Role Playing

I'm specifically talking about play by post, table top role playing games. You know, the kind with paper, pencils and funny shaped dice? Lots of screaming in strange voices about demonic overlords taking the secret sauce of ... never mind.

Do you enjoy this form of comradery? Or just using the blinking curor taunting your face as you stumble through writers block, only to trauma dump on fictional characters who have to defeat a Basilisks or something?

What's your favorite part of role playing? Is it sharing the story with friends? Character Creation? Attempting to stump the Game Master with a new and improved, twisted cockamamie shenanigan plot device in your attempts to rival the evil overlord of doom in your conquest of the world for domination!?

For me, I love telling the story. Getting into a character's head...yes a bit of causing that poor schmuck some trauma and seeing rainbows and sunshine after a particularly dark adventure. (I've been called a Character Sadist on more than one occasion, alright?) But I also enjoy all the awesome surprises people come up with during their interactions with my characters. Their unique problem solving. Interpretation of rules in unique ways. Keeps me young.

Anyway, what about you? And what kind of characters do you prefer to play?