Roleplaying
In
roleplaying, participants adopt and
act out the
role of
characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Roleplaying is like being in an
improvisational drama or free-form
theatre, in which the participants are the
actors who are playing parts, and the
audience.
People use the phrase "role-playing" in at least three distinct ways:
*to refer to the playing of roles generally such as in a theatre, or educational setting;
*to refer to a wide range of games including
computer role-playing games,
play-by-mail games and more;
*or to refer specifically to a
role-playing games.
[Andrew Rilstone, "Role-Playing Games: An Overview" 1994, Inter*Action #1 at http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/rpgoverview.html ]Simulations and roleplaying 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.
Roleplay 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".
[Gredler, M. (1992), Designing and Evaluating Games and Simulations: A Process Approach, Kogan Page, London]Since the 1920s, role play simulation has been used in politics and international relations contexts, including model League of Nations organizations, which gave rise to model
United Nations simulations. Mock Trials, and model legislatures, such as the
YMCA Youth in Government program, are good examples of political role play too. Typically educational goals, real world political goals, and entertainment goals have all been important to political role play.
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.
Role-play has been an important part of military training for centuries. The Prussian term for live-action military training exercises is
kriegspiel or "Wargames," a term that has entered English as well, although the contemporary military prefers to call them
military exercises.
The
psychodrama tradition of psychotherapy, largely founded by
Jacob L. Moreno in the 1920's employed playing roles, and acting out scenes in a therapists office or a group therapy setting, as a technique for therapy. By the 30's and 40's under the influence of
Roger Caillois and
Johan Huizinga the play aspects of psychodrama begin to be emphasized, and by the 60's it is not uncommon to call this
play therapy and to emphasize the game playing aspects, especially when used with children.
Role-playing in the form of
historical re-enactment has been practiced by adults for millenia as well. The ancient Romans, Han Chinese, and medieval Europeans all enjoyed occasionally organizing events in which everyone pretended to be from an earlier age, and entertainment appears to have been the primary purpose of these activities. Within the 20th century historical reenactment has often been pursued as a
hobby.
Another role-playing tradition is the
improvisational theatre tradition. This goes back in some sense to the
Commedia dell'Arte tradition of 16th century. Modern improvisational theatre began in the classroom with the "theatre games" of
Viola Spolin and
Keith Johnstone in the 1950's. Viola Spolin, who was one of the founder the famous comedy troupe
Second City, insisted that her exercises were games, and that they involved role-playing as early as 1946, but thought of them as training actors and comics rather than as being primarily aimed at being fun in there own right.
Role-playing games
A role-playing game is a type of
game in which the participants assume the roles of
characters and collaboratively create
stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their
characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal
system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they may
improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.
A form of roleplay 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 roleplay is common in
BDSM, and is integral to most pseudonymous or anonymous forms of
cybersex.
Sexual roleplaying in online games
Sexual roleplaying also occurs, albeit rarely, on various forms of
online games. This is a generally less accepted type of roleplaying in an online community, though opinions about it vary. Social acceptance and attitudes to sexual roleplaying differ within various communities, often dependent on the community's genre or purpose (e.g., adult
BDSM and
fetish communities not only accept this behaviour but promulgate it as the main activity around which the online community functions).It is also not uncommon for players to form personal attachments or friendships with the player that they roleplay with.
The above mentioned example is generally better accepted in an
online environment than roleplaying a character that involves sexual-related content in public or in abovementioned adult-themed roleplaying games.
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Roleplay Simulation for Teaching and Learning
