If Roland the Good has sworn to never cheat or steal, is this a form of PvP by the player of Lando?
I don't see how. Roland was not the one doing the cheating, and he didn't know it was happening.
is this a set up for the player of Roland, to actually role play his character in a fairly open scenario?
So long as Roland doesn't whack Lando upside the head for it, or something, yes. If Lando comes to Roland after the card game and says, "Okay, now hand over my ill-gotten gains!" Roland is entirely inclined to be furious, chew Lando out up one side and down the other, and go deliver the ill-gotten gains to some charity that will gall the heck out of Lando (like the local Constabulary Benevolent Society or something).
It strikes me that inherent to the ‘No PvP’philosophy, is a strain of thought that one Player should not be able to impact another Player.
What? No! That's... a very limited view of human interaction.
I mean... I have a great deal of impact on my wife's life. Not a whit of it is what we'd call "PvP". I never intentionally take actions that would make her life more difficult, or hurt her.
It requires a sacrifice of potential drama between PCs to ensure that there is no drama between players.
Sure. But, that's about par for the course, no? We all take limits on our behavior to limit drama with the people around us every day. That's just part of being a cooperative member of society. And a group at a table is just a little society.
It seems similar to an Improv class with ground rules that prohibit making acting choices that might require your scene partners to react.
Well, no. Improv certainly does have ground rules. They are there not to make it so the others don't have to react, but they work to help focus reactions into things that build the scene, rather than work to the scene's detriment. "Yes, and..." for example, comes directly from improv. You aren't supposed to outright negate what your partner puts into an improv - you are supposed to accept and move forward. This actually
forces them to react to what you do, and they are supposed to do so in a constructive manner.
Some Players/ tables would hate that type of limitation. It is possible to role play tense moments between PCs, without that tension sprinkling over to the players.
Sometimes. But, the problem is there's no generalizing on that, and you can't typically predict when it will go well, and when it won't. Some folks are fine with it all the time. Others some of the time. Yet others never.