Role play really involves groups of like minded sociopaths meeting in darkness and explaining the actions of their ficticious characters to a controlling member of the group. That person, the Games Master (or GM) then co-ordinates the action of the Player Characters with the populace of the fantasy world which they have devised. Its all discussion and relies on story-telling ability, narrative, and the imaginations of all thouse involved. Basically it is like the best fiction novel you have ever read, only you and your friends are the main characters and have control (of sorts) over the plot. What can I say, you?ll either love it or loathe it. Or else wander away looking befuddled.

The most beautiful person of your dreams walks over to you and asks you to dance. What do you do?

That?s role play, though not a particularly well thought out plot. Try this instead..

You?re in a bank, the doors burst in and two masked men armed with pistols charge in. They haven?t seen you yet and you?re standing right behind the larger of the two. He appears to be the leader. What do you want to do?

A simple fantastical situation, not necessarily impossible but not everyday stuff either. You have the option to lie down on the floor like they request, or to try to run, fight, hide, or maybe disarm or unmask the man in front of you. Anything you can think of you can do, so long as it is within the bounds of possibilities within the game setting.
The same scenario could be transferred to a medieval merchants guild, or a futuristic space port. Anywhere your imagination can take you, you can go. You can be a street punk in a world run by corporations, trying to dodge the police, rival gangs, and maybe a couple of heavies a corp has sent after you whilst you try and pull off a deal to pay off debts to get you out of trouble. Or a monk trying to defend his hometown from corrupt officials or evil beings from a rival dark cult. Otherwise a policeman, or private investigator hired to solve the murder of a prominent public figure. Samurai, spies, bounty hunters, law enforcers, demon hunters, conspiracy theorists, scientists, thieves, healers, priests, warriors, dragons, goblins, knights and more. There are as many worlds to play in as you could possibly want. All you need is imagination..

By placing yourself in a ficticious situation and questioning how you would deal with any arising problems you are role playing, that is, playing the role of another person.

Though I have been intending to run a campiagn/adventure of my own for some time (ahem! okay, five years or more) I am still in the development phase of the plot. Sorry guys!

Whilst this plotting has been simmering away I have however continued to participate in numerous other games for various periods of time. The most notable being an epic three year long campaign which was finally concluded in June 1999. Jack Bateson, the Master of all Games Masters provided a detailed fantasy setting for a complex political fantasy adventure which has to have been the best game I have played in. My thanks to him for being so patient with the party.

I'm looking forward to a weekend run scenario in March which will reunite the party again

Some of the characters I have created during this period are summarised below:
Whiteflight, the gay blade (with apologies to Adam Ward)
Killed at birth, the dead goblin baby was found and reincarnated by Aeson, a dragon mage/monk who raised him as his own son. Whiteflight became a bard, his adventures beginning after having run up a large bar bill in celebration of his rebirthday. This character sold out (and sold) many of his fellow party members for his own personal gain, and for a long period was the longest surviving party member until he was tragically killed in a drunken bar brawl. Previous deaths had resulted in his reincarnation as a dwarf, a ressurection, and his penultimate incarnation as a werebear after winning a bet with Griss, the god of luck, chance, and romance. An incredible ability for survival, rumours of his death are still not believed by some of his former, and more suspicious colleagues. Having played this character for longer than any other in ten years of gaming I was particularly upset to lose him, however new characters and opportunities evolved and the game continued, possibly better for his absence.
Indeed some of the more suspicious party members would be right. Whiteflight is impossible to keep down, and his humble origins have stepped up to save him from the Halls of Griss once more. Now, new and improved, Whiteflight rejoins the ranks of the living as King of his own goblin clan. Finally his body reflects the mindset he's been demonstrating for these past few years. (Games Master: Jack Bateson)

More will follow at a later date