Name my Evil Guy Organization

[Zom B]

The party will be going into an extremely large city that is pervaded deeply by a major crime organization. They are led by the Joker Bard concept (gotta admit, it makes for a great archvillain), and many other powerful ringleaders. I need a name. Something that speaks of an organization that is not to be messed with, and sounds cool at the same time. I'm thinking "The _________ Syndicate", but that is not necessary to the name.

All right, need a name for the Joker Bard guy.

Frontrunners:
The Midnight Syndicate (thanks, Narazil!)
The Iron Syndicate
The Ebon Syndicate

[Telonius]

The Fifth Ace (four aces plus the Joker)

[Ash Williams]

Bob's House O' Evil.

[Falconer]

The Cerberus Syndicate

Skull and Dagger

The Onyx Society

The Hydra Syndicate (the joker bard is the leader, but there are still many "heads")

The Blackheart Guild

[AirGuitarGod32]

I second the "Fifth Ace"

The Onyx Hand

[Thatguyoverther]

Black Hand Syndicate (Insert Cool picture of Blackened Severed Hand holding playing cards.)

The House of Cards?

With sub commanders with card inspired code names like Queen of Diamonds. Or maybe tarot deck names like Jack of Swords or 7 of Wands.

[Fortuna]

The Flush Syndicate

The Royal Flush

The Black Jacks

The Diamond-Hearted Spades Club (not really)

[FoE]

What, like the Jack of Blades (http://fable.wikia.com/wiki/Jack_of_Blades)?

How about the Doomsingers? The Heralds of Ill Fortune? The Hallowed Knives?

[Evilfeeds]

The Evil Syndicate.

[Narazil]

I'm pretty sure the OP meant his villain was based on the "Joker Bard" character thread, not that he actually is a joker.

You got to consider whether the name is supposed to be "Lulz we're evil" or not. The ___ Syndicate is usually reserved for the movies - it's a lot smarter to hide behind a "real" business name, such as The Blue Sea Fishing Company or something.

Also, deception is the Joker Bard's greatest weapon. How about giving the syndicate a name with absolutely no ties to their actual goals/structure? Disciples of the Great Dragon, for example, whilst having nothing to do with actual Dragons.
I had a group of villains called "Bloodbrothers of Gronx" (Gronx being a city), the party spent ages trying to find their ties to Gronx, and even longer trying to scry out the the members of the group through the blood of one of them.
They'd all met on Wizard College, basicly, and had nothing to do with blood or Gronx.

Going off the ball with non-cards names for a standard "Lulz we're evil" syndicate:

The Black Fist. (Would say Black Hand, but it's taken) - of course, someone has to shout "The Black Fist is striking again!" whenever they do something.

Midnight Syndicate.

Chess Masters.

Cult of Scientology.

[Sir_Ophiuchus]

The Suicide Kings?

I like the Fifth Ace idea as well, but think it maybe needs a little more oomph.

Oh, oh, I've got it!

The Syndicate of Mirth.

[deuxhero]

Glory to The Many I am a voice in The Choir.

Take the theme the whole way. Members get called voices, operations are songs ect.

[Xuincherguixe]

The fluffy rainbow sunshine gang.

The fact that the visual induces vomiting because it's so damn cute insures that it MUST be evil.


In a similar vein, I'm using an evil cult "The Garden of Infinite Flowers." Got to admit that's a good cult name. And people who aren't used to that things that sound nice and pretty on the outside can be pure sin might get caught off guard.

But if that's not your thing...

