D&D: Five Ways to Make Your Adventuring Party Memorable
Want to make your adventuring party memorable? We can’t all be Vox Machina or even Los Tres Horny boys, but these tips will help you shine!
Adventuring parties are the heart of any game of D&D. These random assortments of found families have a way of catching our imagination. Whether they met in an inn, when goblins attacked a caravan, or even just at the Lost Mines of Phandelver, adventuring parties can be a character all their own. But what do you do to give your party that character? What takes you from a group of misfits and murderhobos and makes you an adventuring party? What if we told you there are some secret ingredients? Ingredients you can add to your party right now.
What’s in a Name?
To start with, you’ve got to be called something. Nobody can know who you are if you don’t have a name–unless you happen to be something like “the group with no name,” but even then, you have a moniker. It’s worked for Critical Role’s adventuring parties: Vox Machina, Mighty Nein, and Bell’s Hells. The Adventure Zone has Los Tres Horny Boys, and even Dimension 20 has their sort of meta-named Intrepid Heroes or Magical Misfits. Your group needs a name. But where does it come from? That’s another story altogether.
You can choose something that sounds cool as a group. Or you can take an in-joke and make it your whole identity. After all, we’re all familiar with the internet, right? But the best adventuring group names are often found from a moment in-game.
Like fighter pilots and callsigns. Whatever you do, just don’t wait. Pick something early and use it often. Don’t be afraid to jump at the first thing that stands out—odds are good if you’re excited, and so is the rest of the party.
Clothes Make the Team
Does your adventuring party have a signature look? You don’t have to go in full team uniforms (though you could), but does your party color coordinate? Do you have the same iconography if nothing else? Try and find something that tells people at a glance you all belong together. Maybe you have an emblem, maybe you all wear the same kind of cloak, whatever it is, announce your presence with your clothes.
Hire a Herald
Of course, you could also announce your presence with someone whose job it is to announce your presence. For the low price of a few silver a week, you can hire a herald to proclaim your arrival wherever you go. Why let monarchs and the nobility have all the fun when you can just as easily afford a crier of your own to let folks know that your group approacheth?
A Banner Day
You’ve gotta have a flag. There are all sorts of uses for a flag, they can do everything from inspiring the folks who see it to stealing a whole country, though you might need to back that last one up a little bit. Even so, a flag can serve to both mark your banner and mark your territory.
Hold an Event
Once you have all of the above, it’s time to get people together and make them bear witness to your glory. Throw a big feast—a heroes’ feast if you will¯and bring a lot of people.
Happy adventuring!
