Welcome to Gaia! ::

It just occured to me, that it's really unnecessary, you're applying to be part of a game in which you type out and describe every item and action, so why not instead of having a forum, ask players to play their character introducing themselves, doesn't it just make sense? You could go a step further in certain situations and do an interview sorta thing so the character isn't just standing around blabbing about themselves, and really any character that wouldn't respond well to an introduce yourself situations (say they're mean or quiet) probably aren't going to do well in an RP.

for your first, third, and fourth points, that's why it's an interview, to the fifth, you're not/don't have to actually play out the interview; With an interview you have questions, instead of the skeleton you would provide potential players with the set of questions in the order you wish them to be answered. Obviously it starts with the character they intend to play entering the interview room and introducing themselves to the interviewer, so you've got the name, physical description, and a bit of personality, whether they're calm, self conscious, paranoid, what have you, then the questions fill in the rest.

It would really be a much deeper and much more true image of the character since you would work in mannerisms and style that a skeleton just can't gasp at, then with the interviewer's questions it would still be laid out in an easily referencing way, as often is done when one person controls multiple people the interviewer could be written in a different color, or vice versa.

It would also eliminate and ease the need for potential players to provide examples of their prior work, as a player I wouldn't need to stress over which if any preexisting work best suited as an example, or think up a scene to write something new for, and as the GM you would be able to tune the interview to suite what you view to be the needs of your RP; really there's no need to have it be an interview, but a standard scene of introduction.

Say you're running a military RP of some sort, it could be a proficiency exam, school you have that awkward first day when the teacher makes everybody introduce themselves (why do they still do that?). Maybe with something bigger there's no actual interviewer, say the character walks into town and has conversations with various people.

Really, one of the best parts of this method is that you, first off, weed out the people who can't even be bothered to do that much, and secondly you get a real idea of if the person is capable of playing the character they made, a problem I often have myself, so before this person collapses in game or fades off you could discuss any problems you see to hopefully maximize their potential as well as that of the RP

Ultimately the interview is just an interactive skeleton. It's the difference between filling out a job application and going in for the interview. You have more chances to alter questions for characters.

I like the skeleton just so it's easy to go back to the information. You also aren't likely to remember a question for one character and forget it for another. As for requiring past works, I don't bother with that. You can tell a lot just by the effort a person puts into a history/personality section. Also, I find the history good so that the player writes down all of the character's past. An interview might give the feel that they can lie about the character's past for the sake of being in character.

What you might want to also do is have them give you a "profile." This could be an unbiased report on their past. Then they come in for the interview so you have some idea of who they are when you start, and you can figure out questions before hand that way.

But, overall, I think the interview is a good idea for certain settings. It could simply be no one has really thought of it, or they applied it to settings which didn't work. Keep us updated ^_^

But that's the thing, you can do all the same things in an interview. Just save it on a side doc for reference.

As far as knowing what they can and can't do, you just have them talk about their abilities in the interview.

Finally, it's what people don't expect that shapes how things are done tomorrow.

Okay...a bit off topic....

It's not like describing your personality. You didn't create you and breathe life into your lungs. Unless I have the personality fairly well down, I find it nearly impossible to role play the character consistently. Does the personality change? Sure. But going into the game there's always a set of rules on how they react to different situations and what their normal demeanor would be.

First...I so envy your sugar rush. I wish I had one crying Maybe I'll rummage around for candy. Also...get some sleep.

You're looking too far into it. It's like a compass. It gives direction, so you have a general idea where you're going, but it doesn't tell you about the geography. If you are to head north, you head north and do the best you can, using that direction to get you around obstacles. When obstacles become too much, you alter direction a little until you can go north again.

I had a student who did things that seemed to make absolutely no sense. He would break the rules all the time, but he would never think of lying or doing something to hurt someone (he wasn't all there, so sometimes people got hurt anyway). Everyone just saw him as a bad kid. Ultimately all of his actions were due to him being a thrill seeker and due to a fairly stringent code of ethics: always tell the truth and respect others. People are complex, but ultimately most of their actions boil down to a few base concepts.

I understand there are some situations that you can't account for. If someone killed my entire family, I'm pretty sure everything I was would be shattered and I'd have to remold my personality. When there's a break up I usually have to reanalyze who I am and where my place is. But the personality profile is the basic outline before any major life altering events.

I have to disagree with you, in those ways an interview is no worse at constraining a character than a skeleton, you can still ask the same sorts of questions like "what are your techniques", the answer is just expressed differently.