The character sheet is one roleplaying convention every active member of this site is familiar with. It's so ingrained into the experience that it's expected players make one in just about every roleplay. GMs provide sheets to players for record-keeping, so that anyone involved can reference their partners at a glimpse. It's tidy and practical.

	The level of depth, however, usually depends on how many sections the GM decides to add to the skeleton. Far too often character sheet skeletons are chock-full of superficial details, like favorite colors, likes, dislikes, full-blown personality analyses, age, sexuality and so on. At times, it feels like some sheets are such complete profiles, that there's nothing else to discover about the character: it's all laid bare for you before you've even got to roleplaying. Everyone knows what to expect from the character already. 

	I think that's a disservice to storytelling, to the intelligence of your fellow writers, and to the character themselves. When you turn a paperback over to read the plot summary on the back, there's no biography to read. Usually you'll find just a name and the relevance to the plot. The reader is meant to learn more over time, and follow the character(s) over the course of the narrative.

	Instead of a sheet, I'd suggest GMs task players with writing samples that show a glimmer of their character. What they're like, how they act, speak and think. That's far more convincing than ticking off a list on a sheet. Instead of telling everyone your character has a short fuse in the sheet, write a scene in which he fumes over trivial details. Don't  tell us your character is a 'master marksman,' write a scene in which she proves it by making a seemingly-impossible shot.

	That said, I understand the need and/or desire for GMs to gauge their roleplayers' writing abilities, or determine how their characters fit into the world of the roleplay. Not every character is compatible with every setting, and not every roleplayer has the same writing proficiency. That matter is best settled at the interest-check level, with a clear, concise expectation for players to follow. How GMs and players work together to craft compelling, setting-compatible characters, is up to them - either via PMs, the OOC or in chatrooms like Discord.

	The fact of the matter is characters are more than just lists of facts and biographies. The narrative is where they thrive, so make that their natural habitat. By all means, make a sheet for yourself so you can reference it and keep the character consistent as you write. But it's time we got rid of the character sheet as we know it and let them speak for themselves.