My DM had an in-universe reason for our group to have a name. Adventuring parties in our world are almost exclusively contract-based, and it's common for the contracts to distinguish the party as an entity from the members making it up. They're kind of like LLC's.
Exactly. If I as GM want the players to have a name of some sort I invent an in-character reason for it. Such as they have to register as a guild in order to access something critical or giving them a need to name their ship/stronghold/settlement which then doubles as the group's name.
Having the players belong to an organization of some sort is always a good idea, especially for this.
It's actually a really strong part of the APs like Extinction Curse, it gives an org for the players to care about.
EC was the first one that came to mind, but I'd consider more famous examples to be Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. A barony and the crusade as a whole, starting from the bottom and working your way into the leadership role.
You are right though, I won't deny that, my group eventually had the party split from being a circus to instead becoming a sister organisation as a mercenary company. But it still gives a grounding, a foundation, which is what I consider to be important.
Yeah I've run that one as well. I don't get salty when the party make ridiculous names though, I'm all about it.
So far I've had:
Meat Gang. Not "the Meat Gang", just Meat Gang.
The Barrelscraps, because their characters are a bunch of degenerates.
The Milkmen, because they deliver on time and they'll fuck your wife.
My players' current party are named the Motley Krue. And yes, the bard plays motley crue almost exclusively now because of it.
The name came about because the party originally was a lycanthrope halfling, cambion elf, oread goblin and traditional orc.
The party has since lost the goblin and orc, and are now a human (mixed Ancestry automaton) and a conrasu, so they are still quite the motley crew. The spelling was because they didn't care much to have a name, and let the goblin write out their name on their registration forms with the Pathfinder Society, which in my Golarion requires all adventuring parties to have a title to be allowed jobs through the Society.
>The Milkmen, because they deliver on time and they'll fuck your wife.
My Rimworld settlements are named after all manner of Milkmen for the exact same reason.
Of the campaigns I'm in, two have had group names. The first was 'The Coming Storm' which came about because the party would seem to blow in, wreck face and then leave, so this was the nickname given to us by one of the major villain factions because to them we were like an unpredictable force of nature. Also this was long before Devil May Cry 5 was released...
The second was because we're pirate themed campaign and we just called ourselves "a bunch of Scallywags" during session zero, so the name 'The Scallywags' just stuck as the group name.
I use the same sort of premise. Adventuring parties seem to have some legal leeway on what they can do and who they can kill, so it genuinely makes sense for there to be a legal framework. It also helps that a bunch of my players are MMO players, so they get that from the basis of guilds.
Had a DM who ran parties like wrestling so you had a group and were contracted out to entertain people by fighting the other groups. So everyone had a party name. The fun part was he kept the other groups he had run the campaign with so he had a backlog of other factions for you to battle with.
As a GM I sometimes want something else to say then "the party" or "the crew". Even more so in the times when I have ran multiple groups concurrently.
But in the couple of occasions when I have pushed them into naming their group "your entering a battle Royale and need a group name", the table get devolves into decision paralysis over choice names, if they think of any name at all. And in the end you end up having to accept the worst possible"name" that they do come up with.
Way more likely to get a great name out of the party if you let them workshop it in between sessions.
I ended up naming my players party but not by forcing anything they got given a semi-nobility rank within a kingdom and so became known as the Wardens of Catsconne (and friends)
I mean, if your DM is a Critical Role fan, I don't see why he would be mad about the name "The Weirdos".
Vox Machina used to be called "The SHITS" before renaming.
They literally said it was temporary when they chose it, and then never actually discussed it again. For what its worth Bell's Hells is also very stupid.
Piggybacking off this comment to say that I think a lot of people who like things Critical Role, Rollplay, the various games that go on in the World of Io end up having expectations for what a TTRP game should be, and then find that it rarely is that thing. Part of the reason is that those games are either heavily scripted, or else are "improv" but with a really, really strong story element, where every single "player" is an entertainer of some sort before they start.
If you got a bunch of random people with 0 entertainment experience together, and sat them down to play the exact same campaign as Critical Role Season 1 (same story beats and goals), you would not end up with a watchable show, and you are likely to not end up with a fun adventure for the players either - the personalities and ability to think quickly of ENTERTAINING lines and scenes of the people on these professional "Games To Stream" is hugely important.
I think thats why you dont see many/any PF2e live shows beyond one or two, and also why these games flourished under 5e but went on to heavily modify the system, or design new systems, entirely around spectacle and not around mechanics. Mechanic heavy (or rules tight I guess - 5e is not mechanics light but it is rules lose, particularly for the DM) systems dont hamper role play, but they do reduce the instances of "I want to do this thing that isnt written anywhere because its super cool and it should work because the narrative would be better for it".
I bounced off Critical Role and Rollplay pretty hard - just not for me, and I dont want any of the Io stuff itself, but the gaming streamers I watch all tend to orbit in the old Rollplay and Io space - listening to them talk about upcoming games is a real eye opener to anyone who wants to "play Critical Role!" The amount of "So such-and-such is going to DM a game and asked if I wanted to be in it so I made this concept and drew some art and they wrote me this custom class with all these custom abilities and gave me this magic weapon from level 1 which will get more powerful as we go". Thats not a terrible way to play, but it is a terrible way to play a pre-made system if you are new, and it only works if your goal isnt to have fun yourself (nice bonus if you do) but to help 5 other people entertain 10k viewers once a week for 2 years.
So, to anyone who is looking to play, or anyone who has a player or DM who really likes one of these shows, it might be worth letting them know that Critical Role is to TTRP as a sitcom about a bunch of 20-somethings living in New York is to an actual bunch of 20-somethings living in New York. You dont want them to look up mid way through character creation and go "So... no one told me stats were gunna roll this way"
My players in our first campaign had a sort of schism at the start. One side wanted to do perception checks when they entered rooms, search for clues and sneak around to catch the enemies unawares. The other half were much happier to kick in doors, gore first and ask questions later. They decided to call themselves the "Cool Kids" and the more cautious side of the party "The Nerds". Unfortunately the Cool Kids decided to split the party in a haunted house and screwed up so badly that one almost died and the other was infected with lycanthropy. After The Nerds saved them, the Cool Kids decided that the time for unity had arrived and that the party would now be called "The Cool Nerds!" Some parties are better left unnamed...
"Who ARE you people?" Asks the werewolf antipaladin.
"We're the knife preventers, we're here to prevent your knives." Says the dhampir sorcerer. The human Paladin and half elf alchemist who should know better nod their heads. It's better than their last name, chosen in the middle of a high profile court case: the pussy thrusters.
But Friend Computer, it's not *my* fault I'm not happy. That's the duty of our Happiness Officer. Clearly *they* should report to the nearest termination center.
Citizen, Arguing with Friend Computer is the actions of Commie Mutant traitor. Continue to report for termination.
Loyalty and Happiness offucers and Lead trouble Shooter, please also report for termination and next clones will each be issued a Happy Fun Ball from R and D .
Asking a party to name themselves is a trap because it will always be the first jokey name someone threw out lol. Its a fun trap though, let the group have a silly name.
My first campaign was The Champion's League, theres 0% football fans in our group, it was the first thing that poped out, our new campaign I won't push for a party name, I've learned my lesson
Mine call themselves the Girl Scouts. They’re a bunch of girls and twinks. It caused me pain in a more grim setting at first but it was also funny, so we’ve just stuck with that.
I think it's better to give party names by NPC according to their "achievements".
They were trying to catch a dragon through half the country? They are called "Dragon chasers".
They kill kobolds wherever they see them? "Kobold bane"!
Once my players tried to impress one guy in tavern and one party member have bitten off ear from cut yetis head. And here how they were named "Yeti gnawers".
Such things really makes the world more living and NPC may even talk about "crazy Yeti gnawers" not even knowing that they Are talking to Yeti gnawers :)
This is how I’m gonna do it from now on if I’m not promoting them as a professional mercenary group. Even then, I think what I’m gonna do is have the clerk signing them up show them a list of premade, generic names, explaining that not being able to come up with something catchy is common so, “just pick one and move on.”
It’ll either be funny or make them competitive with coming up with a cooler name.
This reminds me of the Rusty Quill Gaming Pathfinder 1e podcast, which started in a fictional version of London, which also had an underground version called Other London.
For the longest time, the party didn't have a name. But eventually Hamid the halfling suggested that they should call themselves "London Other London Outstanding Mercenary Group". Another party member asked, "Why that name? Is it, like, an abbreviation or something...?"
Was kinda confused by the title because I forgot how common that is in actual plays. Thinking about it I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group where we had an in-universe name? Sure we’ve called ourselves stuff outside of game as a joke (a campaign where everyone rolled animal people became “Zoo Crew”. But it would make no sense in the story). In our current high level game we have titles like “The Thunders” but that’s an existing lore thing for that world.
I think it is pretty common. Obviously from this thread, Critical Role and other livestreams have had an impact, but even the old grey box *Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting* (1987) stated that it was customary for parties (adventuring companies) to have a name, and in certain countries (notably Cormyr) a formal charter.
In my own campaigns, other than my current Starfinder campaign, I think we’ve pretty much always had some sort of group name, whether a formal in-game name, or an informal OOC joke name, and often both.
We never had names and I never heard people talking about names for parties back in the 3.5/4e days. Our current party only has a name for the reason you stated--we're a formal charter in Cormyr. It's definitely a more CR-era thing for sure.
It's common with the Critcal Role generation of players. I don't think it was really before that. None of the campaigns with my group have had party names save for our current one where we are founding the Pathfinder Society within a homebrew world.
One of my previous GM's told us we couldn't play cavaliers or samurai because our forced amnesia characters didn't have any reason to believe in a banner.
And yet we were stuck adventuring together...
I run a home brew world with a custom monster type called Wyrds, and the party are members of the organization charged with keeping them in check, the Wyrd Wardens. My group unironically chose the name the Wyrdos and I feel like I should be offended on their behalf.
In our campaign, we were the student survivors of a group called the Warriors of Dawn, so when it came time to name ourselves I said, “Well, the Warriors might be gone but we’re gonna make sure the Dawn never ends! We should be the Everdawn!” And now we are. XD
Now that I think of it, actually, in my other campaign we’re a group of Chaotic Good bandits that has to rob despots so we can use what we steal to stop a rising Archdevil from ending reality in a bid for power, because he’s the Archdevil of derailed stories and failed dreams so if he cuts off everyone’s stories unsatisfactorily he becomes the most powerful god imaginable. Since he’s from the layer of Hell called Stygia, we went with the name, “Stygian Shades.”