"The Golden Throne"
"The burning eye"
"Trump" (You're fired! For playing the ace of spades by Motorhead!)
"Twilight" (Err, if you could avoid emo vampire jokes)
"Red Dawn"
"The hammer"

Or there's always, "The acidic cream pie"

[jiriku]

The Ministry of Peace

[taltamir]

<city name>'s Homeless Shelter.
Unless they are all stupid evil, you try to hide your criminal activity...
It is a very often used tactic IRL actually... Imagine people hearing about the adventurers who burned down the "homeless shelter" (without knowing that this is what the mafia called their base)

[JonestheSpy]

Acronym's can always be interesting and mysterious. One (highly disputed) story of the origin of the term "Mafia" was that it was an acronym for: Morte all Francia, Italia anela, "Death to the French is Italy's Cry", and that the Mafia was originally a terrorist/freedom fighting/take your pick organization that formed when Southern Italy and Sicily was ruled by France.

[BobVosh]

Guild of Calamitous Intent This is not a Crime Syndicate Hastur Hastur Hastur Primatech Paper Company Brotherhood of the Hand

[Thinker]

The Red Reign

[Thatguyoverther]

<city name>'s Homeless Shelter.
Unless they are all stupid evil, you try to hide your criminal activity...
It is a very often used tactic IRL actually... Imagine people hearing about the adventurers who burned down the "homeless shelter" (without knowing that this is what the mafia called their base)

Not necessarily. If your organization is powerful enough it might be more beneficial to have a name that is fear inspiring. If your big enough you can strong arm/bribe the government into ignoring you or even helping. You might get big enough that you can cause the official government line to be "The ______Syndicate does not exist.", even though everyone knows who Cousin Vinny works for.

I'd also argue that this is more likely to be the case since adventurers are involved. No one cares about a penny ante thieves guild that rarely does anything bigger than the occasional smash and grab, but if the baddies are big enough to have the Baron in there pocket, then it might be time to call in the goon squad adventurers.

[arguskos]

I used "Master Hand" for awhile, as the inside name of a puppeteering syndicate. The face name for that group was The Honest Merchant's Trading Company (they were a trade organization as well, and a very honest one).

[taltamir]

Not necessarily. If your organization is powerful enough it might be more beneficial to have a name that is fear inspiring. If your big enough you can strong arm/bribe the government into ignoring you or even helping. You might get big enough that you can cause the official government line to be "The ______Syndicate does not exist.", even though everyone knows who Cousin Vinny works for.

I'd also argue that this is more likely to be the case since adventurers are involved. No one cares about a penny ante thieves guild that rarely does anything bigger than the occasional smash and grab, but if the baddies are big enough to have the Baron in there pocket, then it might be time to call in the goon squad adventurers.

if you are that powerful, why be a criminal syndicate? just rule directly as an evil government. (an evil government might be evil, but by definition it is not criminal as it makes the law)

[Thatguyoverther]

if you are that powerful, why be a criminal syndicate? just rule directly as an evil government. (an evil government might be evil, but by definition it is not criminal as it makes the law)

Because it's more profitable to be illegal?

They don't have to be all powerful, but if they can "own" a single city in a larger kingdom their still pretty powerful. Just take a look at Al Capone, everyone knew he was a criminal but he was so powerful and influential that it took years to arrest him and even then it was on tax evasion.

[Falconer]

Criminal groups can and have grown powerful enough to control governments; such is extremely rare, however. I imagine the power of the group we're trying to help name here is powerful enough to be a significant presence in the city and probably outlying territory (has several powerful people in its pocket), but isn't so powerful as to control a nation, or overshadow the national government. Thus, it's a criminal group.

[Poil]

How about The EGO Syndicate? Simple and straight to the point.

[Mushroom Ninja]

How about just "The Syndicate".

[taltamir]

The Family

[Brewdude]

The Firm
The Agency
The Company
The Man Upstairs
The Channel
Prime Distribution
the Warehouse

[Mushroom Ninja]

The Iron Throne I lurve me some Baulder's Gate

[chiasaur11]

The Evil League of Evil 505th local.

[Bob]

crime syndicate masquerading as a church of pelor.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Heh, I kinda like the Joker Bard concept, here's a few ideas:

He's actually behind the scenes on the Syndicate. They are his 'obvious' cat's paws, being manipulated by the Joker Bard. Why? Simple, the Joker Bard wants a challenge. So he's making a big bad Syndicate so someone will eventually show up to stop them. Anyone who *can* stop them? Well, now there's someone to play with...

