Role play is a powerful technique for skills and attitude development. It is now possible to combine the advantages of face-to-face role play with the potential of the online environment. This paper reports on a case study of an asynchronous, anonymous, online role play conducted within a teaching course for academic staff. The following key issues in relation to online role play are discussed: (1) What is role play and why use it? (2) How different are face-to-face and online role play? (3) What causes differences in participant involvement in online role play? (4) Is role play a Western game culture and does that affect role engagement? and (5) How important is debriefing and how well does it work online? Findings suggest that online role play may offer an effective learning process and that anonymity may be a key factor for participant involvement and comfort. However the online environment may decrease role engagement, and cultural and language factors may affect participant involvement. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/MES)