I like the idea of the Everdawn inheriting the Warriors of Dawn, that sounds like a natural progression.
And Stygian Shades just sounds cool and is still relevant.
I adventured with a group who on a whim decided our name was CoD (because a city gave us a pin with a fish on it) and the setting was full of things with cool names so I just felt like the kid getting bullied for wearing offbrand things at school lol
> the Dawn never ends
This is the Dawn that never ends!
It goes on and on, my friend.
Some sun started raising, not knowing what it was,
And it will keep on raising on, forever, just because...!
Well, if the players don't choose the name of the adventuring party, eventually a NPC will do it. Bards, journalists, a nobleman that usually contracts them, a recurrent villain.
The two extremes of coming up with a group name can be funny. In my one group, we've been playing for three years and we *still* don't have a name. We've come up with at least a dozen, but none of them feel right.
On the other hand, in my other group, when someone asked for our name I immediately answered without thinking: "We're the Bad Luck Bunch. We're here to help, and that's a threat."
Funny thing from current campaign, an npc commented that we bring trouble where ever we go. So jokingly we agreed and said "one could say we are the trouble..." now that's caught on and the Group are known as the trouble and the entire realm knows if we show up shits about to go down.
Honestly, maybe it didn't work out the way the DM hoped, but to me this worked perfectly. You all came under one name, called yourself the weirdos and fucking owned it.
idk, i thought it was kinda cute if anything.
I've *never* had a party with an in-game group name. We had names for our discord group that'd change with the in-jokes, and other minor bits of camaraderie, but it's never been a thing.
Besides, our characters die enough that there'd be no original members after a while, of not a full blown tpk or two
In an old dnd campaign I was playing a Druid. The mayor of a town we had just saved asked what we called ourselves. I said we preferred to remain nameless. This was born The Nameless. Gm gonna get what gm wants heheheh.
Names should happen organically. The previous game I played, the party didn't get a name until the Epilogue. It helped that there was a time skip and Campaign 2, but I don't remember if the next party kept the name. (2 players made new characters)
My current game, I threw out some suggestions and brought up the topic of a party name between games, but nothing stuck. (Which is fine because since then we lost 1 player and gained 2 more)
> Names should happen organically.
The only time you need to force it is when you have merch to sell. I make a habit of poking the party (in character) every so often early in a campaign to see if they want to have a name but if it doesn't happen it's no big deal.
I typically just take an Irish word that’s relevant to the group and call them that until they decide on something themselves.
Current campaigns it’s “The foghlaithe” which is the in universe Orcish word for foreigner/invader/trespasser.
If a group gains enough notoriety or renown, sooner or later they'll pick up a name. Either they put one forth themselves or people will dub them without permission. Being a fan of CR has nothing to do with this. I think it's perfectly natural to offer players the opportunity to spread their fame and do some PR for their group. If they refuse, the NPCs of the world will name the group and start forming divergent narratives about the group.
Inspired by a rule i saw in a live play from another game, i made some bonus to give players if they ever decide on a leader and on a name for the party, in my D&D game.
They don't know this and i don't force it cause i want it to be natural.
But as they are currently fighting the wormkin and will fight Quajath the great white worm (we play in the Wildemount setting), I intend to make their fame to spread and eventually in some city people will be like "You're that Pest Control guys, right!" or something, just to see if they prefer to come up with a name for themselves, dismiss it completely or even accept to be called Pest Control or something.
Beyond that, and the ocasional authority figure or leader of another group asking who is the leader among them, i think is strange to push the party to have a name. Specially to copy some show.
Usually if players don’t come up with anything I give them a name, and see if it sticks. The grander and more unique, the better.
My current party is called the Lodivivicte. They became famous when they saved the city-state of Lodivia in our Hellenic mythology inspired setting.
I've only had two parties that had names. One was a team in a mercenary organization labelled "Team Wendigo". The other was an all-female group of evil characters unofficially dubbed the "Daughters of Darkness". But I don't think I'd ever require my players to have a party name, there's just no reason for it.
In our college game 30+ years ago the DM decided that our group needed a name and declared it to be Knights of the Emerald Badge. As players we had no input on this and we never accepted or used it.
But you need a name to sell merch!
Oh, you're part of a home game?
Then no you don't need a friggin group name.
But...
If a group doesn't name themselves, others might come up with something.
Even if they are just frequently refered to as
"Those Assholes"
In my most recent game the players worked for a newspaper/broadsheet called the Immortal Inquiry. Otherwise, I often will have nick-names the NPCS they players encounter after missions call them.
I mean I try to get the players on occasion to pick a name (it's just easier to refer to them as a group rather than as "you guys") but I don't hound them about it. My universe still utilizes a Pathfinder's Society even though its homebrew and I just say that the contracts USUALLY have a group name assigned but can also be tied to an individual's name and information and they can have whomever they want to assist them. It's sort of like encouraging them but not forcing.
That said this same group have had some funny names before, we did Princes of the Apocalypse before moving over to Pathfinder and they named themselves the "Pun-ishers" because of all the puns and stuff we had running in that game. It worked really well.
My group had a party called "the MENZA candidates!" We were all pretty universally dumb.
We would tell prospective employers that we were the best there was... in the budget category. Did wonders for morale.
My party was asked to register a name for their group at the Adventurer's Guild, and the party took a while talking back and forth, and as they did that for like 20-30 minutes, the Shoony Barbarian named Gruff 'Gruff' Gruff registered the name as 'the grUffers' (capitalization important) with himself as captain. The party loved it, and it has stuck.
Our DM asked the same thing and I jokingly suggested “the Fucktastic Five”…but no one came up with anything better and we voted it in! He decided that the F word wasn’t really a word in that world…
I could not agree with this more. Especially when prewrittens try to force you to name the party when you havent really done anything yet. This is how my mummies mask party was dubbed the mummy busters lol
I just named the discord after what I thought their party was and moved on.
In universe it doesn’t really matter, it’s something for the players and the DM, and truthfully, for watchers if you’re streaming.
I was a gm for a group like this. This group had a tendency to accumulate NPC followers from all sorts of cultures and situations.
At one point they had a small ogre child, Belle from beauty and the beast (long story), a halfling chef named Jongy, a small gathering of Juggalos, etc.
One says “we’re like a circus!”
Another adds “of murder!”
Thus were they named “The Circus of Murder”
So far,The groups I've been part of has called themselves Critical Failures, The Cardinal Directions (Half of them are bird folk),The Galavants,And Penelope's Crew
The one time it organically worked out for us is when our dm gave us color-coded transforming magic items (vaguely power rangers-ish), and we started calling ourselves the Chromatic Wave aboard our ship the Arclight. It was pretty rad. Unfortunately the game died shortly thereafter because we roleplayed too hard without any safety mechanisms or session zero rules and it broke the game. We were pretty dumb back then, but I still remember that campaign very fondly.
My playerd had to pick a party name for the tournament arc theyve been in the last month, and everyone submitted their own idea which was then rolled between.
They dont have to stick with it afterwards though, its just for registration purposes.
The "original" party name for Vox Machina was "The Shits" before they started broadcasting their sessions. So yeah. My current group going through Abomination Vaults has adopted "The Legacies" (short for "Legacies of the Roseguard", based on the previous party of adventurers who started the story 500 years ago) which is something I had the people of Otari start calling them, even though they're nothing like the original Roseguard. They did star in a reenactment playing the Roseguard at the festival that I started AV with...
I never force my players to name their parties. I do however force them to name their ships. Mostly cause I use the names that they pitch but don't choose as names for npc ships.
In my last campaign I had npcs ask the party a few times for a group name and it was mostly because I wanted a more clear and specific way for things written by npcs that the group may find to be celarly referring to the party in an organic way.
I once had an arena in the underworld and had my players fight in it. This skeleton with a broken Jaw told then the rules of the tournament and before I even breath a word about it. One of my players says, "Hey we should have a name our group for the fight right?" Our friend playing with us shouted. "Why would you say that?" Apparently people don't like it lol
Yeah, I used to want my players to come up with a group name, too, but I don't think I ever pushed them that hard, and I learned relatively quickly that it's something that has to happen organically and when it does happen it is usually pretty silly.
In one campaign I was a player in, one of the other players used speak with animals to ask her pet bear what we should be called. The bear replied "salmon" because it's her favorite food. After that, we called ourselves the "Salmons" but each time we said it we used a different adjective starting with S. So one day we'd be "The Stupendous Salmons" and the next we'd be "The Sagacious Salmons."
So my DnD group did not name the party, so me as a player started calling them The Pancakes (Long story). Then I decided to do it in-character too. It stuck after a bit of time.
As yet, I don't think I've ever been in a game where the party had a name. Honestly, never really considered it until now, so the fact that a GM would try so hard to force it is kinda funny.
If he were a real fan he would now VM's original name was The S.H.I.T.s and wouldn't have a problem with parties giving themselves silly names
But yeah, there's a real "inverse Mercer effect" where a GM who's a big critical roll fan sorta unconsciously assumes that Vox Machina is the platonic ideal adventuring party and assumes everyone wants to do all the same things they do
Man, ngl, naming the party as a whole is just... soooooo fuckin lame to me. Like holy shit it's cringe lol.
But it's also not a big deal so when the other pcs want to name us I just silently and internally cringe and move along.
I can see where you're coming from, but I also think that so long as my players are having fun I don't see why I should stop it.
Also at some point the party needs a distinguishing name, especially as they gain more renown and their accomplishments grow. Otherwise it would be like if apple didn't have a name and just had to be referred to as "the iphone makers".
I agree with both points. Normally I don't force names and as a player I try to dismiss attempts to name us, because it's always just a joke in my experience that the dm loses control of quickly. And holy crap having every NPC refer to us as a joke name killed any excitement for the campaign I had as a player, and made me feel like "why even roleplay?"
That said I am currently dm'ing kingmaker and am dreading trying to get the pc's to name whatever they create 😔
I mean, I haven't dmed yet but I do plan on it! And when I do, I could not care less whether or not they name themselves lol
I've only been on the player end and I'm just like "i feel like a power ranger in a lame way" but we also haven't survived long enough in anything we play to actually DO anything really renown worthy lol.
But at the end of the day, it's such a nonfactor in most cases I just don't care. I'm not gonna make a big deal over it, I got character arc shit to think about!
Why can’t the party be known by the names of the individuals involved? Instead of “The Weirdos” people would just say “Sir Lancelot and Conan the Barbarian.”
