Parties

Groups of characters working together to reach gameplay goals.

Cooperating usually makes it easier to succeed with tasks. For this reason, games where players have characters may places these in Parties with other characters so that they together can try to reach the goals provided by games. The other characters may be controlled by other players - requiring

Examples

Parties first emerged in Category:Tabletop Roleplaying Games such as Dungeons & Dragons and the Basic Role-Playing system. While Parties simply represented the characters of the players currently playing the structure of the games made it advantageous that characters' had diverse skill sets, e.g. complementing combat-oriented characters with those that could heal or find social solutions to problems. The third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay introduced game mechanics specifically oriented to Parties: the players have to collectively choose which type of party they are with the associated advantages and disadvantages this has. GURPS provides some possibilities for players to get party-specific advantages (e.g. the "Teamwork" perk).

Like most other features, Parties continued to be used in Computer-based Roleplaying Games such as the Ultima series, the Fallout series, and the Dragon Age series. In these single-player games the players create Parties with non-player characters, and may have to choose between which ones to have in the group. In contrast, players of World of Warcraft need to organize themselves in "raid" groups of appropriate sizes to complete the "instances" provided by the game. In this game concepts such as "tank", "healer", "crowd controller", and "damage dealer" have flourished as players have developed combat strategies. These have in turn influenced the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which uses functional descriptions such as "leader", "controller", "striker", and "defender".

The X-COM and UFO series shows examples of small scale strategy games where players create Parties to go into battles against extraterrestrial enemies.

Using the pattern

Parties can be used in both Single-Player Games and Multiplayer Games.

Parties usually assume at least three members, so for example Torchlight - where players always have a pet companion - does not qualify as using the pattern.

Limited Resources

Characters Companions Player Characters

Negotiation Strategic Planning Tactical Planning

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Although Parties make use of the Characters pattern, the pattern can also be said to modulate Player Characters since it puts them in groups where they need to cooperate.

Having a maximum number of members in Parties make them into a form of Limited Resources. Games such as the Fallout series and the Dragon Age series use this to force players to make Tradeoffs between which Companions to have in their Parties.