What's in a (Party) name?

[Davelozzi]

Yeah, party names are always tricky. It's hard to get something that sounds cool, isn't cheesy sounding or overly boastful, and doesn't pigeon hole the party.

My current group finally settled on the Crimson Blades, which I think was okay. The other top contendor was Demonslayers of Sartaigne (Sartaigne being the city they've accomplished the most noteworthy stuff in so far) but some members thought that fell into one or both of the boastful/pigeon-holed categories.

Saddle Tramp Six

If you pick a name like this, keep in mind that you might be changing it everytime you gain or lose a member. It works okay as long as you know that you have a stable group. When I was younger, I ran a FR campaign in which the party chose the name the Nether Elves, as they were an all-elven party interested in obtaining lore about ancient Netheril. Later, it was a little ackward when a human joined the group.

 

[Henry]

Our group in our Forgotten Realms Game is named the Company of the Endless Bridge. We came upon this name when one of our players suggested it after realizing the PC's never finished a bloody adventure in their lives. They were like a bunch of people who only crossed halfway across a bridge and turned back.

To date, I think they've finished ONE task they originally set upon - one PC's mother was cured of a disease-curse. Everything else was aborted for various reasons mid-stream, and they just cleared out of town before any repercussions hit. They've enjoyed the heck out of it, and we are on hiatus doing other games right now, but I hope to return to it one day soon.

 

[Rel]

Years ago one of the guys in our gaming group bought this incredibly funny book called How To Become a Superhero in 30 Days or Less or Your Money Back. One of the bad ideas that this book suggested as the name for your Supergroup was "Challengers of the ****ing Impossible!"

We've applied that one to most of our adventuring parties over the years at one time or another.

 

[Delemental]

Years ago one of the guys in our gaming group bought this incredibly funny book called How To Become a Superhero in 30 Days or Less or Your Money Back. One of the bad ideas that this book suggested as the name for your Supergroup was "Challengers of the ****ing Impossible!"

We've applied that one to most of our adventuring parties over the years at one time or another.

Ah, I loved that book... sadly I lost my copy a couple of years back.

 

[Cyrik Skylark]

Our group calls ourselves the Paragons of Chaos, after this rather unfortunate incident with a lead golem and a reincarnated halfling... I mean, how were we supposed to know the DM used 3.0 reincarnation rules? Besides, "Mezzle the Boar Wizard" sounds so much more interesting than "Mezzle the Halfling Wizard."

Mezzle's reactions were role-played very well.

And then there was the celestial kegger incident, though that happened afterwards, when the aasimar paladin we'd just acquired took us through her home city in Celestia.

And then there was the swimming pool on the ceiling.

 

[darklight]

I agree that a party name does lend a certain aura of cohesiveness to a party.

I remember once many years ago, the very first time playing AD&D 2ed actually, we had a sleepover. Me and another guy couldn't sleep, so we spent the entire night trying to come up with cool party names...we decided that they had to be acronyms(?) such as "Great Urwins Awesome Righteous Dragon Slayers" or G.U.A.R.D.S! We even tried to use D.R.A.G.O.N.F.I.G.H.T.E.R.S. Yeah, I know that's just silly... and even worse, the room was pretty cold and when we were to continue playing the next day, we had both lost our voice It's pretty hard trying to play D&D when you can't speak...

On a more serious note, does the partymembers have anything obvious in common? Like a particular color of clothes, a symbol or being members of the same church... (an example: In the "Grey Citadel" adventure (by Necromancer Games) there is a party called "The Band of the Crimson Mantle")

The Wayfarers sounds pretty cool, but IMO not overly descriptive...
Random thoughts (most of these are a little too obvious/overused):

Defenders of Order
Defenders of the Crown (hmm...maybe slightly arrogant )
Defenders of the Light (or Daybreak...from PirateCat's storyhour IIRC)
Wayfaring Warriors
Champions of Order etc.
Company of the Unicorn (from the unicorn all the members have painted on their armor )
Blades of Steel
Swift Swords
Brothers in Arms

If they were of the mercenary kind: "Hired Help"

For their acomplishments, I think the king should have given them a prestigious, official title, seems they have more or less saved the kingdom several times...

Oh well, it's getting late and my brain seems to be cooking up only trite, halfbaked suggestions, so I'll just say good luck...hope you find a name you all like.

darklight

 

[Pseudonym]

The PCs in my Tuesday game have taken to calling themselves the Knights of Plausible Deniability.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I played in a deliberately Sixties four-colour Aberrant game wherein our team of heroes were known as the Victory League, based out of Kirby City.

I don't think I've ever played a fantasy game where the party took on a proper company name, but in the last D&D game I played we introduced ourselves formally as the Heroes of Harmon's Rest, since we were the first people to leave our village to seek adventure within living memory.

Actually, an in-joke developed where in our party's bard would announce that we were "the Heroes of Harmon's Rest, where the streets are paved with gold!", the ranger would add "Metaphorically speaking", and I'd chime in with "Only not actually."

We confused a few NPCs with this tactic.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Just be the Four Horsemen, regardless of how many are in your group. It'll throw off the opposition. And yes, it's a tactic I stole from wrestling. Sue me!

 

[Tuzenbach]

Or how about this, Mr. RUSH fan!

"The Echo Testers"
"The Prime Movers"
"The Hemispheres"
"The Permanent Waves"
"The Vapor Trails"
"The Bone-Rollers"
"The Moving Pictures"
"Cygnus X-1"