A
party is a group of characters adventuring together in a
role-playing game. In
tabletop role-playing, a party is composed of a group of players, occasionally with the addition of
non-player character allies (sometimes called
henchmen) controlled by those players or by the
gamemaster. In computer games, the relationship between the party and the players varies considerably. Online role-playing games or
MMORPG parties are often, in the above sense, of the same constituency as tabletop parties, except that the allies are always controlled to a lesser or greater extent by the computer AI. In single-player computer games, the player generally controls all party members to a varying degree.