History Main / OddlySmallOrganization

* The Inquisition in ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' seemed to consist of only the four main characters plus a few recurring characters. However, the truth is that while the Inquisition is much bigger, the reasons main characters are so rarely seen with other Inquisitors is because A: they are blackmailing the chief to have a large, well-furnished building to themselves, and B: everyone else in the Inquisition hates them and hope that they die, so they rarely send backup. They even have a betting pool. However, the reason they don't just murder them themselves is that they are useful due to their absurd amounts of luck. This gets averted in one arc where they take command of a small BadassArmy.

It is possible that the organization is [[NoSuchOrganization so secretive they deny their own existence]], or claim to be [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront the Office of Agriculture and Land Management]]. Thus the individuals you see and interact with are just the agents they want you to know about. Similarly, there may be Management and a few agents, but all their assets don't have a clue who they are actually working for.

Occasionally, the hero(es) might meet a group of characters who make up a secret organization that either menace or help them. They are shadowy, and mysterious, known for their [[QuirkyMinibossSquad unique]] and quirky members, and the organization has a [[InformedAbility reputation for being far-reaching and prevalent]]... except we never see any of that – it's just talk. Whenever these guys show up, it's just the same group of misfits we know and love.

On the rare occasion that there are more of their number in existence, those characters never last. They simply show up and then disappear, with a few cameo appearances in the future, but still not enough for it to break our FridgeLogic.

A result of having an EconomyCast. See QuirkyMinibossSquad and SuspiciouslySmallArmy for a SubTrope of this in VideoGames. If one person purportedly has multiple roles in the organization, there may be NewJobsAsThePlotDemands. Can be justified if the few members there are is each a OneManArmy.

* ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'': Camp Kidney's only staff are Scoutmaster Lumpus, Slinkman, Chef McMuesli, Nurse Leslie and the lifeguards Pierre and No-Neck (who only appeared in two episodes). Still, they were better off than Acorn Flats who only had Jane Doe and Ms. Mucus

** In ''Blackadder II'', Queen Elizabeth II appears to have only three courtiers, and no royal guards (even when she calls for them).

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

* ''Literature/KingOfKingsGaogaigarVSBetterman''': After [[spoiler:Guy's return]], it's revealed [[spoiler:that while all of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard's duties and staff (apart from [[Anime/GaoGaiGarFinal those left in the Trinary Solar System]]) had been folded into the Gutsy Global Guard, Chief Yaginuma hadn't retired as was commonly believed, but had stayed on as Chief of the ''Galaxy'' Guard. And since all the other members (apart from Mamoru and Ikumi) were officially MIA, he was technically the only remaining member of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard until Guy came back. To a slightly lesser extent, this trope still applies after Guy's return, as while Kotaro Taiga is reappointed as the Galaxy Guard's Chief, with the rest of the group ''incommunicado'', the UN hands over the reins to Guy as "Gutsy Galaxy Guard’s Acting Chief-slash-Mobile Corps Captain-slash-only member."]]

** In the Egyptian spinoff series that takes place in the same universe ''Literature/TheKanChronicles'': An interesting tidbit is that the House of Life, a mage organization that existed since the heyday of Ancient Egypt, is actually horrifically small for a global organization. At the start of the canon the entire new generation of mages - as in all the potential initiates in the world - amount to just 24 and apparently the First Nome - the biggest of all 360 Nomes, is so short-staffed they had to resort to using these new initiates to monitor the other Nomes. jarring since unlike the Greek, they aren't being hunted by monsters 24/7 nor are they busy fighting apocalypses
* The VolcanoLair in ''Literature/DrFranklinsIsland'' actually takes quite a large staff, but other than Dr. Franklin and [[ReluctantMadScientist Dr. Skinner]] they're all unnamed and not distinguished at all as individuals - just a succession of nurses and orderlies in [[LightIsNotGood pale uniforms]]. Some of that is because they speak Spanish while Semi, the viewpoint character, doesn't, and some is because only the two white doctors understand the full scope of the project and keep the staff largely in the dark and away from the girls. When Semi and Miranda start their SlowTransformation in a replica of a hotel room, as soon as their changes become serious the two doctors take over their care entirely.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': in ''Blackadder II'', the Queen appears to have only three courtiers; in ''Blackadder the Third'', the Prince Regent has a staff of two; and in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'', Capt. Blackadder has only two men under his command. However, he does mention several other officers, such as Corporal Cartwright (who looks like an orangutan) and several are there in the final push.

--->'''Crusher''': It's all perfectly logical to you, isn't it? The two of us roaming about the galaxy in the flagship of the Federation. No crew at all.\\
'''Picard''': We've never needed one before.

--->'''Homer''': [[AsLongAsThereIsOneMan You can kill me, but someone will take my place]]. And if you kill him, someone will take his place. And if you kill him, then that's basically it, the town will be yours.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': This is true of the Autobots and Decepticons in many continuities, where both factions tend to be represented by rather small teams, with [[RememberTheNewGuy a couple of new characters trickling in]] [[MerchandiseDriven as new toys come out.]]

