Animal play is also known as pet play and involves a submissive person taking on the role of a particular animal. Most of these roles are pets such as puppies, kittens and ponies but rarer animals can by imitated too. A dominant who looks after a person during animal play is known as an owner or a trainer. They may get their pet to accept treats from their hand, crawl on all fours or wear a lead for example. It all depends on what kind of animal their pet is.
Gender play is just what it sounds like, playing about with gender roles. It’s role play where the people involved take on a gender other than their own. So this could be a male dressing up as a female or a non-binary person dressing up as a guy for sexual play time. It can involve elements of dominance and humiliation, sissification and forced femme are 2 common types of gender play. However, these elements don’t have to be present, it’s simply about role playing another gender than your own for sexual pleasure. It’s something you do for a session now and then, just like any other role play but instead of dressing up as a plumber you dress up as the opposite sex.
Sexual role play is a staple of pornography, but all kinds of folks love it out here in the real world too. Plenty of people find that certain things are sexier in imagination than they are in reality; non-consent fantasies are a classic example of this. Other role play ideas are fantasies involving certain stereotyped roles (police officers, schoolgirls, hot mysterious strangers). With role playing games, or RPG, you can explore these things in safety and in comfort, alongside someone who in reality you already know and trust.