Why do people role play?

Just wanted to hear what people find so enticing about it.

Method acting, histrionics, costumes - stretch the mind, make it work. Be the evil D'Arcy (or the controlling U-69) or the "innocent" Gwendoline... It's just fun, adds an air of "playtime" to the whole thing. As I believe I've said before, I like giving my imagination a workout.

SpectreT said:

Method acting, histrionics, costumes - stretch the mind, make it work. Be the evil D'Arcy (or the controlling U-69) or the "innocent" Gwendoline... It's just fun, adds an air of "playtime" to the whole thing. As I believe I've said before, I like giving my imagination a workout.

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How *into* your role do you get when you play?

I had a friend of mine video tape me when I got into character once, for a no-budget, volunteer cast and crew movie we're shooting. It's kind of interesting to watch, and a little disturbing at the same time. Posture and mannerisms changed a little, choice of words, and it was all kind of subconscious. I was aware that I was "in character" for the camera, but the character was the filter through which I interacted with others. It's kind of like that, but not as serious.

It's about playtime and fun, not about being someone else for the camera, y'know?

I just thought of something else, related to the original question.

It can be about "Safe Distance" - mentally or emotionally - from the scene, for some people. They're not ready to go all the way into kinkyness, admit fully to themselves that it is indeed them.

SpectreT said:

It can be about "Safe Distance" - mentally or emotionally - from the scene, for some people. They're not ready to go all the way into kinkyness, admit fully to themselves that it is indeed them.

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This helped me understand things a bit differently.
Not tooting my own horn here, but I don't have issues going places in kinkyness. I can understand a person wanting to remove themselves a bit.
I have done role play but not like I have seen described online.
Most "roles" that I have played are bits of something that really exists inside me coming to life so to speak.
Hmmmmm I wonder if i have multiple personality disorder.

Kajira Callista said:

This helped me understand things a bit differently.
Not tooting my own horn here, but I don't have issues going places in kinkyness. I can understand a person wanting to remove themselves a bit.
I have done role play but not like I have seen described online.
Most "roles" that I have played are bits of something that really exists inside me coming to life so to speak.
Hmmmmm I wonder if i have multiple personality disorder.

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Not MPD; you're acting. That one sentence descibes acting better than almost any other.

Like I said, my role playing's about keeping my imagination sharp and having fun. I'm intellectually aware of the safe distance thing, but I don't think I've ever seen it in person.

SpectreT said:

Not MPD; you're acting. That one sentence descibes acting better than almost any other.

Like I said, my role playing's about keeping my imagination sharp and having fun. I'm intellectually aware of the safe distance thing, but I don't think I've ever seen it in person.

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Thanks for your input. I have always viewed peoples want for role play as pretending they ar D or s. You have showed me differently.

I feel like a hard and dirty real bout of roleplay about now. The real sort of role play, not a sexual sort.

*sighs*

Fury

Callista the role play you mentioned D or s is not really roleplaying...but being a "player", but I know what you are getting at. What SpectreT is decribing is acting. Now my interpretation in BDSM roleplay is getting dressed up in a French maid's costume and getting into the headspace to play the part, assuming a French accent and all that goes with it. The Dom would likely roleplay being an Aristocratic employer attempting to seduce or be seduced by his maid. Although we've never done it I think it would be a gas.
About multiple personalities.... I think most of us have many sides to our characters and depending on the situation we put on our masks... metaphorically speaking of course.

I don't usually role play in the bed room, that is just not my thing. However, while discussing role playing in our table top games, things have gotten pretty hot between us. Particularly when we begin to brainstorm the unusual combinations that might occur from the supernatural powers of our characters and even with NPC.

Now and then we do some playing at nonconsensual resistance type things. We both enjoy that a lot. He is rather surprised at how hard, how long and effectively I'll play. I need to get some knee pads though. LOL!

Fury

FurryFury said:

I don't usually role play in the bed room, that is just not my thing. However, while discussing role playing in our table top games, things have gotten pretty hot between us. Particularly when we begin to brainstorm the unusual combinations that might occur from the supernatural powers of our characters and even with NPC.