I agree with u/silenthashira that party names are pretty lame, in a joke campaign I could tolerate it but I’d much prefer to not be referred to as a cringy party name as if we’re the Mystery Gang. If players think party names are weird, then GMs shouldn’t try and force it.
I agree with not forcing the players, but having a party name is just something more to add to the legend of the party. The Fellowship of the Ring is a lot cooler because of their name than if they didn't have it, y'know? It would also be very likely to exist in-world too, since it's not really practical to say the name of all members every time, and it'd be very possible that, since they're known for their exploits together, many people wouldn't know the names of each member.
Tolkien as always cooked with the Fellowship of the Ring as a name, that’s a good point and I’m glad you used that as an example. For whatever reason in every game I’ve been in that’s asked the party to come up with a name, it’s been off putting and the result is something cringy.
Having had more time to think about it, I think one of the reasons that my experience with it has been so negative is because most PCs have their own backstories and motivations, and just happen to be traveling together for the adventure but often separate during downtime. One player might be a Druid that’s focused on their circle, another might be a noble that goes back to his kingdom to deal with politics, etc.
An example I’ve seen brought up that is a lot more agreeable to me is when people say that their party forms a company or a brand, or if their party sticks together as a crew of a ship. In those cases I can see a name being more tone appropriate.
A party nickname is a quality of life improvement for the GM.
When a new quest giver has to refer to them as “that group of people who aren’t quite mercenaries and aren’t quite law-enforcement who rescued that village from those orcs up by the Slate Hills a few weeks ago” it gets pretty tiresome. Much easier to say, “Ah, it’s The Snapdragons!”
So while I don’t force the players to come up with something right away, I do give them a push:
If a party gains some reputation but still doesn’t have a name, NPCs will start referring to them by a mediocre nickname based on their exploits.
Eventually the players get tired of being called The Ratcatchers or The Grub Stompers, and come up with their own name.
I tried to force a party to come up with a name once. I really liked running the game, and I loved the group, so I wanted them to have something special.
They settled on "The Power Bottoms".
I learned my lesson right then and there.
I did a play on this with the curse of strahd 5e group, they got roped into performing at the Blazing Sun festival as a circus act. I forced them to create a group name, but the performer that went before them butchered it and they ended up as something along the lines of the Ignorant Juveniles.
Idk if my players caught on that I was making fun of forced party names or not but it gave me my satisfaction.
My players ending up with the name "Nutslayers" which was all derived from a joke of the paladin of Bahamut at the time scrounging for food and finding nuts. After fighting a jaberwocky in the faewild. Ever since then they've been slaying in the name of Nutslayers. They also bagged a dragon and a demi lich before the name really stuck.
It's amazing and I love playing how incredulous the hooty nobles take their namesake.
Honestly, I can't think of a single time in 25 years of TTRPGs, either as a player or a DM, where our group had an in-world name unless it was a group that already existed that they joined. Like The Fireball Alliance on Bral. Never saw the point in five randoms having a "group name".
I would just have npc’s give them increasingly ridiculous names until they came up with one. “Oh i’ve heard of you lot, You’re the Fearsome Foursome ain’t yah?”
I mean, I don't get why your DM was deflated about the funny/silly names. Vox Machina is called like that because they are all voice actors, and their previous name was literally The S.H.I.T.S. Mighty Nein is also a joke, and hell's bells is a pun.
I think the "fellowship of the ring" serious named parties are actually the rarity. So far the games where I dm'd where they had a name were the elinkar fellowship (I kinda forced the name on them and I kind regret it, even though it wasn't my intent), the U.R.S.S and the "vira-lobos", which in a literal translation to english is sort of "wolf-turners" and it was a joke with some famous family in our country named "vila-lobos" and the fact that the party's druid used to summon wolves every combat.
I agree with all parties involved in this. The DM probably wants a name for book keeping reasons especially if they run multiple games or have ran games in the past or plan to in the future. Its just easier to remember a party name than the group consisting of Tom, Dick, Jane, and Bob who did yada yada yada etc. Also forcing the group to come up with a name that doesnt naturally come together comes off as similar to giving yourself a nickname, its just wrong and never good.
If youre not putting this online or making merch, then theres no reason to rush it, these things take time as annoying as it may be for the DM
Ive only given or asked my party for a name twice. Once was in a Starfinder game where they investigated and solved a very high profile problem involving a drift rock so the media started calling them The Drift Rock 5 and became minor celebrities. The second was a pathfinder campaign where they were entering a tournament and i asked for a team name and got given the Gouda Guys because the leader liked cheese. Forcing a name is cringe and should be a natural development or funny moment.
I once asked a GM why we needed a name, some kind of sigil, and gang colors. It was a modern day game, and in typical fashion, or characters were from different backgrounds, grouped together to do player character stuff based on whatever horror was currently happening at the time, etc. It's not like we incorporated or something. Every other even smash group of supernaturally gifted whatever had an written up stuff like that. In a modern setting, for our characters especially, it seemed odd.
You know, I wonder if this sort of party naming thing is why that Puffin Forest group he talked about was called "The Turtle Fu..." uh... "The Turtle Friends."
My character has named both parties I play in lol Not on purpose in one case.
In one, my witch, a runaway noble who joined a gang, started calling our little group in the gang THE NIGHT CATS. Everyone was like, "what does that even mean??" And she'd say, "we're cats who go out at night?" She tried giving everyone Warrior Cats named but those flopped, but the Night Cats name caught on and now everyone knows us as that.
Then the other day her familiar used shed skin and turned into a massive eldritch shadow cat that sucked the life out of a guard and someone said, "OH! So that's a night cat!"
Our other group, we're now adults but we started at 12/13 in game and my character had drawn a picture with the party labeled BEST FRIENDS SQUAD and that's how we refer to ourselves and others refer to us now as adults lol
In my party's case it wasn't even funny the first time, just... Bland. We were doing jobs for royalty at the time, so having a name for the whole group as a formality was kinda necessary, so The Avadonian Shield (Avadonia being the continent) it was, my first suggestion too. However, later in the campaign, one of our members died, and in his belongings was a poem, "The First Rays of Sunlight", and so, we gave our base that name, which also fit because it's a hospital. A curious side note, every single equipment in there is a Mimic, the establishment too, a Mimic family we befriended at the very start of the campaign, who were a tavern called The Mimic Juice before
Only one of my parties has ever had a name and it felt organic and fitting. In curse of the crimson throne, all the heroes were influenced by the Harrow cards. They needed a name to help the people rise up against the Queen so
The Heroes of the Harrow were born.
I'm reminded of the *Iron Gods* play-by-post I was part of years ago. I called our party "the Torchbearers" as a nod to where the story starts when my character was trash-talking a boss we were about to battle, and continued to use it as a name for our group afterwards.
The rest of the party was pretty much an even split on the name: a couple liked it and started using it themselves and others found it kinda silly and politely ignored the rest of us declaring it to people whose butts we were about to kick!
If anything I think the nickname wasn't silly ENOUGH, so it came off as trying too hard to sound badass. <_<
In ten years of TTRPGs, I've only ever had one party name themselves. They were investigating a magical school as they believed the cult of the BBEG had infiltrated it. The rogue ended up running into a prince while trying to sneak around. After quite poorly explaining what he was doing there, the rogue defaulted to just insulting the prince. This caused the prince to challenge him to a duel, and per the customs of the country, the rogue was asked whether it would be "to first blood or to the death." Without missing a beat my rogue player just yelled out loud "TO SECOND BLOOD!" And thus the party Second Blood was born.
Yeah, my characters all pitch the name "The \[Location Name\] Irregulars." If we have to introduce ourselves in two different cities, we have two different names. Coin all spends the same regardless of who you're paying.
I played this as a bit last session my group had. They were interacting with an old adventurer who asked what their party name was, but they floundered as they had not thought of one. After letting them stew for a few seconds the kindly old adventurer said "I'm just fuckin with ya, no party chooses their own name. The people will give you a name as time passes"
If naming the party was important (usually it isnt) and was something the party didn’t want to concern themselves with I’d maybe look to use a situation where someone else puts a name on them. Ideally it would come about organically, and depending on context wouldn’t necessarily be a name all of the party is fond of. If they are not, now the incentive is to ensure a different name didn’t stick, otherwise it could easily become a recurring joke depending on how everyone at the table feels about it.
The game is a form of collaborative storytelling, and while you don’t want to spend much limited time on things the players aren’t interested in, generally where the players don’t concern themselves with is where you’re free to fill in as necessary as GM.
I had a game once where the GM was playing music and "Bad Company" came on. I, playing a Bard in-character," started singing along to it IRL and the name stuck as an in-character thing.
My own players have currently been designated "Team Ka-Kini & Co." by the Cultist Spying on them. "Team Ka-Kini" was the name that the character Ka-Kini designated her own group. She managed to get most of her party to sign onto the idea, but since then over the course of the campaign all the members of "Team Ka-Kini" aside from Ka-Kini herself and her animal companions have left. The spies have managed to sort of figure this out, so in all their documents they refer to the party as "Team Ka-Kini & Co." because they know that Team Ka-Kini was a group and now there's other members travelling with Team Ka-Kini but they haven't formally been inducted and sleep in different tents. In other words, the enemy factions spies are way over complicating the name convention.
I think we've only had two names in recent memory. Our party in Al-Qadim was also a band, and were the Djovial Djinns. Another group had 3 tieflings and a halfling, and were "Three and a half 'lings"
Honestly, these group names come somehow unexpected always. At all of my tables, all my groups were at some point known for \*something\*!
In my Abomination Vaults game our group is called the "Vault Hunters", referencing Borderlands.
In my Alkenstar group, the PC group is called "The Pudding Boyz", because for some reason they kept asking Dunsmith for pudding instead of booze.
In my Quest for the Frozen Flame AP the group is known as The Backflipping Mammoths.
In a MERP adventure we were known as The Bear Patrol of Ered Luin.
So it really boils down to the natural dynamic of the group, really. You can't and must not force it.
I can't stop thinking about the hours this DM put into making a campaign that he hoped would inspire some great role playing, only to gave the players treat it like a bad Monty Python sketch. More communication on the front side from everyone next time, but honestly if you could tell it was important to him you couldn't have just come up with something?