So, to that end:


The Sinister Syndicate

No Such Agency

'The Family'

The (name of town they operate in) Syndicate

The Nihilistic Syndicate (goal ostensibly being to destroy existence)

Cult of the Blood God

Eight Legs of Death (with Drow as the ones the Joker Bard is puppeteering)

One Eye of Doom (orc based grummish worshipers)

Alpha-Omega-Kappa: Alumni of Miskatonic University (Everything is A.O.K.)

Each of these will trigger any 'hey, these guys need to be stopped' knee-jerk reflexes, and the names themselves have references to Very Unpleasant Things, which is sure to hit any potential metagamers below the belt (If your players Metagame, use that to your advantage!). Furthermore, none of them have any ties to the Joker Bard Itself, who is quite free to go galavanting around and doing interesting things. Maybe even run into the party as a 'low-level Bard who has heard of their latest exploits, and interested in turning it into a song'.

If you've ever read Mercedes Lackey's Oathbound trilogy, he can be a perfect Leslac... highly irritating and annoying, but otherwise harmless. Indeed, he wants to be seen as harmless. Of course, he's never going to use that face when fighting the band of adventurers, merely to gain information about them. He'll know every last dark secret... whom betrayed whom, whom is sleeping with what... everything. And will use it against them.

[Kallisti]

Honestly Not Evil Al's Honestly Not Evil Nonevil Goods that Are Not Evil If You Know What's Good For You. If your Joker Bard is at all like the Joker, it'd appeal to his sense of humor.

EDIT: Or steal a name from Neil Gaiman and go with the Jacks of All Trades.

[Saintheart]

Give Raymond Feist a wink and call 'em the Upright Men.

[deuxhero]

crime syndicate masquerading as a church of pelor.

A crime syndicate masquerading as a church of a demon lord masquerading as a good deity? Brilliant!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Or, if we wish to bring in a little Abbot and Costello into the play, call them "Doze Guys", as in construction worker mafia

Doze Guys? Man, you don't wanna mess with them...

I don' know nuttin' bout Doze Guys...

Then, for additional fun, you also have a group called Dee's Guys, run by a pair of twins whose last names are Dee (so you have Dee and Dee).

"So, what's up with those guys?"

"Those Guys? Bunch of wannabees, man."

"Really? Because I was told these guys were pretty hard hitters..."

"I don' know nuttin' bout Dee's Guys. You don' know nuttin' bout Dee's Guys. Capiche?"

"But I thought you just said..."

"Whoa, whoa... I never said nuttin' bout Dee's Guys. I said Doze guys are pushovers."

[Zom B]

Not necessarily. If your organization is powerful enough it might be more beneficial to have a name that is fear inspiring. If your big enough you can strong arm/bribe the government into ignoring you or even helping. You might get big enough that you can cause the official government line to be "The ______Syndicate does not exist.", even though everyone knows who Cousin Vinny works for.

I'd also argue that this is more likely to be the case since adventurers are involved. No one cares about a penny ante thieves guild that rarely does anything bigger than the occasional smash and grab, but if the baddies are big enough to have the Baron in there pocket, then it might be time to call in the goon squad adventurers.

This. I really, really like "The Midnight Syndicate" that was mentioned. Basically, they don't feel the need to hide behind a false front because nobody can actually pinpoint any leaders. Just like the Joker Bard concept, the actual overlord of the organization lets others believe that they are the heads, and lets them take the fall while carefully controlling their actions.

Now that the bad guys have a name, I need a name for their leader. Not sure whether to continue with the Midnight theme or not or go with something innocuous.

