Your party's name

[Hyena]

You know what really brings colour to the player parties? Names. Many parties go unnamed, and it's boring - what do they call themselves, "Jessica and friends"? Lame! Even being named after a stick on the ground is better then nothing.
I know I'm not alone in this sentiment, so please - share it.

Personally, my party is called Company of the Hat after the (somewhat) famous historic mercenary band. It also happens, that everybody in the party is wearing hats - even the awakened rat (and it rests on my hat, too).

[lytokk]

right now, the party I'm DMing for is calling themselves the Knights of Mugsy or something like that. Named after the basic players manual mug the party sorceress bought and then decided to make a backstory too it when I mentioned in the first session the Light spell needs an object to target, and she volunteered her mug. The party flag consists of a squid holding onto said mug. They plan on putting something into each of the squids tentacles.

Is there a word for both loving and hating your group? I mean at the exact same time.

[DigoDragon]

Is there a word for both loving and hating your group? I mean at the exact same time.

I dunno. My group just calls it "Complicated".


As for team names, we rarely have them.
If we do give ourselves one, it's usually because of some very strange encounter:

Team Trixie: When the party unicorn managed to spectacularly fail in outwitting an opponent, she found herself at the receiving end of a firefight with an Italian mob. The rest of the party, against their better judgement, decided to jump into the fight head on. This nearly got half the team killed and the unicorn managed to turn the fight around by driving the team vehicle through the building (chasing off the mob). Thus, the unicorn heroicly declared her the team savior. While the party refused to recognize the name, the NPC funding the team used it just to annoy everyone except the unicorn.

SDMC: This party got the name from an eccentric and slightly evil wizard. She had no destructive motives, but the party loved to mess with her regardless, usually by blowing up her things. Spectacularly. She was arguing with the party cleric outside her farm when the rest of the party accidently set off her meth lab in the barn. While they were inside. The explosion completely destroyed the barn in a big and VERY familiar mushroom fireball, prompting the wizard to mutter, "Same Damn Mushroom-shaped Cloud". The name stuck as an abreviation.

[Aedilred]

I don't know; I've always felt party names are a bit goofy unless they're needed for some specific purpose. It depends what the purpose of the party is, and how they meet in the first place, really. If they need a name, it'll probably emerge organically over time as a result of achievements or experiences. It seems like the sort of thing that a party would come up with when required, most likely when actively trying to hawk their services as mercenaries or hirelings, rather than something they'd formalise at the start of a campaign.

And a lot of the time, depending on the nature of the party, it might not even be anything particularly grandiose. If there's a recognised party leader, it might as well just be "Whatsisname and retinue/companions", for instance.

[rusty2667]

The player's in my group thought it'd be hilarious to call themselves "the Brady Bunch." They went so far as to sew "BB" patches on their clothing.

Nobody is named Brady, they just pulled the name out of their collective rear-ends.

As they grow in fame, I think I'll start having NPCs start asking "So, which one's Brady?" To complete the reference, have the prospective rich NPC employers start offering cigars and telling them how they're "gonna go far." I doubt they'll get it.

[sktarq]

I usually find name of the party to be secondary to a call phrase, motto, etc. These normally occur naturally over the first few sessions.....The greetest, For no raisin, The committee for bad decisions are a few examples.

[Felhammer]

They were called Crew of the Mithril Scarf but then their pirate ship was destroyed. Now they are the Crew of the Mithril Mitten, a sturdy dingy that weathered a hurricane and saw the few survivors safely to a deserted and mysterious island.

[Kane0]

Thugs 4 Less (stolen, cookie to the first who picks it) and Four to a form (on account of the party mascot hosting 4 individuals in his head).

[Amidus Drexel]

As they grow in fame, I think I'll start having NPCs start asking "So, which one's Brady?" To complete the reference, have the prospective rich NPC employers start offering cigars and telling them how they're "gonna go far." I doubt they'll get it.

Or, for a complete non-sequitur, just ask which one's Pink.

--
Not a party name, but the unofficial name of a short two-player campaign I ran this past summer was The Ivan-Hornan Experience, named for the two characters Ivan and Hornan.