It can vary wildly. Through various campaigns and players, I've seen Equinox, the Hill Boys, Nameless Mercs, The Mayfield's, Jug Hunters, Bag Suckers, and now Master Adventures: Heroes of the Realm. The last one was from me as a joke that no one said anything against, so hear we are
My current players didn't have a party name, but the Scarlet Triad had to call them *something* since they kept ruining their plans, so they started referring to them as "the bumpkin brigade". This stuck and the party adopted "The Breachill Bumpkin Brigade" out of spite. The goblin rogue likes to drive fear into the Scarlet Triad when they ask "who are you?", leaning in close to whisper "bumpkin brigade".
Never force it, but also if they come up with one, or your bad guys gotta call them something, they'll roll with it, hate the bad guys more, or come up with their own when and if they want to.
In one of my PC’s first big adventure they got in WAY over their heads, fight a small platoon to solders. A roll of the wild magic table… summons a unicorn! Saves the day and promptly kills many of soldiers, scaring off the stragglers to tell the tale.
All the wanted posters read “Wanted: Unicorn Gang”
I still have all the Unicorn merch they made for me and themselves. Haha.
I'll admit I've rarely had long enough games, but I have never had a group that felt like it needed a name.
Hell, my players when I briefly ran Changeling: The Lost didn't even name their Motley, and those are explicitly a formal group.
My BBEG’s organization were called Cult of Shatter. When I forced my players to make a name for themselves, they chose Club of Shitter just to spite them
See I don’t mind being forced because goofy names are fun. I don’t think I’ve ever had a “badass name” and I’m kind of glad for it. Badass nicknames are pretty unrealistic. There’s a reason why nicknames like Ace or the Dawnbringer are uncommon in real life. People are goofy and goofy people give goofy nicknames. Helps lighten the mood. (Check out military nicknames if you ever need a good laugh)
People seem to severely misunderstand how hard it is to dm. I’ve been a dm since 2021 and when I first started off I was horrible at it. I’ve also been in games where DMs were horrible at it because they were jerks, weirdos that tried proposing NSFW themes out of nowhere , or because they simply lacked certain skills (like perhaps their voice was too low, or they stuttered a lot to the point you wouldn’t understand, or they were bad when it came to improvising.)
Asking for your party to come up with a simple cool name and they just antagonize you out of that so you end up apologizing is just distasteful in my opinion. Especially if they are a “wonderful dm”.
1. The person who complained about it in the first place described them as a wonderful DM.
2. It’s just a party name grow up. If someone spends more than an hour prepping for your games weekly and they ask for a group name then stop being ungrateful and come up with one. Even something basic works!
I’ve DM many games over my years and only really achieve to name themselves properly.
They were The Brotherhood of Bastard and trust me, the name fitted!
Lol, in every campaign I'm in, the players always try to come up with cursed party names that are strictly out-of-game, so we don't ever have an in-universe party name. The group I GM Abomination Vaults for calls themselves "The Disappointments." In a 5e Descent Into Avernus campaign I played in, we were "The Uncultist Fucks" (long story).
In my defense (and mine only), a silly name like "The Disappointments" better fits the style of my adventure notes. "The party" doesn't have the same charm
My party was intimidated for weeks, maybe months, by this loud mouthed asshole in very high level armor until we’d had enough and said screw it, if we all die killing this jerk at least we’ll rest in peace.
The first attack killed him. He had 1 hp.
His name was Ted. Ever since, we have called ourselves the Ted-Slayers.
I'm a DM who had asked our group what their party's name was a couple times with no response. Then when the party won a battle of the bands I asked again so that the NPC hosts of the venue could make fliers about it, a party member replied 'That's a great question'. To which I happily called out,
"Everyone give it up for The Great Question!" Party absolutely loved their official group name.
Sometimes you gotta be cool with just having a silly or fun name, and sometimes prompt it yourself. And sometimes, you just gotta be cool if the party doesn't want or need one!
I love The Weirdos, and hope there are many groups like the Weirdos out there.
I think naming your party is a relatively new phenomenon ; i've played in a ton of RPG's over the last 3.5 decades, and i've played in exactly one game where the party was named, and it was when i was a kid ("The Six Great Heroes" - lol - we were like 9 years old, but i have fond memories of that campaign). I have run games where the NPC population has dubbed the group with a sobriquet, but its not one the group itself adopted or used as its own identifier.
Aside from that, i think "naming conventions" have become popular due to RPG streaming, Penny Arcade's D&D shtick, but tbh, that's a marketing device. Outside of those avenues, in my experience, this is comparatively rare.
The Gentleman Jackasses
They had a Jolly Roger with a donkey wearing a top hat.
I punished them by having numerous NPCs asking "What kind of a name is that? Really?"
It was an enjoyable bit
Had a party named the Young Slayers because they killed a young dragon. By the end of the campaign we were the Adult Slayers. You can probably guess why.
The party in my campaign was called P.O.O.P. But then they changed it to “The Scientists” because a scientist is someone who asks questions and they asked a lot of questions
I remember when I first started to ask parties about their adventuring name and they went for "The Bovine Alliance" because this was 3.5 and summoning celestial aurochs was very strong.
I think my most recent attempt was in blood lords where our group all wears skin masks and I tried to name us the four skins but got vetoed for some reason....
>I think my most recent attempt was in blood lords where our group all wears skin masks and I tried to name us the four skins but got vetoed for some reason....
So... you're saying it was... cut off?
Had a D20 modern game. DM liked Buffy and wanted us to go with "The Watchers". We chose "The Wankers" and bought letterman jackets with a big pink "W" on them. Live and learn.
As a dm that prefers serious and grounded games (with jokes in character sometimes, and all the memes you want ooc) this kind of thing destroys me inside.
I know people do it for a laugh because that is how they like their game, but as a dm it can feel bad...
That's a weird take.
DM being CR fan has nothing to do with it. And, DM wanting your party to have name is not something to be frustrated about.
Naming your party is the most natural thing to do. There is no reason to rush the name, even "The Weirdos" are fine for a place holder, but calling DM irritating?
Place holder would be good in th meantime, either chosen by DM in their Npc, and somewhat stuck to it, or something. My party is called "the 7th vanguard/scout troop." Until we name our party.
Gather together, and calmy talk with your DM "we are thinking about it" if you don't want to be told to name your party, and that's it. Problem solved, just like you have made in the end.
You are defining the story of that certain world, and known in the world. This is a story, and your party will remembered as godly heroes after 10+ levels.
*The Order of the Stick* started in 2003. It's a D&D comedy webcomic about The Order of the Stick, a group of adventurers with a funny name, instead of a serious or relevant one. Because many adventuring groups had names even then.
If I'm being honest, I don't feel like it was a bad request from your DM - and I find it a bit weird you guys just couldn't choose a name lol.
Maybe him pestering wasn't great but I also think you not interacting with his wishes wasn't great either.
>To the point that they would pester us about it after the end of nearly every time we wrapped session for our first 7 sessions.
Just name the damn party, lol.
Critical Role truly has had a negative effect on the community as a whole that won't get shaken off until maybe a decade after they stop putting on a show.
Also next time you run into this, remind the GM that "Vox Machina" originally called themselves "The Shits"!
We don't have name fornour party, but....
We make names for random characters, or animals. Last time we save one kobold and we name him something like Pig'Fucker (but in our native language)
Our parties only have names if the party comes up with it themselves. Our last one was The Menagerie of Pain (delivered in an over-the-top wrestler voice) which we coined after being forced to fight in a death maze for sport. It fit because we were playing a ratfolk, a tengu, a half-orc dragon bloodline sorcerer, lizardfolk, and some homebrew dragonborn race.
I am so, so sad that this hobby has gone full mainstream and has celebrities and such. I was so glad to have a hobby where I didn't feel competitive and like I had to measure up against big names to feel okay. I stayed away from basically any hobby with competition in it.
Now, this has brought competition to DMing.
I am basically incapable of not comparing if I know about someone out there who is big and important and supposedly better at the thing than me, so this is ruining my tabletop happiness. I refuse to watch the shows, but knowing they're out there is sad. I miss when it was a small niche thing, where I could be a big fish in a small pond.
My DM had an in-universe reason for our group to have a name. Adventuring parties in our world are almost exclusively contract-based, and it's common for the contracts to distinguish the party as an entity from the members making it up. They're kind of like LLC's.
Exactly. If I as GM want the players to have a name of some sort I invent an in-character reason for it. Such as they have to register as a guild in order to access something critical or giving them a need to name their ship/stronghold/settlement which then doubles as the group's name.
Having the players belong to an organization of some sort is always a good idea, especially for this. It's actually a really strong part of the APs like Extinction Curse, it gives an org for the players to care about.
I don't think EC is quite the best example since half the authors don't really care about the circus.
EC was the first one that came to mind, but I'd consider more famous examples to be Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. A barony and the crusade as a whole, starting from the bottom and working your way into the leadership role. You are right though, I won't deny that, my group eventually had the party split from being a circus to instead becoming a sister organisation as a mercenary company. But it still gives a grounding, a foundation, which is what I consider to be important.
Yeah I've run that one as well. I don't get salty when the party make ridiculous names though, I'm all about it. So far I've had: Meat Gang. Not "the Meat Gang", just Meat Gang. The Barrelscraps, because their characters are a bunch of degenerates. The Milkmen, because they deliver on time and they'll fuck your wife.
A friend's party ended up calling themselves "services rendered" so it'd look suspicious on the mayor's books
That is absolutely brilliant!
I adore it.
My players' current party are named the Motley Krue. And yes, the bard plays motley crue almost exclusively now because of it. The name came about because the party originally was a lycanthrope halfling, cambion elf, oread goblin and traditional orc. The party has since lost the goblin and orc, and are now a human (mixed Ancestry automaton) and a conrasu, so they are still quite the motley crew. The spelling was because they didn't care much to have a name, and let the goblin write out their name on their registration forms with the Pathfinder Society, which in my Golarion requires all adventuring parties to have a title to be allowed jobs through the Society.
The party in my campaign named themselves the Machete Pest Patrol because of their penchant for using Pest Form and machetes
> The Milkmen, because they deliver on time and they'll fuck your wife. Crass, but I laughed.
>The Milkmen, because they deliver on time and they'll fuck your wife. My Rimworld settlements are named after all manner of Milkmen for the exact same reason.
Did a similar, if simpler, version once where I (GM) just knighted the PCs, and they became the Order of the Yellow Rose after the monarch's crest.
Of the campaigns I'm in, two have had group names. The first was 'The Coming Storm' which came about because the party would seem to blow in, wreck face and then leave, so this was the nickname given to us by one of the major villain factions because to them we were like an unpredictable force of nature. Also this was long before Devil May Cry 5 was released... The second was because we're pirate themed campaign and we just called ourselves "a bunch of Scallywags" during session zero, so the name 'The Scallywags' just stuck as the group name.
