Role-playing comes easy to some people. They slip on a persona and they let themselves go in a character personality that isn’t theirs. They have no problem “playing pretend” at all, and other players may even wonder who the real person is.

Other players find that role-playing isn’t so simple. They struggle to figure out what their character might do, or say, or think, or feel. They look around and wonder how some people do it. Then they believe they’re no good at the game at all.

The problem isn’t a question of talent or ability. The issue is, in its essence, the ability to let go.

Role-Playing Isn’t for Wierdos

Some players feel silly. What will others think if the character goes on a rampage or explodes in destruction? They may live with a whisper in the back of their mind that they have to keep their cool and look put together – both player and character.

The result is a character that never truly lives his or her own life. Emotions are dampened by manners and common societal rules of behaviour. The truth is that, in a role-playing game, the rules of behaviour aren’t at all the same as real-day life.

Realism counts – but so does action, thoughts and feelings. To truly come alive, a character must leap off the pages or the gaming table, as the case may be. The player must embrace the persona wholeheartedly and without reservation, living every moment larger than life – even if that persona is one of shyness and quiet introspection.

Live Vicariously Through Others

Role-playing is a wonderful way to experience, at least in part, the freedom to do what one wants, to feel what one feels and to think what one thinks. Your characters allow you the opportunity to do whatever it is that you couldn’t do otherwise. Live vicariously through them with all your heart.

Where else can you become that tough-ass chick who walks around with a switchblade? Where else can you explore sides of insanity, allowing the character to slip deeper into his own mind?

Nowhere, that’s where. Role-playing isn’t real life, and in an imaginary world, everything comes true, from one’s deepest desire to one’s absolute freedom of expression.

So let go. Play without reservation. Live without fear. Try anything you’d like, no matter how crazy or silly it seems. You might be thrilled at the response you receive, and you’ll certainly end up revelling in a game without boundaries.