“You'll never get him outta there,” pronounced the raven-haired woman relaxing on an overstuffed sofa, filing her long, pointy nails. “Of course, we will – those brainless fiends know nothing of the plan – or our abilities.” The elegantly dressed gentleman opened a leather-bound notebook, scribbled a few lines, then passed a note to the woman on the sofa. Her eyes widened and she quickly rose, grabbed her cape, and followed the man out the door. “Let's see how they like a little chemical warfare,” he smirked, uncorking a small bottle and placing it on the floor.

A hack novelist's contribution to the net's vanity press? Not exactly. This was a scene enacted on one of the Internet's role-playing arenas, in this case, a vampire game. The players were typing their lines and describing their actions in a chat window, improvising the performance around a vague plot as they went along. This particular role play is based on Vampire: The Masquerade, a popular storytelling game ordinarily conducted in real life, but that has now migrated onto the net with considerable success. Players spend many months developing their online vampire characters and creatively participating in plots of assassination, clan war, kidnapping, and romance.

Because the never-ending plots unfold 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the players are not always clear about the difference between IC (in character) and OOC (out of character).