I guess I should clarify: I don't want to kill off all character sheets for good - just the character sheet "as we know it." That is to say, the usual copy/pasted skeleton with vague "personality" entries and superfluous details. I don't want to abolish sheets for abolishment's sake, but try to get folks to think about their characters and roleplaying in a different way, and encourage a more 'literary,' story-centric approach.

I guess I should clarify: I don't want to kill off all character sheets for good - just the character sheet "as we know it." That is to say, the usual copy/pasted skeleton with vague "personality" entries and superfluous details. I don't want to abolish sheets for abolishment's sake, but try to get folks to think about their characters and roleplaying in a different way, and encourage a more 'literary,' story-centric approach.

There is no 'character sheet as we know it'.

RPs all have various forms of character sheets that depend on the genre and features of an RP as well as how the GM wants to run it. Sure, some CSs are copy/paste of other CSs but there's no universal CS that all other CSs stem from.

Also, what's the point of encouraging roleplayers to approach an RP in a literary, story-centric RP? Barring some exceptions (and even that could be argued), isn't that the point of Roleplaying?

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Name
Physical Description
Background or even just reasoning why the character needs to be there

Work everything else out in the narrative.

@Dinh AaronMk i think you should add drive to that list, and then it's perfect

@Dinh AaronMk i think you should add drive to that list, and then it's perfect

Drive or intent sounds like something that can be divided for the later subject in that application - which I'd also call the character's biography or history - and the actions and narrative for that character in particular.

Writing mostly in Nation RPs with the same or similar format, sometimes I'll add a flag section for fun, but also in this format physical description is replaced with its location on the world map. But more often than not any goals or ambitions the current government has for the RP tends to be kindly included at the end without prompting. By being a history everything written in there would be factors that not only assure me of the context of that nation in the RP world, but also of past events which may be driving motivating factors.

But also being a state, and thus comprised of numerous autonomous actors the player has full writing control over any direction from it might come from the way they have the independent parts interact with one another and effect the course of the state, or the state's interaction with others.

And in much the same way that's how a single character can be motivated or moved about. Albeit they are their own independent actors. Pre-RP history for the character may determine why they are there, which may be the first motivation towards any in-RP motivation.

Mostly I believe much more should be given up to organic development in the RP itself, as it so happens in a story. If you put too much into an application it may trap you into the formalism of staying true to that, where as recognizing events and relationships can change how a character acts and behave and they can evolve from one state to another, and so too can their entire motivations.

@Dinh AaronMk I find that a lot of people completely miss giving their character any real drive unless told to, though. The exception is good RPers, of course. Plus giving it a section drives the point home, and it only needs to be one word, so you're not overcrowding anything.

I fully agree with you on everything else though. Less is more