NPC Adventuring Group names needed

[Jon_Dahl]

I need a few dozens of adventurer group names for my campaign. There's an adventurers' guild in a large kingdom and I was thinking about listing all the NPC adventuring groups, just for the sake of immersion ("Oh look, other groups exist and we're not alone!")

Please give me some suggestions. It would be nice if some of the groups would have a theme, because there are hundreds of adventurers and most likely the likeminded will get together and name their group accordingly (for instance, some group might have militant name, or a name pertaining to nature etc.)

The campaign world is Greyhawk, if that matters. A vast majority of the members are 1st-level adventurers.

I did some googling but I have already exhausted all the sources and imagination I have.

[Socksy]

Order of the Red Shirt

The B-Listers

We're Like 80% Sure We're The PCs

[Leader's Name] and his Merry Men

Team Blaster Casters

Dragonslayers (even if it's ridiculously obvious they've never so much as seen a dragon.)

[jedipilot24]

The 3.0 sourcebook "Enemies and Allies" has a few sample NPC adventuring groups.
There's also the "Council of Wrath" from the eponymous WOTC premade adventure, which is sort of an "anti-adventurer" party.

But in general if you just need names, get a dictionary and a thesaurus: pick a random noun and a random adjective (or a number between 1 and 6) and mash them together. If a particular party is important enough to have a named NPC, use the name and a random adjective.

So as an example, I have just randomly picked out of my head the adjective "green" and the noun "blade". Mash them together and we have "The Green Blades." Sounds nature or elf themed; maybe an all Elf Party with a Bard, a Beguiler, a Duskblade, a Hexblade and a Cleric, all of whom are armed with swords and worship Corellon Larethian (who favors the longsword and has a slight nature focus).

Let's say you have an NPC adventurer whose name is "Trellara" who leads a really dysfunctional party, due to race and/or class choices or simply due to conflicting personalities. Call them "Trellara's Misfits."

Each party should have a unifying theme that explains "Why do these people put up with and trust each other?" If all else fails, look at the portfolios and domains of the Greyhawk deities. Pick just one domain or aspect and make that the theme of the party.

Rinse and repeat.

[AWiz_Abroad]

Hodgepodge of ideas, some are actually things,

The Shining Blades
The Grey Council
Fellowship of the Sword
Shax's Rangers (Motto: Ready for Anything (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8235865))
Tucker's Kobolds (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/)
Mirt's Moneylenders (Favorite Character in Faerun)
Purple Dragons (Elite guard force in Faerun)
Blue Brotherhood (We're on a mission from God. . .maybe Blue Half Dragon Clerics?)

[Juntao112]

Adherents of the Repeated Meme

[Novawurmson]

A few names that have come up recently in my campaign:

The Blades of Wrath
The Grimpelt Tribe
The Blood Pikes
The Bronze Knuckles

[Mootsmcboots]

Ima just start rambling off random names here, alot of them are going to be "The's";

Brigade of the Briar
The Shrouded Hood
The Hollow Guard
The Withered Hand
Hidden Talon
Burleigh, Stronginthearm & Sons (DW reference)
The Notched Arrow
Friends of the River
Embers & Immolation
The Seared Men
Rico's Roughnecks (hehe)

I could just rattle these off for a while, but I'll stop here for now.

[ericgrau]

I could swear I stole this from somewhere but "The Shadow Hands" for some rogues. Gerald's Acquisitions for dungeon delving treasure hunters (led by Gerald).

[Mootsmcboots]

Gerald's Acquisitions reminds me of Acquisition Inc from Penny Arcade. Love it.

[hemming]

Phaedros Collective

Champions of the Dark Forest

Warriors of Veldars Keep

Keepers of the Dawn

League of Righteousness

The Blood Mercenaries

Obligatory movie reference: The Baseball Furies

[Red Fel]

As others have mentioned, "The [Adjective] [Noun]s" is a classic and a standard, particularly if the name is a reference or has a secondary meaning.

