That's an interesting question Reylari, really it is. Because there's actually a bit of a debate in academia as to what is the difference between "roleplay" and "interactive fiction." It came as quite a surprise to me to learn that "internet writing" is now a recognized subject to be taught in colleges and universities.

To some, "interactive fiction" is a category which contains "roleplay" as a sub-category. But apparently there's a faction that classifies all "creative writing" on the internet as "roleplay." (The latter makes no sense to me. It's like characterizing all internet posts on open boards as "discussion" when clearly not everything going on in community groups is "discussion," even though a great deal of the posting might legitimately be so characterized.)

It makes the most sense to me to distinguish between fiction in which people take specific roles and "play" that character--almost as if it were a drama on the stage. That would be "roleplay" in my book.

Interactive writing can include roleplay, since obviously you can't just take all the parts and do it alone. That is just called "writing" and you do it alone and get published. (Or you collect a bunch of rejection slips.)

Interactive stories can be tightly planned… or loosely choreographed… or totally freeform… or any degree in between. It depends on the people involved and what they want to accomplish. Sometimes the goal simply is "fun" -- like at the Red Boar in Germania. And sometimes the participants are trying to accomplish a specific writing goal. (Learning to write romance stories, learning to write adventure stories... whatever.)

There are several people at AW who are using the "interactive writing" groups as a sort of writers' laboratory. There's at least one group, The Scribe's Palette, that was specifically formed for this purpose. But there are several groups of people who work together on a regular basis and perform the same critiquing services for one another on a more informal basis in several different venues here at AW.

The bottom line really is that interactive fiction is just like any other sort of fiction except it is written by a group of people who agree on a specific "ficton" (the time, place, theme of the story) and who each take turns writing segments of the story. So it doesn't matter so much what you call the genre, it only matters that you find people you can work with doing a story that interests you -- for whatever reason.

If you are looking to get started in a story, the best way to do it is to read the story for awhile, and then ask somebody who writes there regularly to help you work into things. That strategy works well no matter what sort of group effort you want to join.