Greetings!

Do you use Donkeys in your campaign? Are they popular as beasts of burden, and mounts? Have you developed any weird kinds of Donkeys that have become popular in the campaign?

In the World of Thandor, there are 6 different breeds of Donkeys; Mountain Donkeys, Forest Donkeys, Steppe Donkeys, Jungle Donkeys, Wasteland Donkeys, and Desert Donkeys. Each breed has a set of shared attributes and abilities, then there are a few distinct properties. Furthermore, each breed of Donkey may have several personality traits or attributes. Donkeys may have severe diseases, or more mild afflictions like Intestinal Parasites, Skin Fungus, or Respiratory Illness. I also have quality scales which can adjust the Donkey's ability attributes, increase or decrease chances of disease or afflictions. Each quality scale also has a different price for the Donkey as well, of course.

Donkeys can also be used for milk, fur and leather products, as well as a good source of meat.

Beyond those basic six breeds of Donkeys, found distributed throughout the world in various regions and environments, there are also four different bizarre breeds of hybrid Donkeys that are also found throughout the World of Thandor. These four bizarre breeds of Donkeys are crazy mutant-like animals that have various profiles and strange abilities. They are not as wide-spread and common as normal breeds of Donkeys, but provide something of a different flavour in local regions, and a bit of crazy for the campaign.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Not sure about donkeys, but I'd guess there's at least one jackass in every campaign.

And I may be the one in this thread. :cool:

Good question. Mules pop up in D&D so by inference there are donkeys. They are both listed in 5e.

It really depends on how much pack animals play into the adventuring life. And wether or not they are taken into the dungeons or not. Smaller hardier and agile pack animals will be more ideal for a dungeon delve. But in the decades of DMing I've rarely seen anyone ever try to bring the pack animals down with them.

There has been some articles in Dragon on alternative mounts and one touched on subterrene ones as mounts and beasts of burden. Lizards, Spiders, Snails, etc. Favouring creatures with some ATV capacity to negotiate the underground world.

Chult of course has dinosaurs taking the place of mount and pack animals.

If they are not burro, they are ass.

In my TOR campaign donkeys are essential. The encumbrance system is punitive enough that players have to consider every decision concerning what gear they want to take, and the donkeys make it possible to carry out longer expeditions into the wilderness.

Every fantasy game I run my players bring pack-mules. Because I do a lot of environmental survival stuff, and you know,.. who is going to carry all the treasure out of the dungeon?

One of my favorite anecdotes was a whole adventure the emerged out the PC's trying desperately to save this one pack-mule that had survived so many adventures with them it was like their mascot, and the poor guy failed a check and slid down this muddy embankment and got stuck on the edge of a cliff, and the PC's were being pursued by a horde of monsters... and they refused to leave Bob the Mule.

Bob did end up dying... but dammit it was good gaming.

You reminded my, in the AD&D play by post game, my dwarf has taken a donkey into the dungeon. We had just found a store room with kegs of beer. We're loading a couple kegs onto the donkey...

I don't usually specify any distinctions between burro, donkey, mule, etc. other than for local color (even though, yes, I know, they aren't the same things).  We usually simply call them all "mules" for convenience.  Besides, "mule" is my favorite, since it is one that is likely to balk at an inconvenient time ...

Quote from: tenbones;1130699Every fantasy game I run my players bring pack-mules. Because I do a lot of environmental survival stuff, and you know,.. who is going to carry all the treasure out of the dungeon?

One of my favorite anecdotes was a whole adventure the emerged out the PC's trying desperately to save this one pack-mule that had survived so many adventures with them it was like their mascot, and the poor guy failed a check and slid down this muddy embankment and got stuck on the edge of a cliff, and the PC's were being pursued by a horde of monsters... and they refused to leave Bob the Mule.

Bob did end up dying... but dammit it was good gaming.

Rookie mistake, naming the mule.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1130709I don't usually specify any distinctions between burro, donkey, mule, etc. other than for local color (even though, yes, I know, they aren't the same things).  We usually simply call them all "mules" for convenience.  Besides, "mule" is my favorite, since it is one that is likely to balk at an inconvenient time ...

They're probably all mules, anyway, because they can haul more treasure.

I don't like normal animals in my fantasy games.

In fact, my MOST favorite thing to do with fantasy campaigns is envision the Monster Section as the ONLY creatures on the planet. I've used the Fiend Folio ONLY and that was a superb blast. But if there are mules in the bestiary, then we see plenty of them in the setting.

In my current OD&D campaign, humans are the only mammalian species. Food, leather, riding beasts and beasts of burden are various giant reptiles.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1130773I don't like normal animals in my fantasy games.

In fact, my MOST favorite thing to do with fantasy campaigns is envision the Monster Section as the ONLY creatures on the planet. I've used the Fiend Folio ONLY and that was a superb blast. But if there are mules in the bestiary, then we see plenty of them in the setting.

In my current OD&D campaign, humans are the only mammalian species. Food, leather, riding beasts and beasts of burden are various giant reptiles.

That would be one very bizarre world with ONLY the creatures in the bestiary considering bestiaries rarely detail the small creatures at the bottom (or top depending on how you think about some of them) of the food chain.

Actually, one of the challenges I have with running in Tekumel or Talislanta is the lack of common real world creatures and therefore understanding the biology and what people would expect to encounter.

We always used mules when playing D&D for carrying large amounts of treasure out of dungeons.  
We also used "mules" when playing Serenity to load and unload freight from our space ship.

My characters usually use pack-horses, unless they're going through very hilly or mountainous territory.

Yes. Donkeys are remarkably hardy animals for very harsh terrains, and they are often cheaper than horses for pack animals. Less prestige & speed, but great for looking low key and carting away more stuff.