and raiding packs. The difference is basically whether the prey are intelligent or not, which isn’t actually much of a difference so this is something of an arbitrary moral distinction that doesn’t make a lot of sense in the context of what has already been presented. A sidebar mentions that To’ksa are more likely to raid than Jeral, because they find the taste of elves more appealing due to differences in antennae development. I swear the elf thing just keeps getting worse every time it shows up.

Apparently Thri-Kreen rarely start conflicts, but they get really vengeful when pack or clutchmates are killed. They also fight to protect water supplies. Surrendering to Thri-Kreen isn’t really a good plan, since even if they don’t eat you they’ll take all your food and water and leave you to die in the desert. Not really surprising – warfare gets pretty darned savage when one side regards the other as a potential food source. It is casually noted that Thri-Kreen sometimes start eating prisoners while they are still alive, but that they don’t deliberately torture people (a past example that was presumably written into an earlier supplement is specifically disavowed by have other Thri-Kreen murder the offenders).

Thri-Kreen are nomadic in a way that makes even the most mobile human groups appear fucking stationary. A lengthy period of camping in one place is measured in ‘days.’ They own little they can’t carry but may occasionally use simple conveyances or giant flying neuropterans – which seems a rather mundane use for such a thing - to haul their gear.


this is a pack animal? seriously?

Death rituals are simple, amounting to brief vocal mourning and an attempt to bury the dead in consistent locations.

The next section details some other practices. Thri-Kreen trade, for example, is something like a dominance contest and a whole sub-system of fluff is presented for playing it – though it’s far too baroque to actually bother with in game. They have art and games, and occasionally wear decorative items, all fairly basic.

An important – for players – section called ‘Without the Clutch’ talks about things important to Thri-Kreen adventurers. They are effectively compelled to join a party after a short period of time. It notes that Thri-Kreen make natural gladiators, which is important to the setting. They also detail how each of the individual Dark Sun cities (there are only 7 cities in core Dark Sun) treats the Thri-Kreen. Most of these cities have Thri-Kreen populations from 2-4%, which actually seems high, considering these are obligate carnivores who potentially start murdering and eating other citizens when they get hungry enough.


does not mix well with others when hungry in confined space

This chapter ends with three full pages about languages, communication, and names. This is incredibly esoteric and your gaming group does not care. There are a few useful facts here: the Tohr-Kreen have a different language from the Thri-Kreen, and that Thri-Kreen has no written form (but Tohr-Kreen does).

Overall the utility of this information for gaming purposes is fairly low, and it makes the prospects of an all Thri-Kreen game - in the incredibly rare situation where you'd run one - seem very boring. Hunt, mate, occasionally fight or trade, repeat, it doesn't amount to much of anything. There are no cool hooks for the Thri-Kreen to get into and aside from the whole 'mmm...elves for dinner' part nothing to tie them in with any of the other systems of Athas. This is annoying because the Thri-Kreen are probably the most powerful rural faction in Dark Sun, much like the Fremen are in Dune, but unlike the Fremen there's really no way to make them care beyond the individual level. Partly this is an obvious artifact of Thri-Kreen initially just being one monster among many and getting a late conversion to PC race status, but it's still disappointing.


Be prepared to appreciate what you meet - Fremen proverb

[Mechalich]

Chapter 5: Pack and Nation

The boundary between this chapter and the previous chapter is somewhat unclear, but seems to be more about social structure at the group level than the individual level, or something. It’s fairly short, from pages 74-84, but it covers a lot of information. Critically, it includes whatever references to Tohr-Kreen and Thri-Kreen for settings other than Dark Sun that one gets.

