Not sure how much I'll be adding to the conversation that hasn't been said already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A CS, to me, is an integral part to RPing on forums- public Rps, anyway. A private invite-only thing is a free-for-all where the rules are made up and the points don't matter. However, when you're dealing with potential strangers, you need some way to test them and see if they're not pulling a fast one on you. I suppose you could do something janky like having 5 hour philosophical discussions in private with each potential applicant to gauge their worth, but most normal people would prefer something easier to fill in; some kind of test like you'd get in school. 'cause, really, that's what a CS is in the end. You get this sheet of paper with a few questions on it that you're free to write down anything in, and depending on how well the one judging your hand-in likes it, they give you either a passing or failing score, usually with red markers pointing to where you went wrong in the case you didn't pass the test. How much detail has to go into this is pure personal preference and up to the GM of an individual RP. Personally, I wouldn't go much further beyond a Name/Age/Appearance/Personality/Background slam-dunk, with the addition of any magic, inventory and/or combat prowess depending on the kind of RP you're running. Any other detail comes across as excess to me, especially as I sincerely doubt the use of the name of your third cat, but I can see why others would want to go all Oliver Twist on us and ask if they can have some more. Of course most would then go "MOOOORE?!" back and promptly move on to a new check, but that's the kinda player the inquiring party was trying to avoid, innit? so yeah, a CS is pree subjective as all hell. Either way, I think it's a great way to gauge both the skill and priorities of any given person. I've found that they work best as a description of the core concept, and most other stuff gets built on as the RP progresses- kind of like a voice actor sounding weird for the first three-ish episodes as they try to work out their definitive voice (and boy do VA's sound weird for the first few episodes compared to the last in whatever the hell I watch). Prolly doesn't help I half-ass any and every CS I can nowadays, as some of the ones where I put the most effort in also belong to RPs that never even got to the IC ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ Oh, and a thing that also works for me is to PM your GM some details you don't want other players to know, just in case there's some mystery element you want to explore together with everyone. I tend to do this a lot.