What exactly is roleplay? Some folks love it, some folks hate it. But just what IS roleplay anyhow? Like so many questions in life, the answer is "that depends."

At its core, all roleplay (RP) is an interactive endeavor. Many different kinds of RP exist in the universe, but at AncientWorlds people have focused on interactive writing which can be categorized into four major types. Enactment of a scenario can be conducted in the chat room. Game playing can be transacted via written story moves. People also can engage in spontaneous and freewheeling interactive story writing. The other possibility is pre-planned interactive story writing. For the purpose of keeping us all on the same page, I will designate these four styles as "live timing," "role gaming," "informal interactive writing" (informal RP) and "formal interactive writing" (formal RP).

All four styles have certain common elements. First, you need a character (or characters). The characters portray the particular slant and perspective you wish to bring to the roleplay. Second, you need a setting--when and where will the action take place? (Dramatists call this the mise en scène. Science fiction writers call it the "ficton.") Third, you need some other people to work with. Fourth you need a scenario or storyline. Finally, you need an agreed upon set of guidelines or rules. (The rules may or may not be explicitly set out somewhere. Explicit rules for role gaming are a more obvious need than they are for other forms of RP. But unless people agree on some basics, things don't work out very well.)

Live timing on the internet typically takes place in a chat room. People agree to meet in a specific chat and write "in character" for a particular length of time. Think of it as a spontaneous play, written by many people, which is carried out through dialog with a minimal amount of exposition or description. For example, some folks might want to "do" a Robin Hood scenario. One person portrays Robin, another is Maid Marion, and so forth. There isn't much pre-planning, as the whole point is to keep the action impromptu. It's much like improvisational theatre in that things are live and you really don't know what the next person is going to say or do. Live timing can be quite exhilarating if you get the right group of people together!

Role gaming is at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of formality. The point of this type of RP is the game not the writing. The scenario is incidental to the moves of the game and those moves are governed by a complex set of rules. Unlike a play or a story, there is no pre-determined plot. Nor are the characters narrative driven. Instead, the role gamer acts with one goal: to win the game. The best way to explain this is to give a specific example.

Writing roleplay involves three elements: a group, a story and a character. You need all three of them and one is no more important than the other, so there is no point in turning this into a chicken and egg discussion. Let's just agree that once you decide that you wish to write roleplay, you need a character who will serve as your "voice" within the story. Thus, the first question to be answered is "who do you want to be?"

Although the choices literally are limitless, there are certain obvious initial decisions to be made. Is the character male or female? How old is he or she? What are the primary traits of this person? What appearance does he or she have? What is the character going to do? What knowledge and personality features will he or she need to accomplish the character's function? The answers to these questions (and the reasons for the answers) can be personal or can be compelled by the story you want to tell. Usually, I find the character flows from a mix of both.

All of that sounds very complicated and esoteric. But really, it's only a matter of letting the character tell you who he or she is. I can try to illustrate the process by explaining some of the mental gyrations that led to the development of one of my own characters. Aelia Cassius was created because I needed a "mother" character for a writing group set around 200 BC in Rome. I wanted a Patrician woman with a bit of money and some political connections. She needed to have some independence of action, or the part would not be fun to write, so Aelia could not have a husband who would order her around and compel obedience. I did not want to deal with a divorced husband floating around in the background. Aelia was, therefore, a widow.

Now… what would a Patrician Roman widow have been like in 200 BC? I had no clue about that! So, without even realizing I did it, I took the stilted speech pattern and rigid approach to life displayed by one of my high school teachers and imposed them on poor Aelia. From her very first post, Aelia was a humorless Roman Matrona of inflexible principle and overweening pride. She was perfectly crafted to fulfill her purpose in life: scheming, plotting and gossiping in furtherance of her son's political career.

