[Ides]

An RPG, or role-playing game, is exactly what it says on the tin. You take on the role of a particular character and play that character through a series of adventures. There are various kinds (play by post, moderated, unmoderated, tabletop, etc.), of which play by post is the only one I have any great familiarity with.

Although I remember that one forum I was on had a number of "bar" threads where people could play their characters outside of the games and generally rub shoulders with other characters to get personalities pinned down. Another forum still did this via chat, setting a special chatroom aside for it.