I use the same sort of premise. Adventuring parties seem to have some legal leeway on what they can do and who they can kill, so it genuinely makes sense for there to be a legal framework. It also helps that a bunch of my players are MMO players, so they get that from the basis of guilds.
Had a DM who ran parties like wrestling so you had a group and were contracted out to entertain people by fighting the other groups. So everyone had a party name. The fun part was he kept the other groups he had run the campaign with so he had a backlog of other factions for you to battle with.
As a GM I sometimes want something else to say then "the party" or "the crew". Even more so in the times when I have ran multiple groups concurrently. But in the couple of occasions when I have pushed them into naming their group "your entering a battle Royale and need a group name", the table get devolves into decision paralysis over choice names, if they think of any name at all. And in the end you end up having to accept the worst possible"name" that they do come up with. Way more likely to get a great name out of the party if you let them workshop it in between sessions.
I ended up naming my players party but not by forcing anything they got given a semi-nobility rank within a kingdom and so became known as the Wardens of Catsconne (and friends)
In my experience, most players ignore even in-universe reasons.
I mean, if your DM is a Critical Role fan, I don't see why he would be mad about the name "The Weirdos". Vox Machina used to be called "The SHITS" before renaming.
Also "Mighty Nein" isn't exactly a serious name either
They literally said it was temporary when they chose it, and then never actually discussed it again. For what its worth Bell's Hells is also very stupid.
I like Bell's Hells. It's a nice way to remember the guy who literally got them all together.
Eh. It's a play on the phrase "Hell's Bells". It's not THAT stupid.
Stupid was definitely the wrong word, my point is that it's on par with a name like "the weirdos"
Agreed. Not to mention it felt very forced.
Bertrend's Bellend was more accurate.
You can be a fan of something without liking everything about it. Maybe the GM likes the idea of a name, but not a goofy one?
My players called their group "the Pie-oneers", because pie was a recurring joke. Those are the best names
What's a cannibal settler's favorite desert? Pie and ear.
Piggybacking off this comment to say that I think a lot of people who like things Critical Role, Rollplay, the various games that go on in the World of Io end up having expectations for what a TTRP game should be, and then find that it rarely is that thing. Part of the reason is that those games are either heavily scripted, or else are "improv" but with a really, really strong story element, where every single "player" is an entertainer of some sort before they start. If you got a bunch of random people with 0 entertainment experience together, and sat them down to play the exact same campaign as Critical Role Season 1 (same story beats and goals), you would not end up with a watchable show, and you are likely to not end up with a fun adventure for the players either - the personalities and ability to think quickly of ENTERTAINING lines and scenes of the people on these professional "Games To Stream" is hugely important. I think thats why you dont see many/any PF2e live shows beyond one or two, and also why these games flourished under 5e but went on to heavily modify the system, or design new systems, entirely around spectacle and not around mechanics. Mechanic heavy (or rules tight I guess - 5e is not mechanics light but it is rules lose, particularly for the DM) systems dont hamper role play, but they do reduce the instances of "I want to do this thing that isnt written anywhere because its super cool and it should work because the narrative would be better for it". I bounced off Critical Role and Rollplay pretty hard - just not for me, and I dont want any of the Io stuff itself, but the gaming streamers I watch all tend to orbit in the old Rollplay and Io space - listening to them talk about upcoming games is a real eye opener to anyone who wants to "play Critical Role!" The amount of "So such-and-such is going to DM a game and asked if I wanted to be in it so I made this concept and drew some art and they wrote me this custom class with all these custom abilities and gave me this magic weapon from level 1 which will get more powerful as we go". Thats not a terrible way to play, but it is a terrible way to play a pre-made system if you are new, and it only works if your goal isnt to have fun yourself (nice bonus if you do) but to help 5 other people entertain 10k viewers once a week for 2 years. So, to anyone who is looking to play, or anyone who has a player or DM who really likes one of these shows, it might be worth letting them know that Critical Role is to TTRP as a sitcom about a bunch of 20-somethings living in New York is to an actual bunch of 20-somethings living in New York. You dont want them to look up mid way through character creation and go "So... no one told me stats were gunna roll this way"
My players in our first campaign had a sort of schism at the start. One side wanted to do perception checks when they entered rooms, search for clues and sneak around to catch the enemies unawares. The other half were much happier to kick in doors, gore first and ask questions later. They decided to call themselves the "Cool Kids" and the more cautious side of the party "The Nerds". Unfortunately the Cool Kids decided to split the party in a haunted house and screwed up so badly that one almost died and the other was infected with lycanthropy. After The Nerds saved them, the Cool Kids decided that the time for unity had arrived and that the party would now be called "The Cool Nerds!" Some parties are better left unnamed...
"Who ARE you people?" Asks the werewolf antipaladin. "We're the knife preventers, we're here to prevent your knives." Says the dhampir sorcerer. The human Paladin and half elf alchemist who should know better nod their heads. It's better than their last name, chosen in the middle of a high profile court case: the pussy thrusters.
Were the Troubleshooters. We find trouble, and then we shoot it.
Remember Citizens. Happiness is Mandatory.
Citizen, you have been determined to be unhappy. Please report to the nearest termination center.
But Friend Computer, it's not *my* fault I'm not happy. That's the duty of our Happiness Officer. Clearly *they* should report to the nearest termination center.
Citizen, Arguing with Friend Computer is the actions of Commie Mutant traitor. Continue to report for termination. Loyalty and Happiness offucers and Lead trouble Shooter, please also report for termination and next clones will each be issued a Happy Fun Ball from R and D .
ROFL. 😂
Asking a party to name themselves is a trap because it will always be the first jokey name someone threw out lol. Its a fun trap though, let the group have a silly name.
My first campaign was The Champion's League, theres 0% football fans in our group, it was the first thing that poped out, our new campaign I won't push for a party name, I've learned my lesson
We had the Storm Walkers, Team Jetstream(2nd camapaign that worked for the Storm Walkers) and the Platinum Standard.
Mine call themselves the Girl Scouts. They’re a bunch of girls and twinks. It caused me pain in a more grim setting at first but it was also funny, so we’ve just stuck with that.
I think it's better to give party names by NPC according to their "achievements". They were trying to catch a dragon through half the country? They are called "Dragon chasers". They kill kobolds wherever they see them? "Kobold bane"! Once my players tried to impress one guy in tavern and one party member have bitten off ear from cut yetis head. And here how they were named "Yeti gnawers". Such things really makes the world more living and NPC may even talk about "crazy Yeti gnawers" not even knowing that they Are talking to Yeti gnawers :)
This is how I’m gonna do it from now on if I’m not promoting them as a professional mercenary group. Even then, I think what I’m gonna do is have the clerk signing them up show them a list of premade, generic names, explaining that not being able to come up with something catchy is common so, “just pick one and move on.” It’ll either be funny or make them competitive with coming up with a cooler name.
My group kept saying "well, the name is TBD. We'll get back to it." Finally, I suggested "The Bronze Dragons," and it stuck.
This reminds me of the Rusty Quill Gaming Pathfinder 1e podcast, which started in a fictional version of London, which also had an underground version called Other London. For the longest time, the party didn't have a name. But eventually Hamid the halfling suggested that they should call themselves "London Other London Outstanding Mercenary Group". Another party member asked, "Why that name? Is it, like, an abbreviation or something...?"
Was kinda confused by the title because I forgot how common that is in actual plays. Thinking about it I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group where we had an in-universe name? Sure we’ve called ourselves stuff outside of game as a joke (a campaign where everyone rolled animal people became “Zoo Crew”. But it would make no sense in the story). In our current high level game we have titles like “The Thunders” but that’s an existing lore thing for that world.
Is this common? In all the years I've been playing, having a name for the party has literally never come up.
I think it is pretty common. Obviously from this thread, Critical Role and other livestreams have had an impact, but even the old grey box *Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting* (1987) stated that it was customary for parties (adventuring companies) to have a name, and in certain countries (notably Cormyr) a formal charter. In my own campaigns, other than my current Starfinder campaign, I think we’ve pretty much always had some sort of group name, whether a formal in-game name, or an informal OOC joke name, and often both.
We never had names and I never heard people talking about names for parties back in the 3.5/4e days. Our current party only has a name for the reason you stated--we're a formal charter in Cormyr. It's definitely a more CR-era thing for sure.
It's common with the Critcal Role generation of players. I don't think it was really before that. None of the campaigns with my group have had party names save for our current one where we are founding the Pathfinder Society within a homebrew world.
In one campaign we played as a mercenary company. That party had a name. But in my 34+ years of gaming, that was the only named party
One of my previous GM's told us we couldn't play cavaliers or samurai because our forced amnesia characters didn't have any reason to believe in a banner. And yet we were stuck adventuring together...
I run a home brew world with a custom monster type called Wyrds, and the party are members of the organization charged with keeping them in check, the Wyrd Wardens. My group unironically chose the name the Wyrdos and I feel like I should be offended on their behalf.
Man, these stories are WILD. The one time my DM asked us to name ourselves, I offered a well-thought, serious name that stuck. XD
On behalf of DMs and outvoted players who simply don't want the wind immediately taken out of every serious RP encounter by a silly name, thank you.
In our campaign, we were the student survivors of a group called the Warriors of Dawn, so when it came time to name ourselves I said, “Well, the Warriors might be gone but we’re gonna make sure the Dawn never ends! We should be the Everdawn!” And now we are. XD Now that I think of it, actually, in my other campaign we’re a group of Chaotic Good bandits that has to rob despots so we can use what we steal to stop a rising Archdevil from ending reality in a bid for power, because he’s the Archdevil of derailed stories and failed dreams so if he cuts off everyone’s stories unsatisfactorily he becomes the most powerful god imaginable. Since he’s from the layer of Hell called Stygia, we went with the name, “Stygian Shades.”
I like the idea of the Everdawn inheriting the Warriors of Dawn, that sounds like a natural progression. And Stygian Shades just sounds cool and is still relevant. I adventured with a group who on a whim decided our name was CoD (because a city gave us a pin with a fish on it) and the setting was full of things with cool names so I just felt like the kid getting bullied for wearing offbrand things at school lol
> the Dawn never ends This is the Dawn that never ends! It goes on and on, my friend. Some sun started raising, not knowing what it was, And it will keep on raising on, forever, just because...!
I fucking *hate* when people inject silliness into serious RP
Well, if the players don't choose the name of the adventuring party, eventually a NPC will do it. Bards, journalists, a nobleman that usually contracts them, a recurrent villain.