Another method is "The [Person or Place] [Organization Type]". A few examples for locations:
- The Highport Irregulars
- The Ulek Adventuring Company
- The Mistmarsh Mercenary Group

And individuals:
- Hrulfgar's Swords
- Galdamir and Co.
- The Fellows of Valthrak

Don't forget that not all organizations take names for themselves. Much like superheroes, some are sort of dubbed by the people around them. Regional appellations, or terms based on achievements, are very effective. For example:
- The Greencloaks of Suss
- The Two Ford Dragonslayers
- The Serpent Kings of Rushmoors

[ArcaneGlyph]

The Boulder Brothers (Group of Dwarven adventurers)
Sisters of the Silver Forrest
The Seven
Bright Company
Mystic Express
The Blood Coven
Shadows
MistyBrooke Brotherhood

[hemming]

The Boulder Brothers (Group of Dwarven adventurers)
Sisters of the Silver Forrest
The Seven
Bright Company
Mystic Express
The Blood Coven
Shadows
MistyBrooke Brotherhood

Please don't take offense as it is not intended, but a lot of these sound like they could be obscure band names from the 1970s :smallsmile:

[BRC]

The Rat Queens

The Peaches

The Four Daves

(Okay, I stole all those from Rat Queens, which is an excellent Comic).

Mark and the East Tower Crawlers.

Bobs Slightly Used Adventuring Co (An all-Undead adventuring party lead by a genial necromancer named Bob)

The Brave Six (A three-Member Adventuring Party)

The Bravest Six (Also three members)

[Shining Wrath]

Suggestion: pick common nouns and verbs.
Bring up Google Translate.
Translate them into Finnish or Irish or other languages that use the Roman alphabet but aren't French, German, or Spanish (which have already lent too many words to English).
For example, Strong the Fighter becomes Staerk in Danish. His buddy Quick the rogue becomes Hurtig.

[Raven777]

[PF]
An all undead mercenary party calling itself Death's Hand. Each carries a playing card. They're initially encountered separately in missions going against the party, until an encounter where they jump the party together.

Savlien Sayre : Half-Elf Orcale, Lich, Ace of Spades, the leader.
Veran of Galt : Half-Elf Sorcerer, Vampire, Eight of Spades, the face.
Grief : Lizardfolk Vivisectionist, Mummy, Eight of Clubs, the brute.
Daved "Dead Shot" Quick : Human Gunslinger, Pale Stranger, Ace of Clubs, the lancer.

[ZX6Rob]

Please don't take offense as it is not intended, but a lot of these sound like they could be obscure band names from the 1970s :smallsmile:

Pretty sure I saw The Blood Coven with Bright Company at the Crescent Ballroom in '76 with, like, six people. Rocked the house, man. Their early stuff was way edgier than their big hits you hear on the radio.

On topic...

In the campaign setting I'm (slowly) working up, the world is full of adventurers -- solo explorers, bands of like-minded enthusiasts, and full-on guilds with membership dues and charters. Some of the more successful groups have "incorporated", so they're named like companies; they'd identify as explorers or adventurers if they were asked by a government census or something, and they'd label that as their profession on their taxes. These groups focus more on the exploration aspect of adventuring, acting as guides and bodyguards for academics who want to study valuable but dangerous ruins. Some of the names might be things like:

Underhill Explorers' Guild
Delvers, Inc.
Seekers of Mystery, Ltd.

Other groups are more like hard-bitten mercenaries, and are as likely to be looked on as bandits or sellswords by some folk. They'd be either named something intimidating, or have acquired a title based on their exploits. Some of these groups rally around a face character, and are named accordingly:

The Skullcrackers
Plunderers of Varthuun
Mia Blackwell and the Men of Shadows

Others, well, basically *are* bandits. Depends on how many goblins or particularly stupid half-orcs are in the group, I suppose:

The Red Death
The Bloody Eye Band
wE TaK yoR sTuF

Kind of an open-ended question really, but there's lots of good suggestions in this thread!

