Josh Sawyer talked about the role in role-playing at the Game Industry Conference October 6th, 2017 in Poznan, Poland:

What Are We Talking About?

• The importance of characters and their roles.
• What is a role?
• How do we make space for roles?

• Case studies: Icewind Dale, Fallout: New Vegas, and Pillars of Eternity

• How to best represent roles in games.

Thanks Farflame!