Recurring Groups or Societies in your games

[zephyrkinetic]

So, I've got this group that I've built up over the years that I count among any of the books' listed societies/gangs/mafias/families/etc. I'll throw a brief description below, and then I want to see other groups that other folks have established. Should be a great way to swap ideas and explore what is possible with these sorts of things.

Now, as a disclaimer, I don't necessarily treat the game-world 100% seriously. I think there's room for having a little Discworld-ish humor, where you make reference to tropes and cliches for the sake levity. That said, here's my group:

The Gray
Home base: Waterdeep/Skullport
This is the group for all of the Drizzt stereotypes, the lost souls, the orphans, the runaways, etc. Any Underdark-ian who "left home because they were good in a world of evil", as well as other outcasts and misfits, are typically sought out and invited to join The Gray. Main goal is to maintain order in Waterdeep, and fight the greater evils often present in Skullport (as possible).
Key members include a CG Duergar fighter/leader, a LG Half-Drow Robin Hood type, a city-loving centaur, and an absurdly smart minotaur.
They've got their own "clubhouse," a tavern called the Bloody Blade, which has it's own secret passage to an identically-named tavern in Skullport.

Of course, I have pages and pages of additional detail - I even ran a campaign where all my players rolled members and helped build the ranks and standing of The Gray. I've got a notebook full of notes, but I figured I shouldn't bog down a post with all of it. :smallbiggrin:

I'm sure I'm not the only one with their own little pet project; let's hear what you've got.

[Ossian]

I pretty much always have an "Inquisition" order which is really more on the Supernatural's "Men of Letters" side of the battle good vs evil. Only a lot shadier. They use often ruthless methods, and are pretty damn terrifying, but won't bother you if you leave the slithering evils of the great beyond alone. They keep tabs on necromancers, magical item buyers, people of note, politicians and all kinds of rulers.

They are based in a tower which has really warped geometry and architecture on the inside (looks just spooky from the outside) and an arsenal of magic items which is only as scary as the bunch of champions they can deploy (mostly, gray guards, clerics, assassins and spies).

O.

[Temji]

greetings...

mostly a lurker, but now and again when something really catches My eye...

so here you go...

I have a ranger guild... essentially every ranger is a member simply by virtue of BEING one... they share information, ideas, needs, and treasure as they can, given the whole 'loner' mentality...

the other thing that happens is this... if a ranger goes down for the count, you can in turn COUNT on someone coming to see why... we get some interesting adventure spins from that one common denominator...

I wish you well,

Temji Sho Khan

[lumberingmenace]

Our group has a vigilante society known as the lamplighters. There are about 15 members of the group and each player created 3 or 4 of them. It acts as a roster so when dm responsibility changes hands we dont start over from scratch but instead the party is assigned by the leader of the society. This makes characters changeable between story lines so no one gets bored with their character if that makes sense.

[Squirrel_Dude]

There are three in games I've run/been a part of.

1. There has been a powerful royal family of somewhat duplicitous nature in my games. Sometimes they are generous leaders who listen to the will of the people, other times they have been diabolic worshipers looking to bring the end of days for Zon Kuthon.

Still, they have yet to lose the throne to their generic empire, and the line of King Questgiver lives on.

2. In the woods lives a coven of elves, druids, and other fey like beings. They live protected behind their invisibility-generating force wall in Gorilla City. The city, and some of it's inhabitants have been featured in, and the adventuring party in multiple games.

3. There is a family of Half Orcs who's great grand fathers and fathers have all been adventurers. From Bobby. To the HALF ORC BROTHERS! To Bobby Jr. All these adventurers come from the same hill outside the city and have the same fascination with keeping goat pets/naming pet characters "goatly."

[Dayaz]

I had an interesting group form up without either my character's, or my own, knowledge. He was a constantly drunk BardBarian, who ended up training all of the people in his favorite bars how to enter a Rage. His best friend, who was a Drunken Master, was teaching a few people how to fight unarmed.

It made it entertaining when orc raiders attacked.

[Bakkan]

Since my current group's first game, there has always been a group of Druids opposed, often violently, to any kind of tunneling. At all. Animals like moles or prairie dogs get no slack with them, and gnomes are completely forbidden from entering the sect because they have some sort of connection to burrowing animals.

[Adalwolf]

A personal fave is the Order of Sachtan which i devised in the first campaign i ever DMed. It is an order of magic-weilders who practice necromancy and generally dark,destructive magic. Their goal is to prove to society that when such magic is used with strict responsibility and respect it can be of great benefit to Good, and they strive to persueade others that no magic is inherently evil. Needless to say, they are met with great prejudice by the commonfolk and the ecclesiarchies of "Light" (e.g. Pelor).I drew inspiration from Diablo's Cult of Rathma.

Another group i have featured in many of my stories is the Sternguard. An order of knights whose purpose is to serve the free realms against great evils (e.g. a demon invasion, a tyrant declaring war etc. etc.). Unlike other knight orders, the Sternguard owe allegiance to no single ruler or realm and accept anyone within their ranks be it prince or pauper, as long as they are good with a blade and swear to selflessness in their service.