Do you role-play in MP games and why or why not?

[Tuidjy]

I'm either full on, or full off. Usually my first message will be "Here's
what I suggest, here's my e-mail". But I recently played a game (NeoXekinima)
in which all of my decisions were for role-playing reasons. It was a mod only
game, and I was playing Ulm Reborn - go try it.

I declared war on all the undead/demonic nations on Turn I, promised that I would
not attack any of the 'good' nations, and attacked any neutral nation that showed
any sign of disrespect towards Lady Elena and the tenets of my religion. By
the way Ulm Reborn is a Militant Theocracy.

I attacked my first victim for suggesting that I trade a province in which I had
built a temple, and daring to suggest that his armies were a match for ours.
Then I met one of the evil nations, and before I had even finished them off, one
of my neutral neighbors violated the terms of our treaty by bringing a horde of
demons at our borders. The last neutral action caught a scout of mine while
patrolling and blood hunting. I launched an underwater(!) expedition across the
map, because the 'good' elves were in the way. By that time, the other 'good'
nation decided that I needed killing. The noble knights of Teutanion teleported
their Pretender on top of my border partrols, and the elves sent stealthy hordes
across my borders, but got caught and massacred. Still, I gave the latter
the benefit of doubt... and did not strike back, despite having hundreds (maybe
thousands) of troops stationed at his border.

The whole time, I was posting in character, and even role-played more than one
point of view. Never the Goddess, but I had some inquisitors, and the commanders
of each front. Even my treaties and messages were 100% in character.

I had a great time. No diplomacy to speak of, only coordination of military
plans. No haggling, no backstabbing, and a lot of fun writing pages and pages
of religious propaganda (I had quarterly issues of a religious publication)

Too bad that a patch came in and broke the mods. (After I won, but before
could start the AAR that I had planned on) Only much later I realized that
I could have asked for the backups, and used an old version.