This chapter opens with a description of Kreen abundant relative to the type of local environment in the desert of Athas, badlands, scrublands, etc. It then talks about hunting packs versus raiding packs and gives an example of each. These examples enumerate all the members, their age classes, and what classes they belong to (but not their level, frustratingly). They also provide examples of ‘special packs’ which include an extended association of scholars called the Kiltektet – which is a thing your spellcasting or psionic Kreen PC probably wants to be part of – and two large packs organized around Dark Sun city-states, which is information that matters if your game is set in one of them. The fact that 1,500 Thri-Kreen live in the city of Raam is probably math fail. I don’t think the city could reliably support that many obligate carnivores and considering the power level of ‘monster’ Thri-Kreen the kreen may very well outgun the much more numerous masses (though population power calculations for Dark Sun are weird things to try).


strength in (large) numbers

Thri-Kreen packs generally have roughly defined territories for hunting purposes. They also recognize human settlements as having their own territories, but raider packs ignore these boundaries. There is no reason why this should be so: the hunter/raider divide remains very strange an arbitrary. It is noted that Thri-Kreen are more common in the south, where there are livestock they can take, which is actually a nice bit of ecological awareness on Tim Beach's part.

This done, most of the rest of the chapter is about other species of Kreen. Interestingly the text uses the term 'species' and not 'races.' That's an positive nomenclature progression I wish D&D had adopted back in the 90s on a more permanent basis.

First up are the Trin, which are four-legged two-armed semi-sentient beat-down machines. They leap out of ambush, claw you, grapple you, and then eat your face. There’s not much else to say about them.

Second are the Zik-Chil, which are some kind of coldly-logical bio-manipulators that totally got imported from Spelljammer (Xik-Chil) and are responsible for bio-manipulated super-kreen. Their origins are not explained. Nor is it explained why they are living among the Tohr-Kreen or why the Tohr-Kreen tolerate them using other Kreen in nasty bio-experiments or anything else. It's kind of a big hole.

Third are the Tohr-Kreen of the north, which have six subspecies, including the two found in the Tyr Region. They have different appearances and colors but are otherwise similar in society. Each sub-species merits a single sentence of actual description - plus a reference to the poster. So this book manages to introduce four new types of Kreen and yet reveal almost nothing about them. It is noted that the sub-species can interbreed, but they almost never do so. Kreen cannot interbreed with Trin or Zik-Chil.

Fourth there are the Zik-Trin, the synthetic super-kreen made by the Zik-Chil to spy upon the Thri-Kreen and the people of the Hinterlands and Tablelands (considering that Dark Sun is almost universally ruled by horrible sorcerer kings, this is probably a good idea). Zik-Trin have altered bodies and memories. They can't reveal their mission, but they do have the ability to climb, which means they can get over the Jagged Cliffs that keep Thri-Kreen and Tohr-Kreen apart.


not that kind of super-insect

Some geographical description follows. Briefly there’s the Hinterlands, which is a huge region pretty much full of nothing but Thri-Kreen which never seemed to get much love in Dark Sun products. A few sacred sites are mentioned here. The Jagged Cliffs form the northern border of the Hinterlands, which Thri-Kreen can’t climb. Beyond this lies the Tohr-Kreen territories.

There’s a brief description of a single Tohr-Kreen city: Thaythilor, with a population of 10,000 kreen – which is a desert legion of death by Dark Sun standards – that was created by sand and snail excretions (really). The art for this thing is actually pretty badass, but the actual information describing the city is minimal.

nothing is explained about how this place is supposed to work, but it looks cool

After this there’s a description of how the three Tohr-Kreen nations work which kind of like the pack structure taken to another level. Essentially all the packleaders form their own clutch and the leader of that clutch leads the nation, pretty basic. North of these nations is supposedly a massive empire of Kreen, but no explanation is given to how it would work. In general there is no description to the life of these settled kreen beyond their basic political structure and the fact that they have cities. I’m fairly certain Tim Beach didn’t quite consider how having cities full of tens of thousands of obligate carnivores would actually work – which is probably why the 4e notes on the Kreen territories gave it more of a steppe empire vibe and erased the cities bit.

One gets the sense that this was supposed to be introductory and that more information would have been provided in a supplement called 'Beyond the Jagged Cliffs' or something, but that supplement never happened and as mentioned 4e really downplayed the Tohr-Kreen empire angle when they rebooted Dark Sun (which is understandable, because that empire's power would have dwarfed anything in the Tyr region that's supposed to be the center of the setting). Still that leaves anyone interested in this aspect of the Thri-Kreen with nothing but a frustrating tease.