[BrokenChord]

I was once in an all-Knight game (it was horrid, I hate playing characters without magic) and we named ourselves the Valencian Chroniclers. Chroniclers because our characters were supposed to find and study some historic artifacts, Valencian because we thought it sounded cool.

There was also Vorthil's Guard, but that's because we were, well, body-guarding a guy named Vorthil. So I don't know if it accounts.

I've had about a dozen or so groups I've been in name the group something that calls back to where the group was formed. Mostly standard stuff, but it was kind of cool in a planar-strolling Epic game where we referred to ourselves as the Wanderers of Prime Materia.

[starwoof]

One of my parties consists of an inquisitor, fighter, and monk. We realized in the first session that we all have at least 18 strength so we started calling ourselves the Squats Club. We go around flexing at NPCs now.

[LimeSkeleton]

In an old 4e game, my group was a bunch of Pirates/Mercenaries/Professional Thieves and Assassinss, and they collectively called themselves "The Faceless."

In my current 4e game, with the same players and different characters, they've taken up the name "The Iron Martyrs" at my own suggestion. Instead of pirates, they're roaming mercenaries in the wide-open plains, chasing after their ex-bosses that betrayed them.

[Averis Vol]

My group has been "Bad Company" since the night they left their drugged out, gimp legged captain alone in the rain and being chased by wolves. They said they were going to investigate a camp an told him to stay put. Then they took the dead guys wagon and horses and just left.

[Gemini Lupus]

In my setting there is an Adventurer's Guild, which requires parties to register not only their name, but also their device.

So in my last campaign, the party named themselves the Order of the Stein and Ram. Their device was a battering ram with a beer stein over it.

This party also found a mascot, in the form of a goblin that they captured. They named him Le'Mac and he became something of comic relief. I based him on the Pathfinder Goblin mascot and gave him the ability to change costumes at will. He understood all languages perfectly, but only spoke in chattering. I decided that he was part of a subrace of goblins, called Gobwins, to distinguish him from the more deadly and serious goblins.

[WolfLordBran]

In the current Mysts of Time game, the Heroic tier party (Three parties, scattered across Heroic, Paragon, and Epic tiers) is known as "*insert bad word here*-ups Incorporated" since well, the party is a bunch of *insert same bad word here again*-ups.



But somehow we try, and usually succeed, at being Good. Go figure...

[comicshorse]

In our Eberron game because the group consisted of five members and three of the members tended to use their bare hands (or claws) in combat we called ourselves 'The Crimson Fist' (not terribly original I know)

[Anderlith]

I had a party founded by me (a human paladin) & an orc barbarian, elven ranger, & an assimar cleric of Pelor.

We had around 10-12 party members because we had a drastically huge gaming group.

We were called the Seraphan (kind of altered from the biblical Seraphim angels)

My paladin spent a sizable amount of gold to get a fancy banner & was the standard bearer. Whenever we had a big battle I'd plant in in the ground & we would fight around it. I even drew it up. It was a crossed greataxe (barbarian) & arrows (ranger) underneath a shield (paladin) depicting a sunrise (cleric of Pelor), representing the founding members.

[DSmaster21]

Shadowrun: My current party name is "Those Idiots who keep showing up" (or Those idiots for short). Name is taken from a conversation the players eavesdropped on where they were described as such by a group from a megacorp. Basically because they would show up bumble around and just barely succeed and the one time they got caught it was just one of them and it was the ork who is always a cookoocloudlander who spouts non sequiters constantly, Ironically the one person they had no evidence on. So he gets tortured and they get nothing but gems like how he hates soycaf and how he likes the taste of marshmallows. So he got released and since then the corp that they most antagonize has upped their game against Those Idiots, especially the stupid ork.

[TuggyNE]

I decided that he was part of a subrace of goblins, called Gobwins, to distinguish him from the more deadly and serious goblins.

Are there also dwagons and twolls and marbits?

[FallenFallcrest]

The party that I am DMing for is called "The Social Network". It is ironic because they all have miserably low charisma scores. They don't do well in social outing, sadly. At least the face man of the party has mind influencing powers.

[Gemini Lupus]

Are there also dwagons and twolls and marbits?

