PDA

View Full Version : So, I Bought a Mule



Avista
2018-11-11, 06:46 PM
And I need to give it a name. I need to give it personality! I need to give it zest!

(Partly because I keep forgetting it exists and need to be reminded to pay for stabling whenever we get to town)

So, if I give it some flavorful traits, I'll be less likely to forget its existence!

...Even if it's just a pack mule for the party. Literally.

Advice?

Some Background:
The mule technically belongs to my character, and I pick up the tab for stabling and feed. But since my character has 0 in animal handling, the other party members are the ones who actually have any knowledge in dealing with the creature.

Koo Rehtorb
2018-11-11, 07:01 PM
Saddlebags.

Talyn
2018-11-11, 07:05 PM
So you've got a mule, you should name her Sal (fifteen miles on the Erie canal)…
She's a good old worker, she's a good old pal (fifteen miles on the Erie canal)...

TheYell
2018-11-11, 08:23 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI3fN5wvMtM

The Random NPC
2018-11-11, 10:17 PM
I always name my mules Elum.

VincentTakeda
2018-11-11, 10:42 PM
So you know the weeping angels in doctor who that only move when you're looking away?

Option 1: As long as you're watching the mule all it does is stand there and tilt its head at you. But if you leave it unattended. If you look away. If you even BLINK! The next time you look at it, it will be chewing on a random item from your gear.

Option 2: Same principle bu this time the donkey has unnaturally large ears. As long as you're watching it carefully, all it does is stand there and tilt its head at you. But if you leave it unattended. If you look away. If you even BLINK! The next time you look at it, it will somehow have managed to perch itself on top of the tallest thing in the area no matter if its possible for it to have gotten there.

Option 3: Same principle, but this time every time you look away, the donkey attempts unsuccesfully to hide from you. It will find something thats nearly but just not quite big enough to hide behind, from which all you can see is its ass or its little beady eyes peeking out around the corner to see if you notice it.

Your choice if the donkey chuffs with annoyance or glee upon being discovered and retrieved.

Alternatively, google image search for Romulus and Remus donkey.

Avista
2018-11-11, 11:00 PM
So far, the donkey's name is Saddlebags Elum Sal.

Fifteen miles down the Shire Canal.

She doesn't like to be laughed at,

Else she'll buck you down flat.

She thinks it's a joke,

When she hides behind red oaks.

Gotta watch the dame twenty-four seven,

Else she'll find the highest mountain,

And try to climb her way to heaven.

Pauly
2018-11-12, 12:31 AM
When I say whoah I mean whoah
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QYiCP1kxL1E&t=40s

farothel
2018-11-12, 05:29 AM
As long as you don't name your horse 'Stew' or 'Lasagna' like one my party companions used to do.

hymer
2018-11-12, 06:19 AM
Bartholomew is a good name for a mule or donkey, I always thought.

You can have it always get loose from whatever you use to keep it in place, whether hobbling, harness, or grounded line. And since it is used to being fed first thing in the morning, your character usually wakes up to Bart nudging them until they get up and feed him. It can reach comic proportions, where Bart somehow makes it into the inn, up the stairs, and through the locked door to nudge your PC awake. Alternatively, have Bart bray to wake the whole inn in the hall outside your room.
If that's the sort of game you're in, the DM can also make some use of that to start or end trouble.

hotflungwok
2018-11-12, 10:16 AM
In a Pathfinder game a few years back we were going to haul a bunch of stuff out of a old underground ruin, and needed a way to get it all back. After looking into a mule and cart and how much food it would need for there and back, we decided to hire a nice strong dwarf. His name was Yew. You know what Yew did? Yew hauled.

chainer1216
2018-11-12, 10:56 AM
Narmatar.

Its elvish (Tolkien) for "dont eat me" according to a friend i trust on the subject.

hymer
2018-11-12, 11:33 AM
Narmatar.

Its elvish (Tolkien) for "dont eat me" according to a friend i trust on the subject.

That would be Quenya, specifically. Usually, when people talk about 'elvish' in Tolkien's works, they mean Sindarin.
I don't really follow the word construction, but I recognize the stem 'mat-', which is 'eat'. In Sindarin, that would be 'mad-', as it has softened with use. Interestingly, 'mad' or 'mat' is 'food' in non-Finnish Scandinavian languages.

PastorofMuppets
2018-11-12, 02:12 PM
Have it awakened and given fighter levels then name it Mule-Lan

Durandu Ran
2018-11-12, 07:39 PM
Ferris Muler

Knaight
2018-11-12, 07:56 PM
It sounds like the naming phase is over (which is a shame, because Rocinante would have been a fun option), and we're on to character traits - which also seem pretty well covered, particularly given the poem. But, a few more options, just in case a second stanza is wanted.


She's friendly, too friendly, and entirely too prone to walking over to say hi to total strangers.
She's picked up looting habits from adventurers, and will pick up treasure. Or "treasure", because her understanding of looting doesn't extend to what is and isn't valuable.
She likes to join the cleric and/or wizard in their spell preparation, sitting nearby and emitting a constant stream of donkey braying noises in their all-too-finite variety.

VincentTakeda
2018-11-13, 01:09 PM
The donkey is the moral compass for the party, always alerting them of injustices it witnesses, always secretly righting the party's wrongs and cleaning up after their messes. The party's 'secret paladin'.

Any time a party member performs a morally questionable action, roll perception to see if they notice the disapproving scowl of the donkey.