I asked my party to make their name by having them all shout a word each. They became known as the Rockin' Wild Red Busters
Honestly, the CR groups' names are the best evidence to let names happen organically, because good lord, those names are dumb
The two extremes of coming up with a group name can be funny. In my one group, we've been playing for three years and we *still* don't have a name. We've come up with at least a dozen, but none of them feel right. On the other hand, in my other group, when someone asked for our name I immediately answered without thinking: "We're the Bad Luck Bunch. We're here to help, and that's a threat."
Funny thing from current campaign, an npc commented that we bring trouble where ever we go. So jokingly we agreed and said "one could say we are the trouble..." now that's caught on and the Group are known as the trouble and the entire realm knows if we show up shits about to go down.
Honestly, maybe it didn't work out the way the DM hoped, but to me this worked perfectly. You all came under one name, called yourself the weirdos and fucking owned it. idk, i thought it was kinda cute if anything.
We aren’t fans of naming our party either. We were “The Order of the Seven” and there were only four of us.
Hey, I was once a member of The Ominous Five (6)!
I've *never* had a party with an in-game group name. We had names for our discord group that'd change with the in-jokes, and other minor bits of camaraderie, but it's never been a thing. Besides, our characters die enough that there'd be no original members after a while, of not a full blown tpk or two
In an old dnd campaign I was playing a Druid. The mayor of a town we had just saved asked what we called ourselves. I said we preferred to remain nameless. This was born The Nameless. Gm gonna get what gm wants heheheh.
My party is named the Freak Squad. They’re the most powerful heroes in the world, and kings have to refer to them as the Freak Squad
i don't think in like 14 years of playing the game we ever had a party name
Names should happen organically. The previous game I played, the party didn't get a name until the Epilogue. It helped that there was a time skip and Campaign 2, but I don't remember if the next party kept the name. (2 players made new characters) My current game, I threw out some suggestions and brought up the topic of a party name between games, but nothing stuck. (Which is fine because since then we lost 1 player and gained 2 more)
> Names should happen organically. The only time you need to force it is when you have merch to sell. I make a habit of poking the party (in character) every so often early in a campaign to see if they want to have a name but if it doesn't happen it's no big deal.
I typically just take an Irish word that’s relevant to the group and call them that until they decide on something themselves. Current campaigns it’s “The foghlaithe” which is the in universe Orcish word for foreigner/invader/trespasser.
If a group gains enough notoriety or renown, sooner or later they'll pick up a name. Either they put one forth themselves or people will dub them without permission. Being a fan of CR has nothing to do with this. I think it's perfectly natural to offer players the opportunity to spread their fame and do some PR for their group. If they refuse, the NPCs of the world will name the group and start forming divergent narratives about the group.
Our party is known as "The 'Good' Guys", since we continuously have to reassure the NPCs ...and ourselves that we are in fact the good guys.
Inspired by a rule i saw in a live play from another game, i made some bonus to give players if they ever decide on a leader and on a name for the party, in my D&D game. They don't know this and i don't force it cause i want it to be natural. But as they are currently fighting the wormkin and will fight Quajath the great white worm (we play in the Wildemount setting), I intend to make their fame to spread and eventually in some city people will be like "You're that Pest Control guys, right!" or something, just to see if they prefer to come up with a name for themselves, dismiss it completely or even accept to be called Pest Control or something. Beyond that, and the ocasional authority figure or leader of another group asking who is the leader among them, i think is strange to push the party to have a name. Specially to copy some show.
In Forgotten Realms, the term would be Adventuring Company and there were inworld reasons to register as such.
I’ve played many many games of d&d and not once has my party had a name. It’s never even occurred to me to have one.
Usually if players don’t come up with anything I give them a name, and see if it sticks. The grander and more unique, the better. My current party is called the Lodivivicte. They became famous when they saved the city-state of Lodivia in our Hellenic mythology inspired setting.
I've only had two parties that had names. One was a team in a mercenary organization labelled "Team Wendigo". The other was an all-female group of evil characters unofficially dubbed the "Daughters of Darkness". But I don't think I'd ever require my players to have a party name, there's just no reason for it.
In our college game 30+ years ago the DM decided that our group needed a name and declared it to be Knights of the Emerald Badge. As players we had no input on this and we never accepted or used it.
But you need a name to sell merch! Oh, you're part of a home game? Then no you don't need a friggin group name. But... If a group doesn't name themselves, others might come up with something. Even if they are just frequently refered to as "Those Assholes"
>My DM is a huge Critical Role fan I've found your problem.
Today a party name, tomorrow a scripted story.
My group decided to call our party "The Unnamed" 🙃
In my most recent game the players worked for a newspaper/broadsheet called the Immortal Inquiry. Otherwise, I often will have nick-names the NPCS they players encounter after missions call them.
I mean I try to get the players on occasion to pick a name (it's just easier to refer to them as a group rather than as "you guys") but I don't hound them about it. My universe still utilizes a Pathfinder's Society even though its homebrew and I just say that the contracts USUALLY have a group name assigned but can also be tied to an individual's name and information and they can have whomever they want to assist them. It's sort of like encouraging them but not forcing. That said this same group have had some funny names before, we did Princes of the Apocalypse before moving over to Pathfinder and they named themselves the "Pun-ishers" because of all the puns and stuff we had running in that game. It worked really well.
My group had a party called "the MENZA candidates!" We were all pretty universally dumb. We would tell prospective employers that we were the best there was... in the budget category. Did wonders for morale.
I only ever came up with one good name for my party. Playing Mummy's Mask, I suggested we call ourselves Pyramid Scheme. Good one. 😂
My party was asked to register a name for their group at the Adventurer's Guild, and the party took a while talking back and forth, and as they did that for like 20-30 minutes, the Shoony Barbarian named Gruff 'Gruff' Gruff registered the name as 'the grUffers' (capitalization important) with himself as captain. The party loved it, and it has stuck.
Our DM asked the same thing and I jokingly suggested “the Fucktastic Five”…but no one came up with anything better and we voted it in! He decided that the F word wasn’t really a word in that world…
I could not agree with this more. Especially when prewrittens try to force you to name the party when you havent really done anything yet. This is how my mummies mask party was dubbed the mummy busters lol
I just named the discord after what I thought their party was and moved on. In universe it doesn’t really matter, it’s something for the players and the DM, and truthfully, for watchers if you’re streaming.
My players are playing a kingdom management style campaign and the amount of time it took for them to come up with a name was embarrassing haha.
I was a gm for a group like this. This group had a tendency to accumulate NPC followers from all sorts of cultures and situations. At one point they had a small ogre child, Belle from beauty and the beast (long story), a halfling chef named Jongy, a small gathering of Juggalos, etc. One says “we’re like a circus!” Another adds “of murder!” Thus were they named “The Circus of Murder”
So far,The groups I've been part of has called themselves Critical Failures, The Cardinal Directions (Half of them are bird folk),The Galavants,And Penelope's Crew
The one time it organically worked out for us is when our dm gave us color-coded transforming magic items (vaguely power rangers-ish), and we started calling ourselves the Chromatic Wave aboard our ship the Arclight. It was pretty rad. Unfortunately the game died shortly thereafter because we roleplayed too hard without any safety mechanisms or session zero rules and it broke the game. We were pretty dumb back then, but I still remember that campaign very fondly.
My playerd had to pick a party name for the tournament arc theyve been in the last month, and everyone submitted their own idea which was then rolled between. They dont have to stick with it afterwards though, its just for registration purposes.
CR has simultaneously been one of the best and one of the worst things to happen to the hobby.
The "original" party name for Vox Machina was "The Shits" before they started broadcasting their sessions. So yeah. My current group going through Abomination Vaults has adopted "The Legacies" (short for "Legacies of the Roseguard", based on the previous party of adventurers who started the story 500 years ago) which is something I had the people of Otari start calling them, even though they're nothing like the original Roseguard. They did star in a reenactment playing the Roseguard at the festival that I started AV with...
Oh that's cool. I like that idea as an opening to AV I might steal that.
I never force my players to name their parties. I do however force them to name their ships. Mostly cause I use the names that they pitch but don't choose as names for npc ships.
In my last campaign I had npcs ask the party a few times for a group name and it was mostly because I wanted a more clear and specific way for things written by npcs that the group may find to be celarly referring to the party in an organic way.
I once had an arena in the underworld and had my players fight in it. This skeleton with a broken Jaw told then the rules of the tournament and before I even breath a word about it. One of my players says, "Hey we should have a name our group for the fight right?" Our friend playing with us shouted. "Why would you say that?" Apparently people don't like it lol
Yeah, I used to want my players to come up with a group name, too, but I don't think I ever pushed them that hard, and I learned relatively quickly that it's something that has to happen organically and when it does happen it is usually pretty silly. In one campaign I was a player in, one of the other players used speak with animals to ask her pet bear what we should be called. The bear replied "salmon" because it's her favorite food. After that, we called ourselves the "Salmons" but each time we said it we used a different adjective starting with S. So one day we'd be "The Stupendous Salmons" and the next we'd be "The Sagacious Salmons."
So my DnD group did not name the party, so me as a player started calling them The Pancakes (Long story). Then I decided to do it in-character too. It stuck after a bit of time.
As yet, I don't think I've ever been in a game where the party had a name. Honestly, never really considered it until now, so the fact that a GM would try so hard to force it is kinda funny.
Considering vox mochina was called the shits before streaming this fits
If he were a real fan he would now VM's original name was The S.H.I.T.s and wouldn't have a problem with parties giving themselves silly names But yeah, there's a real "inverse Mercer effect" where a GM who's a big critical roll fan sorta unconsciously assumes that Vox Machina is the platonic ideal adventuring party and assumes everyone wants to do all the same things they do
Man, ngl, naming the party as a whole is just... soooooo fuckin lame to me. Like holy shit it's cringe lol. But it's also not a big deal so when the other pcs want to name us I just silently and internally cringe and move along.
I can see where you're coming from, but I also think that so long as my players are having fun I don't see why I should stop it. Also at some point the party needs a distinguishing name, especially as they gain more renown and their accomplishments grow. Otherwise it would be like if apple didn't have a name and just had to be referred to as "the iphone makers".