[Meth In a Mine]

If you're players are the killing sort of people, try:
The Merry Band of Expendables
or
Those Who are About to Die
or
Butts For Kicking

If they're a gang of tough mercs, consider:
Gregor "Homicide" Clark's (or any suitably intimidating name) Mother-Hugger Crushers
or
Grave-Fillers Inc.

Just some ideas.

['Neath the Moon]

I created the Bippity Boppity Bear Brigade, a group of bugbear barbarians, who marched to the drum of their press-ganged hobgoblin bard ally, Bopper.

[Ranting Fool]

Adherents of the Repeated Meme

+1

I've been tempted to throw in a few in my campaign. Though they tend to be comic relief rather then any thing else.

The Evil League of Evil (Not actually Evil NPC's tempted to have them lead by an awakened horse)

The League of Shadows (Would drive 1 of my players mad as we had them in the last campaign)

Florance and the Machines (An artificer and a bunch of warforged)

[darkelf]

http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/name/#adventuring_parties

The Ravens of Asvaldrbekkr
Malia's Council
The White Circle
The Sapphire Company
The Order of the Sword and Coin
Elean's Dragoons
The Rogues of Eringulf
Terey's Heroes
The Covenant of the Sapphire Crown
The Jade Angels

[hemming]

39 Helens

Margaret's Marauders

Defenders of the Common Man

The Redeemers

Guardians of Virtue

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Hell-Spawn Triad

Disintegrators

Bad News Militia

[Jack_Simth]

Bloodbath & Beyond.
The Savage Doves.
The Whispers in the wind.

[Theomniadept]

Rogue Squadron
The Rebel Alliance
The Grey Wardens
The Vault Hunters
The Power Rangers
Black Mesa
Aperture Science
The Elite Four
The Light Warriors
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Third Street Saints
Foxhound

You could use these 100% original names.

But in all seriousness, you should have a group consisting of four elite summoners who serve one master summoner. Do it. DO IT.

[darkelf]

Black Mesa


that was a joke, ha ha, fat chance.

[Ranting Fool]

Rogue Squadron
The Rebel Alliance
The Grey Wardens
The Vault Hunters
The Power Rangers
Black Mesa
Aperture Science
The Elite Four
The Light Warriors
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Third Street Saints
Foxhound

You could use these 100% original names.

But in all seriousness, you should have a group consisting of four elite summoners who serve one master summoner. Do it. DO IT.

I've got the Gray Wardens in mine already :smallbiggrin:

Justice League
The Amazing Four
:smalltongue:

[rmnimoc]

The League of Extraordinary Tibbits.

The Tarrasque Liberation Front

The Slaughterhouse 9 (okay that one is stolen, but it is a nice name for a group of roaming murderhobos)

Those One Guys

That One Party Nobody Ever Remembers

[AlanBruce]

I've ran some npc groups. Not all of them have been on the party's side. Some didn;t even engaged in combat, but represented a guild of some sort.

Krell's Blades (Oddly enough, Krell is an archer, but his mercs for hire are able swordsmen who work as bodyguards and crew for sea faring jobs)

Belladonna's Boom Boom Band - a gang of orcs, hill giants, and goblins lead by a murderous psychopathic petal. She had them all dress up as fey, with flower garlands on their heads and moss tutus.

The Unrelenting Justice - a group of NPC heroes scattered around the world at the moment. Good friends and allies to a party member.

The Justcrown Ravens- Small band of rogues lead by a spellthief who wear black cloaks and raven masks when doing jobs late at night in the city.

Team Sombrero- Seven nasty assassins who wore- you guessed it- Sombreros. Their leader was a bard who played the spanish guitar hidden in a tall balcony while he used DFI to boost his allies.

