Role-playing

In role-playing, participants adopt characters, or parts, that have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Role-playing is like being in an improvisational drama or free-form theatre, in which the participants are the actors who are playing parts.

For learning and therapy
Simulations and role-playing exercises are one of the oldest of educational methods, having been used in ancient times and from young age. (Young children role play "doctor" and "nurse", "customers" and "shop owners" etc.) They have been used extensively in vocational training situations and in vocation-oriented higher-education courses (e.g. Law, Medicine, Economics) since the 1960s.

Role-play simulations fall into the category of multi-agenda social-process simulations. In such simulations, "participants assume individual roles in a hypothesised social group and experience the complexity of establishing and implementing particular goals within the fabric established by the system". (see Gredler, M. (1992), Designing and Evaluating Games and Simulations: A Process Approach, Kogan Page, London)

Since the 1950s, role play simulation has been used in politics and international relations contexts, including model United Nations simulations. For example, Project ICONS and Fablusi role play simulations allow role play simulation designers to model human relationships using different rights structures in communication environments, differential information and amount of wealth.

Sexual role-playing
Sexual role-play is a form of role-play in which partners take parts in a drama that provides sexual gratification; these might include a teacher and pupil, employer and maid, or parent and child. Sexual role-play is common in BDSM, and is integral to most pseudonymous or anonymous cybersex or Cybering.

Role-playing games

 * Main article: Role-playing game

A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game where players role-play by assuming the role of a character in a fictional story. Its origin is in miniature wargames, with rules for individual combat and the use of magic spells in fighting, hence the focus of many role-playing games on combat and on the medieval-period fantasy genre.

The term "role-playing game" originates among traditional tabletop role-playing games (also called "pencil and paper" (P&P or PnP) role-playing games) like Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest or the multi-genre GURPS. However, role-playing is also a genre of computer and video games like the Final Fantasy, Ultima and Deus Ex series. These games are differentiated from tabletop games by the terms computer role-playing game or, more rarely, console role-playing game (both referred to by the initialism 'CRPG'). More specifically, it also covers the massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like EverQuest, Ultima Online, Ryzom, EVE Online and World of Warcraft.

Many role-playing games do not focus on playing the actual persona of the character, only on their role in the game as determined by their statistics or other numerical or situational characteristics. In general, it is only mandatory to remain in character in the more rigorously enforced tabletop and online role-playing games. People who choose to remain in character in such games are often called "roleplayers"; in tabletop role-playing games, people who do not act in character are variously called "roll-players", "hack-and-slashers", or other derogative terms.

However, while not nearly as common, and at times considered "geeky" even by other gamers, there are servers or specific groups of roleplayers on many of the aforementioned Role Playing games, as well as games like Neverwinter Nights, which are based off of Dungeon and Dragons scenarios and use D&D rulesets.

A more specialized form of the role-playing game is the live action role-playing game (LARP), in which participants act out their characters' actions, often using elaborate costumes, fake weaponry and other props. (See the gamemaster article for an example of role-playing within a paper and pencil game).

Online role-playing
Online text based role playing games ("RPs" for short) have become much more popular online since the mid-1990s, with message boards being one of the most common formats. (This is also called Play-By-E-Mail or PbeM when done online in groups.)

However, at around the same time, the advent of MUDs or "Multi User Dungeons" were created. Using predominantly Telnet (but also incorporating a similar setup to the Play-By-E-Mail games at times) these MUDs were, and still are used by many communities to make quick and easier to setup and use text style adventure games or even just chatroomesque programs for a specific audience.

When role-playing on a message board, the player controls a character, and works them into the plot along with other characters controlled by other players. The end result is an unpredictable story that may or may not finish, depending on the length of story and devotion of the players. These games are divided into many different genres, topics, literacy-levels, and can even be divided based on the sexual orientation of the RP characters (not to be confused with sexual roleplaying, where 'cybering' or other various forms of sexual gratification are the sole purpose). Exceptions to the rule of a single character exist; Many roleplayers prefer to field multiple or competing characters, or in some cases large entities like corporations or nations.

Thanks to websites like Avidgamers, Neopets, Gaia Online, and Runescape roleplaying is a popular activity world wide, mainly with adolescents and young adults. The most popular genres of online roleplaying include medieval fantasy, period drama (1800's, 1950's, etc.), modern horror/fantasy, animal role-playing, and media-based. Media-based roleplaying games (based, for example, on the Harry Potter series) are common, and the players involved tend to overlap with the relevant fan fiction communities.

Roleplayers tend to use their own slang as well. For example, a 'Mary-Sue' is an obviously desperate character (also known as a 'despie'), usually perfect in every way and a complete bimbo. A 'literate' is someone who posts in paragraphs, with advanced spelling and grammar capabilities, and possibly a plot. '//' ('slash') is the style of roleplaying using two characters of the same sex who are romantically linked. (This was once refered to as 'flame' by fanfiction authors, though, most have switched to the term 'slash', in reference to slash fiction.) Emoticons are also common, but are generally only used 'OOC', or, 'Out Of Character', when roleplayers are simply talking to one another and not in the midst of a roleplay. 'Godmoding', 'Godmodding' or 'Power playing' is usually restricted in most roleplays because it involves one character taking control of other characters' fates, and utilize abilities that may not fit the RP, such as making your character invincible. Most roleplayers tend to avoide this type of action, as it could potentially involve the 'Godmoder' killing off another character or group of characters, etc. One can even rate their roleplay, to show other's their boundries. G, PG, PG-13, and R are the common ratings. An 'X' rated roleplay is a good implication that sex is the core of the subject material, similar to cybering.

Sexual role-playing in online games
Sexual role-playing also occurs, albeit rarely, on various MMORPGs. This is a generally less accepted type of roleplaying in an online community, though opinions about it vary. Some people think that sexual interaction is a natural part of life; thus can and should be a part of role-playing too, only if done privately like most people would do in real life. Other people think it's wrong and doesn't belong online, especially where underaged teenagers also spend their time.

Sexual role-playing is typically performed by characters who love each other, although this can have different meanings for each role-player. Some have no problem going all the way, others draw a certain limit. This can depend on the player, but also on the character. It is also not uncommon that the players get a personal attachment to the character and/or player that they role-play with.

The abovely mentioned example is generally better accepted in an online environment than role-playing a character that involves sexual-related content in public, such as a prostitute. This also generally goes in conflict with the policies of the MMORPG in question.