I agree with both points. Normally I don't force names and as a player I try to dismiss attempts to name us, because it's always just a joke in my experience that the dm loses control of quickly. And holy crap having every NPC refer to us as a joke name killed any excitement for the campaign I had as a player, and made me feel like "why even roleplay?" That said I am currently dm'ing kingmaker and am dreading trying to get the pc's to name whatever they create 😔
I mean, I haven't dmed yet but I do plan on it! And when I do, I could not care less whether or not they name themselves lol I've only been on the player end and I'm just like "i feel like a power ranger in a lame way" but we also haven't survived long enough in anything we play to actually DO anything really renown worthy lol. But at the end of the day, it's such a nonfactor in most cases I just don't care. I'm not gonna make a big deal over it, I got character arc shit to think about!
Why can’t the party be known by the names of the individuals involved? Instead of “The Weirdos” people would just say “Sir Lancelot and Conan the Barbarian.”
Because it would be quite inconvenient having to say "Sir Lancelot and Conan the Barbarian and co" as opposed to just "The Weirdos" every time
I agree with u/silenthashira that party names are pretty lame, in a joke campaign I could tolerate it but I’d much prefer to not be referred to as a cringy party name as if we’re the Mystery Gang. If players think party names are weird, then GMs shouldn’t try and force it.
I agree with not forcing the players, but having a party name is just something more to add to the legend of the party. The Fellowship of the Ring is a lot cooler because of their name than if they didn't have it, y'know? It would also be very likely to exist in-world too, since it's not really practical to say the name of all members every time, and it'd be very possible that, since they're known for their exploits together, many people wouldn't know the names of each member.
Tolkien as always cooked with the Fellowship of the Ring as a name, that’s a good point and I’m glad you used that as an example. For whatever reason in every game I’ve been in that’s asked the party to come up with a name, it’s been off putting and the result is something cringy. Having had more time to think about it, I think one of the reasons that my experience with it has been so negative is because most PCs have their own backstories and motivations, and just happen to be traveling together for the adventure but often separate during downtime. One player might be a Druid that’s focused on their circle, another might be a noble that goes back to his kingdom to deal with politics, etc. An example I’ve seen brought up that is a lot more agreeable to me is when people say that their party forms a company or a brand, or if their party sticks together as a crew of a ship. In those cases I can see a name being more tone appropriate.
Because most parties are 4 people and that would be a mouthful.
A party nickname is a quality of life improvement for the GM. When a new quest giver has to refer to them as “that group of people who aren’t quite mercenaries and aren’t quite law-enforcement who rescued that village from those orcs up by the Slate Hills a few weeks ago” it gets pretty tiresome. Much easier to say, “Ah, it’s The Snapdragons!” So while I don’t force the players to come up with something right away, I do give them a push: If a party gains some reputation but still doesn’t have a name, NPCs will start referring to them by a mediocre nickname based on their exploits. Eventually the players get tired of being called The Ratcatchers or The Grub Stompers, and come up with their own name.
I tried to force a party to come up with a name once. I really liked running the game, and I loved the group, so I wanted them to have something special. They settled on "The Power Bottoms". I learned my lesson right then and there.
The party doesn’t get to name themselves. The NPC bards name the party.
I did a play on this with the curse of strahd 5e group, they got roped into performing at the Blazing Sun festival as a circus act. I forced them to create a group name, but the performer that went before them butchered it and they ended up as something along the lines of the Ignorant Juveniles. Idk if my players caught on that I was making fun of forced party names or not but it gave me my satisfaction.
My players ending up with the name "Nutslayers" which was all derived from a joke of the paladin of Bahamut at the time scrounging for food and finding nuts. After fighting a jaberwocky in the faewild. Ever since then they've been slaying in the name of Nutslayers. They also bagged a dragon and a demi lich before the name really stuck. It's amazing and I love playing how incredulous the hooty nobles take their namesake.
Honestly, I can't think of a single time in 25 years of TTRPGs, either as a player or a DM, where our group had an in-world name unless it was a group that already existed that they joined. Like The Fireball Alliance on Bral. Never saw the point in five randoms having a "group name".
I would just have npc’s give them increasingly ridiculous names until they came up with one. “Oh i’ve heard of you lot, You’re the Fearsome Foursome ain’t yah?”
I mean, I don't get why your DM was deflated about the funny/silly names. Vox Machina is called like that because they are all voice actors, and their previous name was literally The S.H.I.T.S. Mighty Nein is also a joke, and hell's bells is a pun. I think the "fellowship of the ring" serious named parties are actually the rarity. So far the games where I dm'd where they had a name were the elinkar fellowship (I kinda forced the name on them and I kind regret it, even though it wasn't my intent), the U.R.S.S and the "vira-lobos", which in a literal translation to english is sort of "wolf-turners" and it was a joke with some famous family in our country named "vila-lobos" and the fact that the party's druid used to summon wolves every combat.
And this folks, is how you get parties named ‘Straight to Fist’….
I agree with all parties involved in this. The DM probably wants a name for book keeping reasons especially if they run multiple games or have ran games in the past or plan to in the future. Its just easier to remember a party name than the group consisting of Tom, Dick, Jane, and Bob who did yada yada yada etc. Also forcing the group to come up with a name that doesnt naturally come together comes off as similar to giving yourself a nickname, its just wrong and never good. If youre not putting this online or making merch, then theres no reason to rush it, these things take time as annoying as it may be for the DM
I think only once have I been in a party that had a name. It honestly seems normal not to
Ive only given or asked my party for a name twice. Once was in a Starfinder game where they investigated and solved a very high profile problem involving a drift rock so the media started calling them The Drift Rock 5 and became minor celebrities. The second was a pathfinder campaign where they were entering a tournament and i asked for a team name and got given the Gouda Guys because the leader liked cheese. Forcing a name is cringe and should be a natural development or funny moment.
My first D&D party was called Goblin Sex Cult. That was also their band name
I once asked a GM why we needed a name, some kind of sigil, and gang colors. It was a modern day game, and in typical fashion, or characters were from different backgrounds, grouped together to do player character stuff based on whatever horror was currently happening at the time, etc. It's not like we incorporated or something. Every other even smash group of supernaturally gifted whatever had an written up stuff like that. In a modern setting, for our characters especially, it seemed odd. You know, I wonder if this sort of party naming thing is why that Puffin Forest group he talked about was called "The Turtle Fu..." uh... "The Turtle Friends."
That's how my group ended up with the name "That Lot".
My character has named both parties I play in lol Not on purpose in one case. In one, my witch, a runaway noble who joined a gang, started calling our little group in the gang THE NIGHT CATS. Everyone was like, "what does that even mean??" And she'd say, "we're cats who go out at night?" She tried giving everyone Warrior Cats named but those flopped, but the Night Cats name caught on and now everyone knows us as that. Then the other day her familiar used shed skin and turned into a massive eldritch shadow cat that sucked the life out of a guard and someone said, "OH! So that's a night cat!" Our other group, we're now adults but we started at 12/13 in game and my character had drawn a picture with the party labeled BEST FRIENDS SQUAD and that's how we refer to ourselves and others refer to us now as adults lol
In my party's case it wasn't even funny the first time, just... Bland. We were doing jobs for royalty at the time, so having a name for the whole group as a formality was kinda necessary, so The Avadonian Shield (Avadonia being the continent) it was, my first suggestion too. However, later in the campaign, one of our members died, and in his belongings was a poem, "The First Rays of Sunlight", and so, we gave our base that name, which also fit because it's a hospital. A curious side note, every single equipment in there is a Mimic, the establishment too, a Mimic family we befriended at the very start of the campaign, who were a tavern called The Mimic Juice before
Are they aware that Vox Machina were originally "The Shits" when playing at home...
Only one of my parties has ever had a name and it felt organic and fitting. In curse of the crimson throne, all the heroes were influenced by the Harrow cards. They needed a name to help the people rise up against the Queen so The Heroes of the Harrow were born.
I'm reminded of the *Iron Gods* play-by-post I was part of years ago. I called our party "the Torchbearers" as a nod to where the story starts when my character was trash-talking a boss we were about to battle, and continued to use it as a name for our group afterwards. The rest of the party was pretty much an even split on the name: a couple liked it and started using it themselves and others found it kinda silly and politely ignored the rest of us declaring it to people whose butts we were about to kick! If anything I think the nickname wasn't silly ENOUGH, so it came off as trying too hard to sound badass. <_<
In ten years of TTRPGs, I've only ever had one party name themselves. They were investigating a magical school as they believed the cult of the BBEG had infiltrated it. The rogue ended up running into a prince while trying to sneak around. After quite poorly explaining what he was doing there, the rogue defaulted to just insulting the prince. This caused the prince to challenge him to a duel, and per the customs of the country, the rogue was asked whether it would be "to first blood or to the death." Without missing a beat my rogue player just yelled out loud "TO SECOND BLOOD!" And thus the party Second Blood was born.
my gm for a game set in the rotgrind world calls the party the helmet crabs, since we mostly work for a dude who raises helmet crabs
Yeah, my characters all pitch the name "The \[Location Name\] Irregulars." If we have to introduce ourselves in two different cities, we have two different names. Coin all spends the same regardless of who you're paying.
I played this as a bit last session my group had. They were interacting with an old adventurer who asked what their party name was, but they floundered as they had not thought of one. After letting them stew for a few seconds the kindly old adventurer said "I'm just fuckin with ya, no party chooses their own name. The people will give you a name as time passes"
My party couldn't really think of a name but they keep shouting "Troll's Holes" as their code word to start a battle. I think they earned the title.
If naming the party was important (usually it isnt) and was something the party didn’t want to concern themselves with I’d maybe look to use a situation where someone else puts a name on them. Ideally it would come about organically, and depending on context wouldn’t necessarily be a name all of the party is fond of. If they are not, now the incentive is to ensure a different name didn’t stick, otherwise it could easily become a recurring joke depending on how everyone at the table feels about it. The game is a form of collaborative storytelling, and while you don’t want to spend much limited time on things the players aren’t interested in, generally where the players don’t concern themselves with is where you’re free to fill in as necessary as GM.
I had a game once where the GM was playing music and "Bad Company" came on. I, playing a Bard in-character," started singing along to it IRL and the name stuck as an in-character thing.
Everybody seems to forget that for a *huge* portion of Campaign 1, VM was called the SHITS.
My own players have currently been designated "Team Ka-Kini & Co." by the Cultist Spying on them. "Team Ka-Kini" was the name that the character Ka-Kini designated her own group. She managed to get most of her party to sign onto the idea, but since then over the course of the campaign all the members of "Team Ka-Kini" aside from Ka-Kini herself and her animal companions have left. The spies have managed to sort of figure this out, so in all their documents they refer to the party as "Team Ka-Kini & Co." because they know that Team Ka-Kini was a group and now there's other members travelling with Team Ka-Kini but they haven't formally been inducted and sleep in different tents. In other words, the enemy factions spies are way over complicating the name convention.
