Although the effectiveness of role play and its vicarious learning experiences for counselor training is well documented, little research has focused on the impact of the order of playing the roles on skill development. To investigate the effect of ordinal position, 36 beginning counseling students, 24 female and 12 male, with a median age of 30, participated in three 15 minute role playing sessions. The students were assigned to one of 12 counseling triads and then assigned to intratriad levels of ordinal position, counselor first, second, or third. Each subject also rotated through the client and observer roles. Prior to the sessions, all subjects were trained in the counseling skill, reflection of feeling. Following the exercises, written and audio transcripts of the counselors' responses were rated for frequency and degree of fidelity to the clients' feelings. An analysis of the results showed that neither ordinal position nor client or observer role affected the students' abilities to produce reflection of feeling responses. However, the accuracy of reflection of feeling responses (fidelity) showed steady improvement from counselor one to counselor three. In light of these findings, counselor trainers need to research further the most effective conditions for implementing role play in counselor training. (BL)