[quote=Jig]
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]
Only if you want to mix back stories. Everything else can be done through IC interaction and honestly; chemistry comes from interaction. People can tell you George is a great guy, but you won't experience it until you meet him.

[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]
So basically what you're saying is, if someone's character gets angry over the smallest thing IC, you won't realise they have a short fuse unless it's stated in the CS? 'cause that's pretty much what you're saying but I don't think you believe that. I mean, sure the background may say those anger issues are because of X or Y reason, but is that relevant to your interaction of your character does not know that reason?

[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.
[/quote]
Wat? Werewolves can make other people werewolves, so Pete's main conflict of being late for rent turns into that he's becoming a man-eating silver-shunning wolfman. Meanwhile John, already a werewolf, gets shot in his leg with a silver bullet, and rather than spending his pages rejecting the society that doesn't want him; he now has to find a doctor willing to remove the bullet from a werewolf or face death.

One single event can change a character's goal and purpose. Locking yourself into your CS is just silly.

[quote=Pachamac] Also, I'm actually a little bit stunned at Kestral's comment about sometimes not reading other peoples' character sheets. I mean, yeah, a lot of the time what goes into a person's character sheet ends up being different to what comes out within the IC, but I still find it a common courtesy to actually read what all other people have written, even with something like that. I mean, I'd like to hope they'd read mine.
[/quote]
Basically you want someone to acknowledge you did something. I get that, but to call that common courtesy is silly. I mean, I join an RP to write collaboratively and interact through fiction; that in and of itself is my reward. Sure it's nice if I get a compliment, but that's not why I RP or submit a CS.