<Snipped quote by Hank>
And I personally feel strongly about not putting all my cards on the table and revealing everything there is to know about my character before the story even begins. If you picked up a book, and the author immediately tells you what kind of character each person is, how trustworthy they are, their ultimate goal... where's the fun in that? Where's the mystery? If I say he likes to backstab people, or has a strong sense of honor/selflessness... there won't be any surprise if he betrays the group or gives his life to save one of them. His personality is also going to be in back of the other players' minds when they have their characters' deal with him, and whether they are aware of it or not could affect their characters' behavior towards him... hence why I tend to avoid reading other people's personalities when I go through their sheets, in order to make my characters' interactions feel as genuine as possible.
Why do you need to know how the group members are going to mesh with each other? Isn't the entire premise supposed to be that a group of unaffiliated adventurers came together for an adventure? They don't know each other, and it's more fun to see their relationships develop as the story progresses, rather than be able to predict them before the characters are even introduced. Whether they all turn out to hate or befriend each other, it's a surprise. Now, if you're specifically looking for characters who will all get along, or all become bitter rivals, then that's something you should have said at the beginning. If you're simply looking for a diverse past, then enough information has already been shared through my character's appearance, backstory, and abilities, to make him significantly unique from everyone else.
And haven't you ever heard of the phrase "Show, don't tell"?
Honestly, in the personality section I straight-up told you I intended to reveal his personality over the roleplay, and it wasn't my preference to reveal it all in the character sheet. If it really was a dealbreaker, you could have told me that and I would have added it in. Instead you led me to believe I had a chance, and I hung around here checking out other characters and talking to people, and then you just rejected me. My refusal to initially fill out the personality section says nothing about what I'm like in a roleplay. You yourself said the character and bio were good except for that one section, which I would have filled out had you simply asked.
As for me not putting 'Marne' into my bio... I actually did read your rules when the thread first came out. Then I had to walk away from my computer to do other things, and by the time I got back it had slipped my mind. Maybe it's because I'm used to roleplaying in a small tight-knit community where everyone is familiar with each other so we have no need for rule-trapping like that, but it's been years since I actually came across one of those so I wasn't on lookout for it. But yeah, I did mess up there.
Anyways, this isn't meant to come across as a rant - just an explanation of why I did what I did, a defense of my roleplaying habits, and some counter-criticism.
@Inkarnate already said everything I was going to say. I think you and I are used to different styles of roleplaying. I don't actually
like being surprised. I often plan ahead with other players what our characters are going to do and having a fleshed-out personality to draw on helps me decide which characters would be good or fun to interact with. It's easier to plan a disagreement or a fight if you can tell what would set that character off and subsequently fit the writing to make that scene believable, for example, but that doesn't prevent relationships from developing unexpectedly over time. Context is powerful and two people who might seem very different from the get-go could still end becoming fast friends or lovers if they survive hardships together. That doesn't require a blank sheet.
On top of that, I do indeed use the sheet to judge the character and your ability to write, and I didn't leave you an option in the setup of the sheet to leave something blank. With these levels of interest I will give priority to everyone who followed the instructions completely over someone who didn't, and I deliberately didn't give anyone a chance to address the issues with their sheets beforehand by informing them of what my criticism was going to be. You were no exception.
And "let the personality/history come out in the RP" is (or was, I'm an old fart) basically a meme about bad roleplayers here on RPG. Our culture is different than what you're used to, I think.
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