Manga Shoggoth
2018-11-13, 03:48 PM
"Old Mule".

After all, there's no mule like an old mule.

Dexam
2018-11-14, 10:55 PM
Bartholomew is a good name for a mule or donkey, I always thought.

Bartholomule. :smalltongue:

Elvensilver
2018-11-15, 03:11 AM
In any games I played in, the DM controlled our animals, resulting in a horse which is quite possible stronger tham my ninth level character and as brave as the best paladin, and another horse which is broody, hates anyone that dares to ride it, and he can chew through solid steel to reach "food" (really loose definition of this word here).

So for traits for your mule: What about absolut loyality? It follows you anywhere, no matter how impossible it should be, it even tries to sleep next to you. Or maybe it's loyal to anyone who feeds it, and often wanders of with some random village children.
Or the contrary:your mule absolutly hates some group - maybe something innocent like dwarfes- and runs away from them, or tries to kick them.
Maybe it excels in one area of perception: the mule refuses to go anywhere where it is loud/smelly/to bright an gets twitchy as soon as it senses anything out of the ordinary.

hymer
2018-11-15, 04:02 AM
Bartholomule. :smalltongue:
I'll bow to your superior expertise on the matter. :smallbiggrin:

TheYell
2018-11-15, 07:31 AM
Something I learned in the Boy Scouts in Death Valley. Mules are tempermental creatures but enjoy the company of more tractable horses. So when you have a string of mules, you have a mare at their head, and you do everything with the mare first. Then the mules want to join in. Feeding, cleaning and hitching to a wagon become a lot easier.

hymer
2018-11-15, 08:29 AM
Something I learned in the Boy Scouts in Death Valley. Mules are tempermental creatures but enjoy the company of more tractable horses. So when you have a string of mules, you have a mare at their head, and you do everything with the mare first. Then the mules want to join in. Feeding, cleaning and hitching to a wagon become a lot easier.
But then to keep the horse happy, you need a goat to keep it company*. And to make the goat happy, you need a large sheep it can stand on**. So you see where this is going: A circus on a train, going through a desert, and a boy with treasured crucifix being chased by bad guys***.

* This is where the phrase "to get someone's goat" comes from. Race horses used to have a companion goat to keep them from getting stressed when out at unfamiliar race courses. Goats are much less nervous creatures. One of the ways to nobble a race horse was to kidnap the goat friend.

**: A goat at a neighbour's place loved to jump up on the sheep in the same enclosure, so she could reach low-hanging branches and such. Other goats wouldn't have put up with that, but sheep are both temperamentally and physically better suited to that.

***: Reference to the opening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Slipperychicken
2018-11-16, 11:10 AM
If you get search results from horse forums, you can find tons of exceedingly comfy and wonderful names.

http://myhorseforum.com/threads/names-for-mules.446898/
https://www.wookeyfarm.com/2012/05/99-donkey-names/
http://forums.horsecity.com/topic/30037450-naming-new-mule/
https://www.ranker.com/list/funny-donkey-names/pet-project

Some highlights from threads:
Daisy May
Belle
Dixie
George
Mollie
Poncho
Vegas
Spud
Dumpy
Pickles

Tombguardians
2018-11-16, 02:54 PM
I just have my party members feed them daily and water. I don’t get bogged down on pack animals

thompur
2018-11-16, 09:39 PM
Abraham-Imperius' mule in "Ladyhawke".
Algebra-Stymie's mule in "The Little Rascals"
Zazu-Burro from the '70's cartoon series "The Arabian Knights"

Knaight
2018-11-16, 10:27 PM
If you get search results from horse forums, you can find tons of exceedingly comfy and wonderful names.

You can also get really bizarre ones, even from things like televised horse races. A few months ago a horse named Bofa Deez Nuts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFJ62QEpv8) won a race, for instance.

Avista
2018-11-28, 03:26 AM
A little late, but after reading some of the comments, I've decided the following:

I love the name Narmatar, and I wonder if anyone will catch the joke. That is its new name.

I will have it still wander off if people don't pay attention to it. It will also get into the habit of kicking strangers that laugh at it.

It will also bray in our cleric's face every time he preps spells.

It'll scowl every time we break the law. Just a disapproving glare, and maybe a tug at someone's robe/belt/shirt. Won't actively stop us, but make his disapproval known.

It likes children and will enjoy their attention. Might even give them rides.

She'll pick flowers and give them to random members of the part. She treasures these flowers, and she'll bray sadly if we don't treasure them back.

If I forget to pay for barding again, she'll come to my room and bray to be fed. Bonus comedy points since I'm the noble of the group. ("Get out of my suite!")

If it ever does something paladin-worthy, I will grant her a proper title. Narmatar 'Sal' Barthalamule, loyal pack animal and wise moral compass of the party.

JeenLeen
2018-11-28, 05:29 PM
In a 5e game, one player bought two mules and gave them ridiculous names. The DM jokingly ruled, for some reason, that they died if he couldn't remember the names. We'd sometimes have a month between games, and this player's handwriting was so atrocious he couldn't read his own notes if he bothered to make them, so it really was on memory.

He managed to remember it every game.
Though we eventually fed them to a black dragon we met, so it wouldn't eat us. He was sad but pretty okay about it (plus the joke was getting a bit old by that point.)

I don't recommend such, but for some reason it seemed in the spirit of this thread to share.