Now and then we do some playing at nonconsensual resistance type things. We both enjoy that a lot. He is rather surprised at how hard, how long and effectively I'll play. I need to get some knee pads though. LOL!

Fury

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What's the deal with sexuality and table top RPGing? I really gotta ask because I've been D&Ding for about ten years now and I'm always coming across players in various groups always trying to sexualize the experience in a completely over-the-top manner. I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm in it to loot some temples, kill me some Trolls, and make the experience as cinematic in my mind as possible. There seems to be a lot of mention of oral stimulation and whatnot than I usually like.

Well what I was talking about was in the bedroom just between my husband and me.

However at table top games there is always a lot of double entendres and outright filthy mentions. Why? Maybe because we all like to play all kinds of games and are a bit childish like that? At long as it's all kept light a little dirty talk is fine IMO but there is a line I don't cross or let others cross while around me.

Fury

cati said:

Callista the role play you mentioned D or s is not really roleplaying...but being a "player", but I know what you are getting at. What SpectreT is decribing is acting. Now my interpretation in BDSM roleplay is getting dressed up in a French maid's costume and getting into the headspace to play the part, assuming a French accent and all that goes with it. The Dom would likely roleplay being an Aristocratic employer attempting to seduce or be seduced by his maid. Although we've never done it I think it would be a gas.
About multiple personalities.... I think most of us have many sides to our characters and depending on the situation we put on our masks... metaphorically speaking of course.

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That was exactly what I was describing, and it is a form of acting.

O'Mac said:

What's the deal with sexuality and table top RPGing? I really gotta ask because I've been D&Ding for about ten years now and I'm always coming across players in various groups always trying to sexualize the experience in a completely over-the-top manner. I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm in it to loot some temples, kill me some Trolls, and make the experience as cinematic in my mind as possible. There seems to be a lot of mention of oral stimulation and whatnot than I usually like.

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Most groups I've played with are all guys. This makes some topics a little uncomfortable, and only a couple of us from the old group actually role played our characters. One is absolutely a "metagamer", taking it from the perspective that it's all a game, almost never says anything in character, you know the type. Another refuses to be involved in the plot, going off on crazy tangets as far away from what we were supposed to be doing as possible. The two of us who roleplayed our characters, well... He always played female characters, who could best be described as "having more balls than any six men I've ever met... She wears them on a necklace", and my own character, who invariably gets his gender switched early on (Our GM was particularly amused by my roleplaying of a big, tough, strong paladin who was suddenly female and big, tough and strong. I made going to the loo a comedic misadventure that took nearly an hour of play time to sort out - and gave the GM a hook into his plot.) Over sexualization didn't take place too often in those games, though there were a few times the female characters found themselves in awkward situations. "Putting on a girlie show" for a recalcitrant informant comes to mind.

I kind of miss the 'ol table top sometimes...

Nods to SpectreT.

SpectreT said:

Most groups I've played with are all guys. This makes some topics a little uncomfortable, and only a couple of us from the old group actually role played our characters. One is absolutely a "metagamer", taking it from the perspective that it's all a game, almost never says anything in character, you know the type. Another refuses to be involved in the plot, going off on crazy tangets as far away from what we were supposed to be doing as possible. The two of us who roleplayed our characters, well... He always played female characters, who could best be described as "having more balls than any six men I've ever met... She wears them on a necklace", and my own character, who invariably gets his gender switched early on (Our GM was particularly amused by my roleplaying of a big, tough, strong paladin who was suddenly female and big, tough and strong. I made going to the loo a comedic misadventure that took nearly an hour of play time to sort out - and gave the GM a hook into his plot.) Over sexualization didn't take place too often in those games, though there were a few times the female characters found themselves in awkward situations. "Putting on a girlie show" for a recalcitrant informant comes to mind.

I kind of miss the 'ol table top sometimes...

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LOL! Sounds like fun, well the two actual role players sound like fun.

