Sexual roleplay is an erotic

Eroticism

Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...

 form of roleplay: it is a sexual behavior

Human sexual behavior

Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...

 where two or more people act out role

Role

A role or a social role is a set of connected behaviours, rights and obligations as conceptualised by actors in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behaviour and may have a given individual social status or social position...

s in a sexual fantasy

Sexual fantasy

A sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...

. How seriously this is taken depends on the people involved, and the scenario may be anywhere from simple and makeshift to detailed and elaborate, complete with costumes and a script. Nearly any role could become the base material for an erotic experience, and there is no limit to what objects an individual could consider sexual.

The popularity of the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 has also allowed for online sexual encounters, known as cybersex

Cybersex

Cybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex, mudsex, TinySex and, colloquially, cybering, is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more persons connected remotely via computer network send each other sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience...

, which may involve roleplay.
it can be considered dangerous and therefore a safeword is advised to continue the safety of other(s) in such acts

BDSM

Many of the most common sexual roleplays involve a power differential and form part of the dominance and submission aspect of BDSM

BDSM

BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

. Roles can be general designations of power positions, or very specific, detailed fantasies. Some people, such as those living the Gorean

Gorean

The Gorean philosophy is a philosophy espoused in the science fiction novels by John Norman. A number of fans of Norman's work have attempted to live their lives according to this philosophy...

 lifestyle make use of an entire imaginary world. The controlling player is often called the top

Top (BDSM)

In BDSM, a top or dominant is the partner in a BDSM relationship or in a BDSM scene who takes the active or controlling role over that of the bottom or submissive partner....

 or dominant while the controlled individual is called the bottom

Bottom (BDSM)

In BDSM, a bottom or submissive is the partner in a BDSM relationship or a BDSM scene who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or dominant....

 or submissive.

There are a number of scenarios which may be played out, including:

• Ageplay
  Ageplay
  Ageplay or age play is a form of roleplaying in which an individual acts or treats another as if they were a different age. The practice can be regressive, in which the goal is to re-experience childhood, or sexual, recreating a sexual relationship with people of the pretend and/or true ages...
  
   – is a form of roleplaying in which an individual acts and/or treats another as if they were a different age. The practice can be regressive, in which the goal is to re-experience childhood, or sexual, recreating a sexual relationship with people of the pretend and/or true ages. Generally this can involve someone pretending to be younger than they actually are, but more rarely can involve assuming an older role.
• Animal-play
  Human animal roleplay
  Animal roleplay may be either a non-sexual or an erotic sexual role-play...
  
   – where a player is treated as a non-human animal such as a dog or pony.
• Master-slave
  Master/slave (BDSM)
  In BDSM, Master/slave or M/s is a relationship in which one individual gives to another ultimate authority over them. It is a form of dominance and submission or total power exchange. The participants may be of any gender or sexual orientation...
  
   – where a player is treated as the property of the master/mistress.
• Torturer/Captive prisoner – where one player is a captor who abuses the other.
• Kidnapped fantasy – The submissive player is bound (rope, duct tape, bondage tape, handcuffes, etc.) and gagged (duct tape gag, bondage tape gag, cleave gag, ball gag, etc.) and teased before the sexual act.
• Authority figure/Misbehaving Adult – where a player takes on the role of an authority figure and blackmails or humiliates his or her partner into sexual activity.
• Gender-play
  Transgender
  Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
  
   – where one or more players take on roles of the opposite sex.
• Goddess worship – where a woman is seen as a pagan deity.
• Hospital fantasies
  Medical fetishism
  Medical fetishism refers to a collection of sexual fetishes for objects, practices, environments, and situations of a medical or clinical nature....
  
   – involving doctors, nurses and patients.
• Uniform fetish – one participant dresses in uniform (for instance as a student, cheerleader, French maid
  French maid
  French maid refers to a strongly modified style of servant’s dress that evolved from typical maids’ black and white afternoon uniforms of the nineteenth century . The designs of the French maid dress can range widely from a conservative look to revealing...
  
  , etc.), while the dominant participant plays an authority figure (a parent, teacher, coach, police officer, etc.).
• Rape fantasy
  Rape fantasy
  A rape fantasy or a ravishment is a sexual fantasy involving imagining or pretending being coerced or coercing another into sexual activity. In sexual role-play it involves acting out roles of coercive sex...
  
   or a ravishment where one player feigns being coerced into an unwelcome sex act.
• Owner/Inanimate object – such as the bottom being human furniture
  Human furniture
  Human furniture is a form of bondage and sexual objectification in which a person's body is incorporated into a chair, table, cabinet or other piece of furniture. The term was originally coined by Jeff Gord....
  
  .
• Prison fetish
  Prison
  A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
  
   – Situational play set in a prison environment. While it can include authority play, it does not limit itself to the Master/slave paradigm; but expands the opportunities to include non-authority play between equals (such as cell mate love affairs). Prison role playing is able to combine equality and authority play depending upon the situation and the specific roles of individual players. A prison fetish play session includes all sexual orientations and limits itself only by the environment / situations agreed to by the participates. Given real life prisons are same-sex communities, this fetish does lend itself to male on male or female on female activities and settings. Opposite gender play is also possible between inmates and guards or when the setting includes a co-ed facility / institution. Prison play is also an expansion of the uniform fetish by use of inmate, guard, and staff uniforms.

Sexologist Gloria Brame

Gloria Brame

Gloria Glickstein Brame is a U.S. writer and sex therapist based in Athens, Georgia. A member of the American College of Sexologists, and certified clinical sexologist, Brame earned a PHD and MPH in Human Sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality , and an M.A. in English...

lists a number of these scenarios.