The final piece is a sidebar on Kreen on other planets. This is not very well developed but does at least provide broad guidelines for placing Kreen in the major campaign settings of the period – and rules them out of Dragonlance. Kreen were explicitly included in the Realms and Greyhawk, which is relevant to 3e players. Thri-Kreen were already included, more or less, in Spelljammer in the form of the Xikchil.


insects in space, a time-honored tradition

There really isn't much too this chapter, it's short and information is sparse, with the longest section being the one describing the Zik-Trin. It actually looks like information was cut out - there is a suggestion that the three Tohr-Kreen nations introduced would be described, and then they just aren't. Everything feels half-finished.

[Mechalich]

Chapter 6: Thri-Kreen PCs

Okay, time to interrogate 2e rules once again. This time these are rules specific to playing as a Thri-Kreen, which is nominally the reason this book exists, so I suppose it’s about time we got here. This is also the last real chapter in the book – chapter 7 is a sample adventure – so we’re near the finish line.

First up, ability score adjustments. These are based on the weird Dark Sun 2e chargen rules, which were roll 5d4 six times. Thri-Kreen get +2 dex, -1 int, +1 wis and -2 cha. However they also have a dex minimum set at 17, which means if you didn’t get at least a 15 there, you aren’t playing a Thri-Kreen.

This is actually a pretty darn good batch of things to get. In 2e Int was pretty much useless to anyone but a wizard, and Thri-Kreen can't play wizards anyway, so it's a natural dump stat. The -2 to cha is also of minimal consequence since you're already playing a giant insect monster and you can't be a bard, so hey, who cares. The dex bonus really helps given the 'no armor' ruling and wisdom might provide a bonus to certain saves if you have a high score, so that helps, and it helps potential clerics or druids.



Next classes: which means racial class and level restrictions, one of the great bogeymen of 2e. Thri-Kreen get hit with several outright bans: no wizards as previously mentioned, but also no thieves or bards. No access to the Dark Sun specific Templar class either. That does limit options: you're either a warrior, a divine spellcaster, or a psionicist. Then again, statistically a Thri-Kreen wizard is a poor choice anyway (particularly in Dark Sun), and the very idea of a Thri-Kreen bard doesn't mesh with the material presented in this book. Kind of a shame about the Thri-Kreen thief though: 2e backstab rules combined with 5 attacks would be devastating.


no Thri-Kreen allowed

The level limits for Thri-Kreen aren't that bad. The lowest imposition is Priest of Fire, which tops out at level 10. Priest of Earth or Water goes to 12 and Priest of Air to 14. Ranger goes to 12, Gladiator (which is a full class in Dark Sun) to 15, Fighter to 16, Druid to 16, and Psionicist is unlimited.

Out of these, the big limit is the cap on the Ranger - because that's a decent class to play as a Thri-Kreen, especially in Dark Sun where you can make the most of the survival advantages. The seeming reason for the limitation is apparently the 'good' alignment restriction that Rangers had in 2e which was somehow a problem for Thri-Kreen. This is really dumb. I'd forgotten how stupid some of the class/alignment restrictions actually were, but this one hits it on the head.

The other level limit restrictions are fairly modest. Fighter, Gladiator, Druid, and Psionicist are the best class options for Thri-Kreen anyway and rare is the campaign that goes above level 15 - and since Thri-Kreen can multiclass you can certainly stack on some more XP if you're really going for broke. Being a Priest is a meh choice - the armor restriction for Thri-Kreen hits the hardest here and it mostly seems like being a druid is just better in all ways.


the whole mantis druid idea had legs

I suppose I should talk about 2e multiclassing as well. Thri-Kreen have a number of multiclass options, including the ability to multiclass psionicist with pretty much all other options. The specific synergy of each combo is difficult to gauge, but since multiclass fighters sacrifice weapon specialization ranger and druid multiclasses are probably the most advantageous.

