[quote=Kestrel]
Meta-gaming means using information the player has and the character doesn't to the advantage of the character. The line between what you know and your character know is often somewhat blurry, especially in RP'ing where there are time gaps between your posts. It is not always abuse, it is sometimes something that happens without you even realising it.[/quote]

Even at the risk of minor meta-gaming, I still think that guiding your writing with OoC information tends to produce the best and most coherent results, and so it's worth having as much OoC information as possible. That's my experience anyway.

[quote=Kestrel]For the rest of your post I'm just going to quote Brovo.[/quote]

Well, yeah, I agree with him. Overlapping character traits and roles can definitely be used and used well (exactly as in the example of rivalry I gave). It's just that I kinda think doing this well needs an awareness of who the other characters are in the RP and that generally means reading their sheets and OoC communication with the player.

[quote=Kestrel]Besides, let's not forget that two people rarely write the same character the same. Superhero comics are a prime example of this. The CS will essentially be void as a descriptor as soon as the IC starts and we get to the show don't tell part of it all.[/quote]

While this is true, a character's conflict is usually decided (if the player has even given it thought, which is possibly the subject of New B!tching) at the sheet stage. Say, the RP's setting is a community in which werewolves are despised, and the player makes a werewolf character, the conflict of character vs society is already there, and this can be more and more specific, as in the case of the two characters in my previous post with dubious interests for the equivalent of the dark side of the force.

While we wrote differently and the characters were a bit different in their interactions and such, ultimately, their character arcs and storylines were basically the same.