[quote=@Lady Amalthea]
	For me it is simple - I request a decent amount of information about a characters personality on the CS. Once the posting starts if they do not go by what they have in place I call them out on it. They want to develop the character in a different direction than what they first envisioned for their character fine, but they must do it in Rp and it cannot be a sudden shift for no reason.

	So yeah I call them out and for me, I must follow all rules I put in place for my Rpers. My Cs's have to be filled out to approval level just as any Rper that enters my Rps. I must post as much as I require of them. Just because I am the Gm doesn't mean I get away with whatever I want. It means as GM I must lead by example. So if a personality section is there, I better fill it out and I better go by it. (And I expect to be called out if I don't - which I have been in the past by my Rpers. They hold me just as accountable as I hold them.)

	Now as a player, to be able to RP a character without ever having posted them before - you start small. First character should be much like yourself. Make small differences. Move from there. For me, after all these years I still use reference. Either with going back and refreshing myself on my characters CS in the CS tab or by referring to my characters quick card. (This is a hand written card I keep in my RP Agenda for each of my characters, it holds their base stuff and all their personality information.) This helps me to ensure I stay on point with each character even when I am drained, feeling lazy, or it is their first post. 
[/quote]

I see. That's a sensible approach.

I understand it even though I hardly do fully-fledged characters to take part in my games. I come from a long-time tabletop RPG background so I'm not used to GMing/DMing a game and playing it on a PC level at the same.

[quote=@ArenaSnow]
A personality section for me is almost worthless, due to the way I present a character.

A personality does not arise from a static description for me. It is a combination of three things in and of itself - a few keywords to influence my presentation, the biases of the character, and the experiences of the character. Those three things I use to build up personality, and I cannot - and will not - be locked down to a simple description that is supposedly a catch-all for the character. The best personality section you'll get from me is a long sheet of questions that I then answer with the character's personality in mind. And again, for me, personality is a combination of many factors - not a simple standalone description for how they do everything.

It is common and far easier to use yourself as a template. Far easier, yes - and not something I try to do at all. I try to make characters their own little compartments in my mind, unique individuals to remove the 'me' from the equation. I am only a parser. I am not the actual character.

Which is probably why I am half insane, considering the volume of characters I've built up over the years. But the fact I enforce my own aging mechanics does help with that somewhat.
[/quote]

Oh, I get what you are talking about. I do something similar as well. However, I got the habit of writing a small piece about the character to give them a trial run of sorts to get aa feel of the character in advance.