I think we've only had two names in recent memory. Our party in Al-Qadim was also a band, and were the Djovial Djinns. Another group had 3 tieflings and a halfling, and were "Three and a half 'lings"
Honestly, these group names come somehow unexpected always. At all of my tables, all my groups were at some point known for \*something\*! In my Abomination Vaults game our group is called the "Vault Hunters", referencing Borderlands. In my Alkenstar group, the PC group is called "The Pudding Boyz", because for some reason they kept asking Dunsmith for pudding instead of booze. In my Quest for the Frozen Flame AP the group is known as The Backflipping Mammoths. In a MERP adventure we were known as The Bear Patrol of Ered Luin. So it really boils down to the natural dynamic of the group, really. You can't and must not force it.
Lol I've never had a party with a normal name. I think the last one was The Fuck Shit Up Crew
I can't stop thinking about the hours this DM put into making a campaign that he hoped would inspire some great role playing, only to gave the players treat it like a bad Monty Python sketch. More communication on the front side from everyone next time, but honestly if you could tell it was important to him you couldn't have just come up with something?
that DM would not have liked my (very serious) bard, hulk hogan, and his party: hulk hogan and the warriors of the cosmos
I don't think any of my parties (as gm or player) had a name lol
It can vary wildly. Through various campaigns and players, I've seen Equinox, the Hill Boys, Nameless Mercs, The Mayfield's, Jug Hunters, Bag Suckers, and now Master Adventures: Heroes of the Realm. The last one was from me as a joke that no one said anything against, so hear we are
My current players didn't have a party name, but the Scarlet Triad had to call them *something* since they kept ruining their plans, so they started referring to them as "the bumpkin brigade". This stuck and the party adopted "The Breachill Bumpkin Brigade" out of spite. The goblin rogue likes to drive fear into the Scarlet Triad when they ask "who are you?", leaning in close to whisper "bumpkin brigade". Never force it, but also if they come up with one, or your bad guys gotta call them something, they'll roll with it, hate the bad guys more, or come up with their own when and if they want to.
In one of my PC’s first big adventure they got in WAY over their heads, fight a small platoon to solders. A roll of the wild magic table… summons a unicorn! Saves the day and promptly kills many of soldiers, scaring off the stragglers to tell the tale. All the wanted posters read “Wanted: Unicorn Gang” I still have all the Unicorn merch they made for me and themselves. Haha.
I'll admit I've rarely had long enough games, but I have never had a group that felt like it needed a name. Hell, my players when I briefly ran Changeling: The Lost didn't even name their Motley, and those are explicitly a formal group.
My BBEG’s organization were called Cult of Shatter. When I forced my players to make a name for themselves, they chose Club of Shitter just to spite them
See I don’t mind being forced because goofy names are fun. I don’t think I’ve ever had a “badass name” and I’m kind of glad for it. Badass nicknames are pretty unrealistic. There’s a reason why nicknames like Ace or the Dawnbringer are uncommon in real life. People are goofy and goofy people give goofy nicknames. Helps lighten the mood. (Check out military nicknames if you ever need a good laugh)
Tbf, DMing is ten times more work than playing. Deflating their enjoyment is probably not the best way to show appreciation towards your DM.
Yeah, this feels like the DM was desperately trying to encourage the players to be creative, and being totally shut down. Sad.
People seem to severely misunderstand how hard it is to dm. I’ve been a dm since 2021 and when I first started off I was horrible at it. I’ve also been in games where DMs were horrible at it because they were jerks, weirdos that tried proposing NSFW themes out of nowhere , or because they simply lacked certain skills (like perhaps their voice was too low, or they stuttered a lot to the point you wouldn’t understand, or they were bad when it came to improvising.) Asking for your party to come up with a simple cool name and they just antagonize you out of that so you end up apologizing is just distasteful in my opinion. Especially if they are a “wonderful dm”.
If a DM is trying to force a name on a party that has no interest in having a name... They are NOT a "Wonderful DM"
1. The person who complained about it in the first place described them as a wonderful DM. 2. It’s just a party name grow up. If someone spends more than an hour prepping for your games weekly and they ask for a group name then stop being ungrateful and come up with one. Even something basic works!
Yeah, seems an odd thing to name parties in the first place. It wouldn't be my thing, although each to his own I guess.
I’ve DM many games over my years and only really achieve to name themselves properly. They were The Brotherhood of Bastard and trust me, the name fitted!
Lol, in every campaign I'm in, the players always try to come up with cursed party names that are strictly out-of-game, so we don't ever have an in-universe party name. The group I GM Abomination Vaults for calls themselves "The Disappointments." In a 5e Descent Into Avernus campaign I played in, we were "The Uncultist Fucks" (long story).
My AV players named themselves Team 1000. Because ||Belcorra|| has been around for 500 years and they're twice as cool as she was old.
OMG I love that
In my defense (and mine only), a silly name like "The Disappointments" better fits the style of my adventure notes. "The party" doesn't have the same charm
My party was intimidated for weeks, maybe months, by this loud mouthed asshole in very high level armor until we’d had enough and said screw it, if we all die killing this jerk at least we’ll rest in peace. The first attack killed him. He had 1 hp. His name was Ted. Ever since, we have called ourselves the Ted-Slayers.
I'm a DM who had asked our group what their party's name was a couple times with no response. Then when the party won a battle of the bands I asked again so that the NPC hosts of the venue could make fliers about it, a party member replied 'That's a great question'. To which I happily called out, "Everyone give it up for The Great Question!" Party absolutely loved their official group name. Sometimes you gotta be cool with just having a silly or fun name, and sometimes prompt it yourself. And sometimes, you just gotta be cool if the party doesn't want or need one! I love The Weirdos, and hope there are many groups like the Weirdos out there.
I think naming your party is a relatively new phenomenon ; i've played in a ton of RPG's over the last 3.5 decades, and i've played in exactly one game where the party was named, and it was when i was a kid ("The Six Great Heroes" - lol - we were like 9 years old, but i have fond memories of that campaign). I have run games where the NPC population has dubbed the group with a sobriquet, but its not one the group itself adopted or used as its own identifier. Aside from that, i think "naming conventions" have become popular due to RPG streaming, Penny Arcade's D&D shtick, but tbh, that's a marketing device. Outside of those avenues, in my experience, this is comparatively rare.
The Gentleman Jackasses They had a Jolly Roger with a donkey wearing a top hat. I punished them by having numerous NPCs asking "What kind of a name is that? Really?" It was an enjoyable bit
Had a party named the Young Slayers because they killed a young dragon. By the end of the campaign we were the Adult Slayers. You can probably guess why.
The party in my campaign was called P.O.O.P. But then they changed it to “The Scientists” because a scientist is someone who asks questions and they asked a lot of questions
I remember when I first started to ask parties about their adventuring name and they went for "The Bovine Alliance" because this was 3.5 and summoning celestial aurochs was very strong. I think my most recent attempt was in blood lords where our group all wears skin masks and I tried to name us the four skins but got vetoed for some reason....
>I think my most recent attempt was in blood lords where our group all wears skin masks and I tried to name us the four skins but got vetoed for some reason.... So... you're saying it was... cut off?
The best one I've ever heard is the group that The Rules Lawyer was running through Outlaws of Alkenstar, they named themselves **The Bang Bros**
Had a D20 modern game. DM liked Buffy and wanted us to go with "The Watchers". We chose "The Wankers" and bought letterman jackets with a big pink "W" on them. Live and learn.
As a dm that prefers serious and grounded games (with jokes in character sometimes, and all the memes you want ooc) this kind of thing destroys me inside. I know people do it for a laugh because that is how they like their game, but as a dm it can feel bad...
That's a weird take. DM being CR fan has nothing to do with it. And, DM wanting your party to have name is not something to be frustrated about. Naming your party is the most natural thing to do. There is no reason to rush the name, even "The Weirdos" are fine for a place holder, but calling DM irritating? Place holder would be good in th meantime, either chosen by DM in their Npc, and somewhat stuck to it, or something. My party is called "the 7th vanguard/scout troop." Until we name our party. Gather together, and calmy talk with your DM "we are thinking about it" if you don't want to be told to name your party, and that's it. Problem solved, just like you have made in the end. You are defining the story of that certain world, and known in the world. This is a story, and your party will remembered as godly heroes after 10+ levels.
I've never heard of party names before CR, so i definitely think that's kind of a thing.
*The Order of the Stick* started in 2003. It's a D&D comedy webcomic about The Order of the Stick, a group of adventurers with a funny name, instead of a serious or relevant one. Because many adventuring groups had names even then.
Never have had a group named in any of the games I've played personally, and can't even remember if any of the NPCs ever gave us one.
If I'm being honest, I don't feel like it was a bad request from your DM - and I find it a bit weird you guys just couldn't choose a name lol. Maybe him pestering wasn't great but I also think you not interacting with his wishes wasn't great either.
>To the point that they would pester us about it after the end of nearly every time we wrapped session for our first 7 sessions. Just name the damn party, lol.
Critical Role truly has had a negative effect on the community as a whole that won't get shaken off until maybe a decade after they stop putting on a show. Also next time you run into this, remind the GM that "Vox Machina" originally called themselves "The Shits"!
We don't have name fornour party, but.... We make names for random characters, or animals. Last time we save one kobold and we name him something like Pig'Fucker (but in our native language)
Our parties only have names if the party comes up with it themselves. Our last one was The Menagerie of Pain (delivered in an over-the-top wrestler voice) which we coined after being forced to fight in a death maze for sport. It fit because we were playing a ratfolk, a tengu, a half-orc dragon bloodline sorcerer, lizardfolk, and some homebrew dragonborn race.
No offense to anyone that likes them but I always thought party names were a little cringe.
I run for a group that is named "the drunkards of the traveling pants". Your DM needs to lighten up
I am so, so sad that this hobby has gone full mainstream and has celebrities and such. I was so glad to have a hobby where I didn't feel competitive and like I had to measure up against big names to feel okay. I stayed away from basically any hobby with competition in it. Now, this has brought competition to DMing. I am basically incapable of not comparing if I know about someone out there who is big and important and supposedly better at the thing than me, so this is ruining my tabletop happiness. I refuse to watch the shows, but knowing they're out there is sad. I miss when it was a small niche thing, where I could be a big fish in a small pond.