When I was still a virgin, (I've been playing a looooong time.) my character fucked all of her hinchmen and a few giants, titan, none of whom were player characters but yeah, she was pretty randy.

After I was getting some, my next character was chaste as could be.

That's kind of interesting for me to look back on.

Fury

I can't do face-to-face RP, whether it's a tabletop D&D game, or in the bedroom. I feel like a complete tool and break down into stupid giggles.

Online, though, I RP a mean bitch of a character.


[/geek mode]

hmmm, interesting topic. some have mentioned the appeal of roleplay being the fun/playtime aspect....i think this is precisely why roleplay of any kind has always turned me off. for me, life....submission...sex...slavery...etc...are all very serious things. that is why from the first moment i discovered the lifestyle, i knew "24/7" D/s (slavery to be specific) was the only route for me, because i had absolutely no desire or tolerance for "playing" at it on weekends or at parties, and then going back to real life afterwards. this whole lifestyle is about who/what i am....real life...so anything that seems to make light of that just screams wrong to me. heck, my Master and i don't even scene, as that can connotate acting or playing, which is just not ever a part of our D/s.

Can be fun in small doses. I enjoy costumes sometimes, and I really enjoyed doing a "date gone wrong" scene. I think it's almost impossible to play with crossdressers without it pulling some "role" out of you, even in a limited way. I like to encourage them to give me lap dances if they're not too huge.

Kajira Callista said:

Just wanted to hear what people find so enticing about it.

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In it's broadest sense, Role Playing is nothing more than a somewhat more grown-up version of "let's pretend!"

When you role play you can be anything or anyone. A roguish pirate, a stablehand, an honorable paladin, a lusty tavern wench... the character lets you "act outside" your _normal_ boundaries. You can do things _the_character_ would do, but you, in your normal everyday life, might never consider doing.

Role-playing can have elaborate rules with books and books of information you need to play and run a game, or it can be as simple as "tonight, _I'm_ gonna be the Inquisitor, and _you_ are going to be a heretic and witch..."

I've played table top RPG's since D&D (Dungeons & Dragons for the non-gamers among us) was a boxed set of 3 digest sized rule books that had developed from a set of rules for gaming fantasy miniature armies called Chainmail. Later in life I got involved with Live Action Role Playing games(LARPs) like Cthulu Live!, Allout Helter, and Dark Confrontation. It wasn't that big a stretch for me to go from tabletops to LARPs, from LARPs to roleplaying in BDSM scenes.

And every character I've played has always had a little bit of the essential _me_ in them... that is what makes a character a living breathing persona as opposed to mask put on for the duration. By RP'ing certain BDSM scene's I can "try them on for size", see how they fit me (if at all), if it gets me hard and happy or if it turns me way off. While RP'ing wont teach me new skills, it will allow me to wrap the head around ideas without putting another human in harms way.

Lets play lil red riding hood.

'scuze me Rapunzel, but I believe we have a date.

snowy ciara said:

'scuze me Rapunzel, but I believe we have a date.

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*giggles and lets down my hair*

Role playing was a method for me to cope with the nights i could not be with Master (I live in Amsterdam, He in Brussels).
Sometimes He made me do real things (hairbrush, pegs) but most of the time He told me things that He might do next weekend.
It was so to say the ultimate fore-play.
Maybe you would not call it actual role-play as we both did imagine things being ourselves (?)



kien

I haven't tried sexual role-playing, so I don't know if I like it. But I do know that the AD&D I play takes me away from this world, gives me a break so to speak. It's like vacation. When you travel, you leave your normal surroundings, go see new places. When I play my character it not only takes me to a whole different world where life is simpler (though not really easier), but it also takes me away from the me I usually am. Suddenly I'm this powerful person who can do stuff I wouldn't dare dream about.
And O'Mac, looking at the pics of women in role-playing books (it's probably mostly horny guys playing who use them books for wanking inspiration) I would not presume to say it's killing and looting only. Even though in my group it is. I really should make my bf (the dungeon *master* of our group - lol) prepare something fun and get the group to meet again.