* ''VideoGame/Metroid1'': The Space Pirates are hardly the fearsome force the manual make them out to be. The local fauna and general geography are your most constant dangers in their so-called base. They managed to steal quite a lot of Metroids all the same. The manual claims Mother Brain gave life to the Multiviolas, but they still aren't referred to as Space Pirates, only "eerie followers" of them. The strategy manga for the game added a bit of plot, explaining Samus defeated most of the space pirates in space, but then fell off her ship (the vessel seems to be a bit of a klutz when Samus isn't piloting it or giving it orders), requiring her to find new power-ups when she landed on the planet without it.

* Shadaloo in ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. As far as we know, there are only five or six members: The leader M. Bison, his CoDragons Barlog, Vega, and Sagat (replaced in the fifth game by F.A.N.G.), Seth, the leader of the subordinate S.I.N. group that went rogue in the game it got introduced, and the financial advisor JP, who was only introduced in the sixth game after the Shadaloo was dissolved. Even if you count the {{brainwashed|AndCrazy}} [[AmazonBrigade Doll Squad]], they are still quite small. This is subverted in Bison's intro movie to ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' where we see him with a fairly large amount of henchmen.

* LaResistance in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil'' appears to consist of about five people in a basement. Justified in the game; ''this branch'' of LaResistance consists of five people in a basement, plus a leader whose real identity they don't know. Said leader is the leader of several (if not all) of the other branches of LaResistance as well, but this branch doesn't know how many branches there are under his command, how many people are in those branches, or who they are. All this inter-organizational secrecy is so that, in the (unfortunately likely) event that any of the branches are captured, the locations and identities of the rest of LaResistance can't be tortured out of them. Possibly the sequel will shed some more light on it. The Chief himself [[spoiler:happens to be the main character's best friend]].

** Team Yell in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' are an even smaller organization--they consist of no more than a dozen hoodlums based in Spikemuth and as few as six or seven grunts roaming around Galar. There are also no admins whatsoever, with just the grunts and their leader [[spoiler:Piers]], who shows no signs of even being aware of what his organization is doing. Justified, though, as Team Yell's purpose is simply to let Marnie pass ahead of the other Gym Challengers by slowing the others down--they only need to locate bottlenecks where the furthest challengers are and [[NPCRoadblock get in their way]], which doesn't require many people as long as they're good enough at what they do. Averted with the larger-scope villainous organization [[spoiler:Macro Cosmos, which controls most of the industries in the Galar region: It DOES have an admin system and contains a seemingly endless supply of grunts]].

* Shadaloo in ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. As far as we know, there are only five or six members. Even if you count the {{brainwashed|AndCrazy}} [[AmazonBrigade Doll Squad]], they are still quite small. This is subverted in Bison's intro movie to ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' where we see him with a fairly large amount of henchmen.

** The only seen agents of S.H.U.S.H. were Director J. Gander Hooter, Agent Grizzlikof, Dr. Sarah Bellum and Derek BLunt.

See also TheMainCharactersDoEverything, which is related if there are no extras in the background, and CriticalStaffingShortage. May be a result of the characters being an EternalEmployee who is AlwaysOnDuty. Also compare ClubStub. TwoTeacherSchool is a special case for school-based stories where the adult staff is severely limited to keep the focus on the students.

** In ''Yakuza 3'', the Ryudo family is mentioned to have soldiers out on patrol, but the only members ever shown are the patriarch Nakahara, his captain, and one of his lieutenants.

* In ''VideoGame/NeoTheWorldEndsWithYou'', the Ruinbringers consist of only three people -- Susukichi, Tsugumi and their unseen leader [[spoiler:Game Master Shiba]] -- but win the games every time, despite the fact that even the Wicked Twisters(the party) is larger than they are from the end of the game's first day.

* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'':
** In ''Yakuza 3'', the Ryudo family is mentioned to have soldiers out on patrol, but the only members ever shown are the patriarch Nakahara, his captain, and one of his lieutenants.
** Also in ''3'', the Hamazaki family's small size is a plot point. Kashiwagi mentions that a family with the kind of reach and wealth the Hamazaki family has should have at least a couple hundred soldiers, but the Hamazaki family only has ''ten'' "made" members. [[spoiler:This is because Hamazaki is using the [[RuthlessForeignGangsters Snake Flower Triad]] as his muscle, and is one of the first indications that Hamazaki is less than loyal.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats1985'': The Berserkers. Originally, Hammerhand had a fairly large crew but after his first appearance, the pirate band were reduced to him, Crucnher, Ram Bam and Top-Spinner.

* In ''Webcomic/PVPOnline'', at the end of the arc in which Skull runs away after Brent's abuse gets to be too much for him, the rat Skull befriended tries to invite him into the "Rat Family," a criminal organization he hopes will rise and become powerful. Skull asks how many people there are in it, and the rat says that if Skull joins, there will be two members.

** The Secret Society Egos from ''Series/BattleFeverJ'' consist of the BigBad, Satan Egos; his {{Dragon}} Heller; their {{Mooks}} and whichever MonsterOfTheWeek they cook up for the episode. They get temporarily a staff upgrade with the strongwoman [[SixthRanger Salome]] but that's about it.

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonandtheOlympians'': One of the major worldbuilding lore is that how every single important conflict and person in western history is demigod or demigod-related despite the fact that Camp Half-Blood is heavily isolated community (which isn't help by the fact that demigods cannot use wireless divices or phones due to attracting monsters) who only has ~100 demigods at the best of times and only a small percentage of those achieve adulthood.