This was an interesting concept I came across on the roleplaying site I used before I discovered this one.

Instead of what people here call "character sheets," we did "bios." They're exactly the same, just a different label.

But some people requested that people not make a bio and just go right ahead with their first post, expecting it to be very long and to include the things you would generally find in your typical character sheet (age, gender, appearance, touch of personality, history, etc.). This was called a "non-bio."

In all honesty... I haven't encountered many "non-bio" roleplays here. Either that or I'm not looking hard enough.

So, which one would you prefer to do? They both have benefits and disadvantages, but I can never decide which way is better. I personally think it's nice to have a character sheet to refer back to if I forget some important things about my character. If you do a non-bio, on the other hand, you have the freedom to create things as you go along, but it's easy to lose track of what you have mentioned, therefore making consistency more difficult.

What do you think?

Yes.

We like character sheets, but done right, a sheet can easily be written as an IC post. For someone not there from the start, that can actually help, for then they get everything that they need just from reading the IC. However, it has to be done right to work. For sufficiently advanced RPs, a sheet is almost mandatory, though a lot of it can be introduced IC.

As a long time arena participant, I prefer to have character sheets. Not only do I like character sheets, as reading material, but people aren't as trustworthy without them in my experience.

Without one, they can easily just start adding things in at whim because there is really nothing to regulate it, causing further scrutiny of character sheets to make sure everything fits within the world, and is acceptable. This can range from weapons and abilities to money.

A character sheet lets you know what they have, and all of that so nothing is slipped in.

Blitz said
If you do a non-bio, on the other hand, you have the freedom to create things as you go along, but it's easy to lose track of what you have mentioned, therefore making consistency more difficult.What do you think?

I think for some people, it's true, while others have the ability to maintain consistency because they maintain the character's "bio" in their head. At least that's the way it is with me. Though I have no problem with a written-out CS, either.

Just how things are around here, really. Personally I like to use them like resumes. I can gauge a person's overall level writing with them using their biography, and can customize it to ask them what they want (ex: romance or opt out?), or even to warn them about certain facets of my Rp. For instance, I make people sign a signature with their username that confirms that they are aware that they have no plot armour and i can kill them. Painfully. Anytime I want to.

It's a useful tool. Don't have to use it, but why not?

Pretty much most has been mentioned by Rilla and Brovo. Showing the character's abilities and limitations up front accounts for fairness. Be it in an arena match, or a challenge a GM has tailored to fit the party. Having all skills and abilities as nice bullet-point lists are also a far easier reference than simply having them hidden in an IC-post. As a GM it is also a good way to gauge what kind of player you have on your hands, and very importantly if they are able to adapt if they got something wrong. Running systems may be a hassle to some, but tweaking characters together to create balance will teach you a lot about your players.

Though one of the main uses of the bio-part of the CS is very simple; it teaches you if a player can read or just skips a lot of your OOC and fills in the blanks for their selves. This simple part has saved me so, so many headaches, you can't even begin to phantom.

I really like going the non-bio route when you can. I personally only do it with people and groups I trust, though. Bios allow you to gauge not only a character, but a player's general skill level so I understand their popularity.

The RP I'm currently GMing started out that way. RPers would write 3-4 posts covering everything we needed to know about their characters in what we eventually dubbed as 'the flashback phase'. All these posts took place before the major event that the RP is centered upon. Everyone was required to write up sheets afterward (which wasn't originally intended), but I had never taken that approach before and I thought it was fun. I would do it again, depending on the RP. I don't actually value sheets all that much, it's just easier to refer back to one when you need to find something out about another character. Going through posts is much more tedious.

As Kidd mentioned, it is about trust.

There are very few people I allow to do non-bios on my thread. In fact, there are only like a handful of 5 people I would allow to do so, and only one has the preference to doing so. However, I have begun experimenting with an NPC->PC system in which people wanting to go the non-bio route, but are unsure of how they want to develop the character, are free to experiment with it IC. My only caveat is that if they engage in any combat they must first complete an acceptable bio.

I've always liked the idea of characters revealing more about them in the IC rather than a bio, but I've always had bios in my RP's.

But I wanted to do a sci-fi roleplay where the characters revealed their personalities and history via character-conversations rather than write it out in the OOC.

With me, sheets are king.

As mentioned, it's a very good litmus test in determining somebody's writing capability as well as how well they understand the setting, as well as making sure that their character is appropriate for the roleplay, be it their history, race, class, whatever. It also, as mentioned by other posters, ensures that there's consistency. I can't count how many times I've had to go back to reference my character sheet to make sure I kept facts straight. It doesn't matter how good your memory is, if it's an obscure thing you write in a single sentence six months ago chances are the details are foggy.

By having a sheet, you also keep people from justifying having powers/ weapons/ connections or whatever that they failed to mention beforehand that makes the game rather unfair. I can't count how many times I've seen games where basically anyone who submitted a sheet was accepted that somebody would pull something in game that caused a rather lengthy argument, which does not bode well for a game's health. If you're a GM, asking for a good sheet is basically like asking for a resume. You want to find out if somebody's a good fit for your game, and it's one of the best ways to do it. If you just let anybody in the door, you have no idea what you're about to encounter or deal with. If you're lucky, it's somebody who understands what the game's about and doesn't exploit the lack of standards. But chances are, you'll have one or two people who will need to be dealt with, sooner or later.