But over the years, Aelia had to change. For one thing, the story for which she was created was gone. For another, she was too much of a one-note song and became boring to write. So, when "Maria Marius" needed a cousin, I grabbed Aelia who was ready to hand. Aelia lost twenty years, became slender and lost her fixation on Roman Female Virtue. Quite the opposite in fact. "Maria" needed a relative engaged in something illegal. So Aelia became a working girl. I did not want to write about some poor tramp plying the Via Sacra, therefore Aelia catered to a select clientele of well-heeled and highly positioned men who exercised great power in Rome.

Creating an interesting character is not something that occurs overnight or takes place in a vacuum. The interactive aspect of the writing affects the manner in which you see your own characters. I had never described the physical attributes of the new Aelia in any posts. Several male writers intersected with her--and each of them saw her differently. To one, she was a dyed-blonde bimbo. Another saw her as a hard-eyed brunette with the soul of a brass cash box. The third saw her as a red-head with ice blue eyes… an honorable woman, caught by hard times. His view of Aelia changed my own approach to her. She remained a widow, but this time around, her husband was the victim of a murderer. She was left with insurmountable debts and had to scramble to keep from being crushed. So, she sold the one thing that was left in her control, thereby making herself a social outcast--and becoming a much more interesting person along the way.

Now, suppose that you want to create a male character--a warrior. What else do you need to decide about the man? According to Decius Aemilius, the first thing to ascertain is what the guy's hair looks like and whether he has any scars--and if so how many. You also need to know whether the character has a "cool name." Then you need to consider why he is a warrior. Cultural demands create a different sort of person than one who is fleeing an abusive home. Perhaps the guy merely ran into a persuasive recruiting sergeant. How long has he been a warrior and how old was he when he saw his first combat? Is he a leader or a follower, that is, can he successfully command others or is he just good at fighting the enemy? Did he work his way up through the ranks or was he from the sort of background that caused him to be handed a command? How loyal is he? Does he stick by his friends? Is he out only for personal gain? Will he be loyal to his friends at the cost of betraying his homeland?

Some of those questions can only be answered in context. If the man is a member of the Athenian army in the third century BC, he probably is not an aristocrat. If he is…then why is he in the army? By way of contrast, a Gallic warrior fighting Romans in the first century BC is quite likely to be an aristocrat. And if he is not, then why is he fighting Romans? Drakus Domitius adds that he always wants to know the man's heritage. What is the character's ancestry? What are his socio-political circumstances? And, above all, what are his goals?

Once you have answers to at least some of these questions, then what? You need to sketch the character so that other people can see him or her. One way to do that is to write several paragraphs of exposition. However, that is extremely difficult to do in an interesting manner. The better way is to place your character in the middle of the action and let his personality and physique become apparent to the reader as events unfold. (This has the advantage or permitting you to begin writing without deciding every little thing and setting it in stone.)

It's easier to demonstrate than it is to describe. So, with the permission of Baldwin II Belgae, I give you the following account of two men who have not seen one another for many years. Pepin The Bard confronts his former teacher, Cyricus:

“Your weathered face hasn’t gotten any prettier old man!” After a hearty growl and a rough embrace Pepin took a seat at the table next to the Master at Arms.

“And your sharp tongue hasn’t gotten you killed yet? eh Master Pepin?” Cyricus had a gravely voice and the age worn face of a hardened soldier. His pate was mostly bald and what hair he did have took the form of thin gray wisps. He looked past the peak of his days, but Pepin knew from his strong grasp there was more to this old warrior than met the eye.

“Its good to see you again boy. What is it that brings you through our fair lands?” The Master at Arms speared a piece of wild boar with his poniard and took a warrior size bite.

In nine sentences we know all that we need to know about Cyricus. He's aging but strong, a vital and ironical man who has lost his hair but not his capacity to live life to the hilt--the kind of guy who spears wild boar with his belt knife!

So now it's time to put all this into practice. Create a character. And next time, we'll figure out how to build a storyline for him!

As I have stated, to write an interactive story (or to do roleplay), you need a group, a story and a character. I've already delved into the mysteries of developing a character. So maybe it's time to discuss creating a story.