The Lost Free City Expedition- pegged by the party by that name, a group of adventurers who got lost in a fey maze and became all sorts of plant themed creatures.

Guards of the Eternal Maze- A trio of Greenbound Minotaurs who kept the status quo in the above mentioned maze. Each represented an aspect of Strength and Cunning.

Cassandra's Muses- Guild of women trained in the arts of leisure and espionage, lead by Cassandra, the owner and proprietor of a Gentleman's Establishment. Great source of information... for the right amount of coin.

Sir Jory and the Brawling Lions- Adventurer's Guild that focuses on "Fight Club" style competitions in their basement after hours.

Court of Lies and Frost- Faction of the Unseelie Court that has found its way back to the Material. Lead by a Frostwind Virago (MM5).

The Trinity- an assassin group that prides itself on needing no more than 3 (although they will argue 1 is enough), to finish any job unscathed.

[Jon_Dahl]

So many brilliant names! Thank you everyone. The success of this thread exceeded my expectations :) Thank you, thank you!

[Rev666]

Can't believe this hasn't been suggested.

The Giant In The Playground: a bunch of halflings and gnomes that have a friendly giant as their muscle.

[KorbeltheReader]

You know what you could do is find a site that lists guild names in Wow or Guild Wars or something. Infinite names of whatever sort you want: humorous, high fantasy, darkly emo, whatever. Wowprogress (http://www.wowprogress.com/) is a good one.

[Zubrowka74]

A few miscellanous oddball suggestions:

- Noah's Ark, The coalition, The circle of friends, The universal brotherhood (All good for a group comprised of one member of every PC race from PHB)
- The Crazy Eighty-Eight or a variant (ripped from Kill Bill of course)
- I remember some 1e book that had Hurly, Burly and Rangers Three, two dwarven fighters and three human rangers.
- The Flabbergasting Tree-Huggers (Elves and druids, yo)
- Actually, anything with the word Flabbergasting.

Remember that just like in real life, groups ans business can choose akward or ridiculous names. It doesn't even have to be for comical effect.

[Ghost Nappa]

Charlie's Angels
Adam's Chimeras
Dumpster Dan's Dancing Divas
The O-men (as opposed to the X-men)

[Seharvepernfan]

I could swear I stole this from somewhere but "The Shadow Hands" for some rogues. Gerald's Acquisitions for dungeon delving treasure hunters (led by Gerald).

In my very first D&D campaign, the most powerful thieve's guild was called the Shadow Hand. They were the main antagonists.


But in all seriousness, you should have a group consisting of four elite summoners who serve one master summoner. Do it. DO IT.

I'm currently playing a gnome summoner in PF who is red from pokemon; my group hasn't caught on yet. She's a gnome, and therefor child-sized, she wears red robes (her name is Scarlet), and she's from Silver Mountain. Her eidolon is the sonic yeti from Scott Pilgrim (he even has electric fists), so admittedly their attention was probably drawn to that.

Anyway, my all-time favorite name for a group of adventurer's is "The Rude Knaves", which is a medieval-ish play on "Daft Punk". I statted up my "perfect" party of characters, who have that as their group name.

Somebody already mentioned "The Seven"; in an anime I used to like, called "Outlaw Star", there was an enemy group of assassins called the "Anten Seven"; which I thought was really cool. So, I added a group of elf adventurers to the history of my setting who were called "The Starfall Seven", Starfall being an elven castle in the forest. I only ever detailed one of them.

-The Rude Knaves (a good name for a special forces group)
-The Starfall Seven
-Seven Drunken Knights (a tavern in my current game)
-The Avengers
-The Knights of Cydonia
-The Cu De'Grau
-The Valkyries (pegasi-riding elf gish chicks)
-The Advent Crew (a very stereotypical and well-rounded group I made)
-The Vanguard
-The Harpers at Twilight
-Charlie's Angels Archons

[Captnq]

Name it after the first thing they saw as a group.

Order of the dead frozen squirrel.