There are fairly lengthy descriptions of common class roles among Thri-Kreen and certain approaches, including common Psionics approaches. This section also includes suggestions for kits taken from the various Complete books that are suitable for Thri-Kreen and some information specific to Dark Sun such as paraelemental priests.

This chapter has 6 kits – kits being the weird proto-PrCs that 2e introduced in the various complete books that modified character abilities in weird and often highly unbalanced ways. 4 of these kits are martial in orientation, 1 is psionic, and 1 is more general. Of the kits, the Tik (Hunter) and Kik (Raider) are useless, as they simply describe what has already been said in game terms and provide no real rules modifications outside of non-weapon proficiencies. The Tik-Tik (Guardian) kit provides a +1 AC bonus at a very minor cost, making it somewhat useful. The Kalak (Scout) kit provides minor bonuses for Thri-Kreen rangers and would be very helpful in a survival focused game in Dark Sun. The psionicist kit makes it easier to use powers on non-insectoids, so that’s actually really, really helpful. The student missionary kit provides no concrete benefits, but might be really useful depending on how accommodating your GM is willing to be by connecting you to a network of Thri-Kreen scholars. Overall these kits are pretty meh, and though my memory of other kits is limited I suspect straight up fighter, gladiator, ranger, and druid kits from the various complete books are better optimized for most kreen characters.

And that's the chapter. It really doesn't contain a lot of information and surprisingly provides no advice regarding playing Thri-Kreen PCs or the integration of Thri-Kreen into ongoing Dark Sun games or any of that.

[GâtFromKI]

The Kalak (Scout) kit provides minor bonuses for Thri-Kreen rangers and would be very helpful in a survival focused game in Dark Sun.

In my experience, "being a thri-kreen" is more than enough in a survival focused game.

I played the scenario of introduction on the Dark Sun box with 2 or 3 thri-kreen PCs (and some non-thri-kreen); this scenario is a survival scenario (PCs are lost in the desert and must survive).

• Thri-kreen don't drink; or at least, they don't drink that much.
• Thri-kreen don't sleep; so they can walk nights and days.
• Everybody has Str 19+, because Dark Sun bitch. (in the strange rules of AD&D2, having a Strength of 18 offers small bonus, while having a Strength of 19 offers huge bonus; therefore, any Dark Sun character with Str 18- suicides and rerolls). Therefore a thri-kreen can easily carry one or two non-thri-kreen characters.
• The map isn't that big. It's really hard to be more than 60 miles away from an oasis.

The PCs were able to go almost anywhere on the map within 2 days; so they went in some place with ale and whores, the end.

Thri-kreen are already a "you win" button in any survival-focused scenario, why would you need any bonus on top of that ?

Btw, I think it's the first game I played where the introduction scenario doesn't work at all - and you see it just by playing it using one of the normal races. They didn't playtest that scenario at all - or they didn't playtest the thri-kreen at all. That's just lame.


Oh, and there's a punchline: in dark sun, each PC create 4 characters, and chose any of them at the beginning of each scenario. So after the intro scenario, each PC create a thri-kreen character and use him when survival is involved. Dark sun in a survival focused setting where every player has a "fuck survival" button. It's one of the biggest fail in the history of fail.

[Eikre]

I'm pretty surprised the Thri-Kreen bury their dead. What a waste of good food. Is it not nobler for one's body to remain with the clutch by being subsumed by its other members? Partaking in the flesh of the dead would make a great funerary practice; it brings everyone together, offers closure, and represents a kind of veneration.

Also, they could have a cute idiomatic double-entendre for remarking kindly on the memories of a deceased associate: "He was very filling."

[Blicero]

I have always been curious about to what extent demihuman level limits were actually followed in 1E/2E games. I understand the worldbuilding implications that Gygax included them to support. But I feel like, if demihuman characters ever reached their level limits in the course of an actual game, Mr. Cavern would be all "You are clearly an exceptional adventurer, so you can continue leveling" or something. Maybe first requiring a quick fellatio session or something.