The entire point of interactive writing is that you do it with other people. (If it is not interactive, it is just called "writing" and you do it alone in a sensory deprivation chamber.) We will assume, for the sake of this article, that you have some folks who want to work with you on a story. So. Now you need a plot or story line.

Where can you get one of those?

First of all, please understand that there has been nothing new written since Homer produced the Iliad. Choose any story you have ever read, and you will find the core of that story in Homer. Jane Austen handled the concepts a bit differently than did, say, Mickey Spillane. But it's all there in the Iliad. Trust me. Did you ever read Shakespeare? Even HE didn't fabricate new stories. He retold the old ones… and did it so well that we are still reading him almost half a millennium later.

My point is not that you have to be Shakespeare. What I am saying is that, if there is nothing really new, then we can all feel free to borrow from others and we need not worry about being "good enough" at creating the plot. As an aside, however, I note that it is inappropriate to simply steal a story written by another--that is called "plagiarism." What you can do, however, is borrow themes or combine situations.

Arthur Miller may own the copyright on the play "Death of a Salesman," but he does not own the concept of a man who devotes his life to soul destroying pursuits. Nor does Shakespeare own the idea that ungrateful children might torment their ailing father. And Cinderella doesn't hold a lock on the concept that a woman might hate the drudgery of her life and dream of being rescued by a prince who will take her to a better place.

So… suppose you and your friends considered the above stories, and decided that it would be good to write about a tired man who has devoted his life to acquiring wealth for the benefit of his family. He has worked tirelessly to satisfy a rapacious wife and children who don't respect him. On top of all that, his younger brother schemes behind his back to take everything he has worked to build.

Nothing new there. Not really. Set that story in Rome and make the guy a senator who has been building wealth through secret (and highly illegal) trade arrangements. Put it in Germania, and turn the guy into a Viking marauder who would have preferred to trade peacefully but found it to be less profitable than taking goods and captives by force of arms. Maybe you would prefer Greece in the Golden Age? How about having the guy dream of being a philosopher all the while he is accumulating great wealth through trading slaves captured unlawfully from Ionia? And on his way back home from… wherever… the guy rescues a young woman from some horrific danger and she is so grateful to him that she… Well, you get the drift.

You can do the same sort of thing with television shows or movies. George Lucas doesn't own the idea that a young man would dream of being an important warrior who saves his people from an evil enemy. The Law and Order folks don't have a monopoly on the concept of government employees working together in varied capacities to control crime. And neither Nathanial Hawthorne nor Grace Metalious owned the plot device of secret sexual liaisons that cause pain and torment to the participants all out of proportion to whatever joy the affairs might have brought.

Personally, I find reading police case files to be highly inspirational. So are newspaper stories. Pay attention to the gossip your aunt tells your mother. In our town, there once was a family in which a woman had four children by her husband. She divorced the man and married his father, by whom she then had four more children. The four older children were half-siblings of their mother's younger children, but the older ones were also nieces and nephews of the younger ones. Think of the wonderful story you could set in Babylon or Egypt based on THAT family!

You can also use a Macguffin to spur your creativity. A Macguffin is a plot device that explains or drives a situation in a particular direction without needing to provide a full explanation of how or why that device functions. Alfred Hitchcock once explained that he wanted to make a film about a man who forces a woman to go to bed with another man because it was his professional duty. He wanted to set the film in Brazil and implicate Germans engaging in nefarious activity of some sort. Hitchcock needed a reason for the Germans to be in Brazil. He thought of jewel mining (Brazil produces some of the most outstanding precious minerals and gems in the world) but then one day, it occurred to him that uranium would be a good thing to use instead of gems or gold. The atomic bomb had not yet been unleashed when the film was in pre-production. Neither Hitchcock nor his partner knew exactly what Germans might want with uranium. But Hitchcock figured that if Rutherford could split the atom and unleash heat, then somebody someday would probably make a bomb. His partner felt that it didn't much matter. What they were interested in doing was putting together a love story and one Macguffin was as good as another as long as it forced the characters where they needed to go. Notorious was released in 1946, and has been engrossing audiences ever since.