Adventuring party names

[TarionzCousin]

The group I just joined calls themselves "The Defrosters." They melted the entire icy tower from Dungeon #159 and the name stuck.

Story hour just begun here.

 

[beverson]

We've never named any of the parties in our D&D games until the 4e game I'm running right now, and it wasn't intentional. I'm running the WotC modules, and during Keep on the Shadowfell the PC's keep running into a gang of slavers called the Bloodreavers. So when they'd run up against another encounter, if someone asked who they were, they started saying "We're the Bloodreavers!", all jokingly of course.

I decided to run with that, and they eventually started hearing townsfolk whispering "hey, there go the Bloodreavers!". And it stuck.

 

[Anand]

My current group used to call themselves Purple Scales, because they used to work for the Purple Dragons of Cormyr as an elite team. Moving to the paragon levels, they left Cormyr to follow their on interests, and now they're the Dark Scales.

 

[theskyfullofdust]

In the game I am currently DMing the party don't have a name as yet, but they are unofficially known as Doom Patrol, because of a disguise they once adopted; which was thought up by the PC harpy with an INT of 4...

In my 4th ed. Scales of War game, they haven't come with a name yet either, but they are working on it.

In the past, there was a company of adventurers called The Greyhawk Falcons, so-called as they were the special envoy's of the City of Greyhawk and undertook numerous missions for the city.

But mostly, my players tend to avoid party names. Not sure why.

 

[Mark Chance]

Adventuring party names should be mandatory, or at least close to it. With our Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil DM, we're the Company of the Jeweled Stein.

I fairly recently ran a one-off with premade PCs who formed the Scion Squad.

I'm working on another one-off featuring the all-halfling Anklebiters League.

 

[Raven Crowking]

If you want your PCs to use a group name, the easiest way to do so is to example NPCs doing the same, either currently or historically.

RC

 

[Zaruthustran]

I'm partial to Acquisitions, Inc. (http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4pod/20080530). I find the construct of an incorporated private military contractor company to be very suitable for a typical D&D party's activities and motivation.

Also, our new group in Heinsoo's campaign, featuring a post-cataclysmic world where we're agents of a god from the Feywild who has teamed up with the Raven Queen. Consisting of an Elf, an Eladrin, a Wilden, two shadar-kai, and a drow.

During the email discussion re: character generation, a buddy posted:

"I looked at some possibilities last night. I like Swordmages (Defenders), because then I could create a sort of Elric character—which would seem to fit in with a drow assassin, a drow WIZard, and other elf-types. Could we be an elven contingent, Rob? Or is it better if we're a mongrel party? Or we could be mercenary outcasts and still all be elves, if it's better for us to be unaligned. Maybe we were sent to prison by a military court for a crime we didn't commit, and then we promptly escaped from the maximum security stockade to the fantasy underground. We're still wanted by the government, but we survive as soldiers of fortune. If people have problems and no one else can help, they generally let us know."

That's right. We are... the Fey Team.

Rob Heinsoo - Fey Team

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Miphon]

I'm partial to Acquisitions, Inc. (Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Penny Arcade/PvP Podcast Series 1 Ep1)). I find the construct of an incorporated private military contractor company to be very suitable for a typical D&D party's activities and motivation.

Several of the players in my 4E campaign (a conversion of Paizo's Rise of the Runelords AP) were inspired by these podcasts to come up with a name for their party. They are still struggling to agree on a suitable name, but Thistletop Raiders is leading the field atm.

In the 3.5 game I play in, the party from the campaign we just finished was known as Werebane Chaka. It was a name given to us by the council when our charter was registered with them early in our adventuring career and reflected the fact that we had recently been fighting a lot of wererats.

We've recently started Age of Wyrms, but that party has no group name as yet.

 

[Ambrus]

If you want your PCs to use a group name, the easiest way to do so is to example NPCs doing the same, either currently or historically.

That can work, but in my opinion the best way to force the issue as a DM is to have NPCs saddle the party with an informal name they'll hate. For instance, in one group I had NPCs assume that the high Charisma bard was the party's leader; something which rankled the female players who thought of him as comically foppish. After being referred one too many times as "Liam's band", the party determinately debated the issue and finally settled upon the "Rikir Athair" or "Warriors of Life".

That's right. We are... the Fey Team.

You sir win the thread!