Backstory on the adventure:

The leader of the organization, we'll continue calling him 'Joker' for now, has permeated every level of Tal Ketar, the Infinite City (a city comprised of magically-suspended 'stacks' of city blocks, one above the other, that stretches for a mile or more into the sky). The Joker undertook a campaign of infiltrating the Magecrafter's Guild, and it failed. The mayor, who had been tolerating the Syndicate's actions, started a campaign to rout them out of the city. The Joker easily found out about this, and has enlisted the help of the mages that were previously working with him on the failed plot to open a rift to an as-yet-undetermined plane to create a Storm of Wild Magic. In this storm, magic behaves unpredictably, and the Joker wants to direct it at Tal Ketar, not caring about the destruction of the city, the millions of lives lost, or even his personal losses. He knows that the mayor has already sent out for adventurers, afraid that recruiting locally will net some of the Syndicate's planted moles that would try to sabotage the expulsion of the Syndicate (the mayor does not know the Storm is coming...yet). He plans to identify the adventurers and attempt to plant his own saboteur in their party. Should they succeed in stopping him, he plans to have a Charmed civilian deliver a bag of rewards to the party, actually an ungodly blending of Tanglefoot Goo and Alchemist's Fire that will explode when opened, covering everything in radius with a sticky, burning substance. The party probably won't die, but a lot of civilians will, and the Joker will work to convince the public that it was the party that killed all of those townsfolk (since there's two wizards and a warlock in the party that technically could be responsible for doing that). After he's expunged them from the city, it's time for the mayor to die and for one of the Joker's trusted men to take the position. Oh, and for the party to be hunted like dogs.

[Origomar]

Black Hand Syndicate (Insert Cool picture of Blackened Severed Hand holding playing cards.)

The House of Cards?

With sub commanders with card inspired code names like Queen of Diamonds. Or maybe tarot deck names like Jack of Swords or 7 of Wands.


Causing a world war are we?

[taltamir]

"The Man"
"Fat Cat"
"The Suits"
"The Corporation"
"Honest Merchants"

[Saintjebus]

crime syndicate masquerading as a church of pelor.

Don't you mean a church of Pelor masquerading as a crime syndicate?

[taltamir]

Don't you mean a church of Pelor masquerading as a crime syndicate?

that doesn't make any sense...
A church of palor masquerading as one means it is NOT a criminal organization. If it is a non criminal organization church and is good, then why is it pretending to be bad?

Now, a criminal organization pretending to be a legitimate organization makes sense.

[Zom B]

"Fat Cat"

Like, from Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers?

[Narazil]

... After he's expunged them from the city, it's time for the mayor to die and for one of the Joker's trusted men to take the position. Oh, and for the party to be hunted like dogs.
If I may just comment: Being the Joker Bard, he's awesome enough to give his trusted man a Hat of Disguise to kit out as the former mayor, right?

[taltamir]

Like, from Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers?

It came to me from the dictionary definition, I immediately recalled that it is the name of the villain from chip and dales rescue rangers and that sealed the deal.

Dictionary:
fat cat:
–noun Slang.
1. a wealthy person from whom large political campaign contributions are expected.
2. any wealthy person, esp. one who has become rich quickly through questionable dealings.
3. an important, influential, or famous person.
4. a person who has become lazy or self-satisfied as the result of privilege or advantage.

[Zom B]

If I may just comment: Being the Joker Bard, he's awesome enough to give his trusted man a Hat of Disguise to kit out as the former mayor, right?

Eeexcellent.

[Alcopop]

The Organization of Evil Guys

/thread

:smallbiggrin:

[Kris Strife]

The Syndicate of Bob. Please note, the leader must not be named Bob, there must be no member, past, present and/or future with the name Bob. Bob does not stand for anything. They chose the name out of a hat.

You may also consider naming the town, kingdom, street and anything else you feel like 'Bob's' or 'of Bob'. And there is no one named Bob anywhere in the campaign world at anytime, nor is it one of the PCs names. Watch your players start coming up with fantasy based, creative names for all the Bob places, then steal these names for later campaigns. In which every major NPC, reguardless of gender, is named Bob.