Party

A party, in the context of role-playing games, is a group of player characters working together. Generally, given a group of players, one will be the GM/DM/ST/Aedile, and the other players will take control of the player characters in a party. A party does not need to contain solely Player Characters, and various NPCs may or may not join the party, at the GM's discretion, when the plot demands it, or when players get goofy.

Never split the party. I'm serious, man, it's a bad idea.

Character Roles

As so often with most stories that we know and love as the roleplayers we are, PCs often fit into different roles in the party both inside and outside of combat. This can be planned out before the game starts ("okay, I'll play a melee tanky character so you can get some room while preparing your spells."), to a naturally developed synergy in the party ("Your character is very heroic and has all the good plans - Only natural you be the leader!"), to a party that completely ditches any kinds of tropes and roles and just does whatever the hell they feel like. As a matter of fact, any group will often end up being unique in its own way unless the players are truly devoid of any kind of strategic planning or imagination, or if they play as example characters from the rulebooks... But who does that anyway?

There are, as mentioned, two kinds of roles: What role your character takes in combat (the crunchy role), and what role your character takes during social encounters (the fluffy role).

Crunchy Roles

* The Brick: A big solid wall of "No, you can't", this dude is often a barbarian, fighter or similar, who is build to withstand large amounts of damage and deal them back in kind. The party can always rely on him to do well in battle and take the biggest load of the others back, but the Brick is often a bit weak on the fluffy part. Bricks rule dungeon-crawl games.

* The Beserker: No, not that one. His focus is simple - Get in a fight and kill what can be killed, regardless of damage done to him. Damage is of most importantance to the Beserker, so expect him to flail around with as many and as heavy weapons he can find. Barbarian-equvilants are made to be Beserkers, but other characters, like Sorcerer-likes can do it too through how much magic they can spew through their fingers.

* The Nuke: If you have ever played WoW, then this will sound familiar to you - Do as much damage as possible as fast as possible from as long range as possible. Though this might sound a bit like the Beserker, there is a few key differences, most notably, that the Nuke wants to stay as far away as humanly (or elfishly/drawfishly/orcly I guess) as possible from the enemy while doing it, and certainly wants to stay alive through a fight rather than go down bleeding. Nukes usually prepare for a very long time before doing their magic, but when they finally get to it, the enemy will know that they are dead already. Often Mages and other magical characters, but ranged characters like Riflemen and Snipers do the same as well.

* The Support: The Support might have the most boring job of all the roles on this list, but he might just be the vital - The Support simply makes sure that what the other PCs can't do, he will make sure they can when they need to. That due can't take that hit? Here, have an armour buff. We are outnumbered? Summoning some magical creature. You hurt? Here, have some healing. This way, the Support is what keeps the pain train chugging along, even if things go bad on the party. Love your Support, ladies and gentlemen - He is the life of the party.

*** More to come ***

See Also

• Murder hobos