Role Playing

[Senkusha]

Role playing has been used on forums for a long time. I feel it's a great way to encourage community and friendship among people who would ordinary be strangers on the Internet.

Do you enjoy any form of role playing on forums?
Do you offer role playing options on your forum?
Finally, what are your thoughts on role playing on forums?

I do enjoy role playing on forums, as playing by post gives me momentary opportunities to be creative during the five or ten minutes that I'm not busy working or doing chores. It also gives me the opportunity to play from anywhere at any time without needing to schedule a block of hours to meet up with friends (that I currently don't have -- I'm available!!).

I do offer role playing on my forum, in fact, that's a primary function of of my forum, and part of it's existence. I wanted a place to role play as anime characters, or as original characters in anime type settings, and I know there are some other places on the Net to do this, but it either wasn't exclusively catering towards anime, or it wasn't really in a forum environment.

However, on a number of anime forums, where I have noticed a role playing section or game, sometimes these games are often found dead or dying.

What do you think about role playing forums?
Do you know of any forum based mechanics or systems that work particularly well for play by posting?

I know several forums have modifications that can be added for rolling dice, and there are a couple of forums I've seen that implement character sheets (usually limited to D&D though).