Afraid not, but that is where I got the name from. Fortunately my group doesn't read either OotS or Erfworld, so I can get away with it

[AntiTrust]

In a game I'm currently in we're called the Weekday Pirate Gang and as our name would suggest we do all of our big pirating on the weekdays, but on the weekends we party and have a general good time.

[Necroticplague]

I've been in a group that got the name of 'the gremlins' from the DM, and it kinda stuck. Came from the groups habit of always looting everything they plausibly could. And quite a few that they couldn't. Thus, what also ended up being a running gag/group motto:"A good thief can steal anything that isn't nailed down, on fire, or trying to kill them. An adventurer doesn't leave that much behind them."

[Prince Raven]

One of the rewards my Dark Heresy players will be getting for successfully completing their first mission will be official recognition by the Inquisition with the designation Venatores.

[Socksy]

You know what really brings colour to the player parties? Names. Many parties go unnamed, and it's boring - what do they call themselves, "Jessica and friends"? Lame! Even being named after a stick on the ground is better then nothing.
I know I'm not alone in this sentiment, so please - share it.

Personally, my party is called Company of the Hat after the (somewhat) famous historic mercenary band. It also happens, that everybody in the party is wearing hats - even the awakened rat (and it rests on my hat, too).

I'm playing as the Rat in the Hat in the Hat. Well, the Pikachu in the Hat in the Hat. Awakened Rat Psion ftw.

[BWR]

Using the Pathfinder Games Mastery Guide's random adventuring party name generator, my gf's group got "the Valorous Blades of Fate"

Usually we don't bother naming ourselves because IC it's just a group of friends that get together and do stuff. Sometimes they will be members of some larger organization, like a military or a church, and then obviously will use that as an identity.

[ElenionAncalima]

Never had a group name, but in one game , myself and another player were nicknamed The Suicide Sisters...because we are the only front line fighters...so when one of us would rush into melee, the other one would rush in so they didn't get gangpiled.

In the campaign I DM, my players are going to be entering a tournament where they will need a team name...I dread (but also look forward to) the inevitable creative block. Currently, one of them comes from Tokyo Village, because I asked him the name of his village...he panicked and noticed the game "King of Tokyo" near the table. I will not be surprised if they end up being called "The Bottles of Water"

[The_Werebear]

My current adventuring group isn't using one, but not for lack of my pushing. I'm advocating for "Knights of the Bloody Pastry" still over a brawl we got into with some orcs over a pie we baked.

[Cloud]

Our name ended up being "the worst party ever".

Not exactly creative, but what meant to be a good party originally just got darker and darker as the character concepts feed off each other, and we now have a Dwarf Cleric of Hanseth who is continuously drunk and picks fights/drinks/converts people (pretty sure these are done all at the same time), a Human Rogue who is ah, a lady of the night, that uses that position to steal objects and information alike, a Human Duskblade that ended up justifying his choice of using a spiked chain by being a slaver, and a Human Dread Necromancer that worships the Evening Glory who wants to recreate his dead lover, and is only in the party because the Rogue looks like her.

Somehow we actually end up north of neutral in how we act, and get well along enough as a party (in that no one has been stolen from or ended up undead), but yeah, that constant joke between us is that when you look at the component characters, we really should be the worst party ever, but somehow we manage. It helps that the melee-based Cleric has Charisma 6 and thinks that the Dread Necromancer's undead minions aren't undead because he can't turn them. =P

[dysprosium]

My group's most famous name: League of Moderately Entertaining Fellows (LOMEF for short). We were playing a Faerun campaign and of course wandered into Cormyr so we needed to have an adventuring company name. This campaign started as a joke but grew into one of the most successful ones of my career and has spun off three different campaigns too.

My group in the Age of Worms adventure path is known as the Redeemers Steakhouse. In part four, the party had to enter a gladiatorial style game and they originally had named themselves the Redeemers. The night before their debut they had gone to a particularly poor restaurant and wanted to change their name to You Call this a Steakhouse? Both names were on the printed fliers for the games so of course the crowd in its confusion started chanting both when they started doing well. The way I described the cheering the only intelligible words were Reedemers and Steakhouse. The name has stuck ever since. And to top it off, every new city they went to, the spent time to scout out locations for their new chain of restaurants.