Character concepts....

I have noticed in several LFG forums that people are asking for Character concepts, this puzzles me. The LFG is feeling more like a job application website with interviews set up to feel out potential applicants. I can understand this... its weird for a game but I understand. What I do not understand is the looking for players with certain character concepts. This seems like a company looking for a person to hire but won't tell what job it is for...."You want to work as a maintenance worker. Sorry we have 20 already. Go look somewhere else" We as players can play a whole wide range of classes and such so why are these postings hoping for a person to coincidentally have the concept the GM is looking for? What happens when that character dies do you boot the person out of the group? Are campaigns not looking for PEOPLE to fit the group anymore instead of hero concepts? Now I can play several types and I usually bend my concepts to fit a group much like making a character to fit the "muscle/mechanic" like Mr T in the A-team OR the supporting fighter like Zoe in Firefly. I'm stuck in thinking a group of people make a campaign together. Is anyone able to help me understand the reason behind this???

You can answer it with some openness and ideas, and promote yourself as a Player. Just some suggested sentences, "I'm happy to play any kind of class that the group needs. In the past I have played as ____ Class, _____ Class, and ______ Class. I generally like to play this kind of Class ______. For a sample of my character ideas, something I would like to play if it fits your campaign would be Leroy the Fighter who came from ______ and usually uses this style of abilities ______ with the rules from this book _______ ".

I appreciate the suggestions, although I have used that approach several times. Interested in any race/classes excluding Barbarian, not due to RP prefference just the mechanic of tracking 2 sets of stats and their effects on everything. This type of intro followed by several concepts (3-4) and even one of the concepts that i have changed 2 different ways to fit the group. This has gotten no replies in 5 postings. The one time I posted a single listing with a concept it was excepted. This isn't so much about how to post to answer the LFGs but more of why are the LFGs asking for this type of response? Second, if there is a group looking to fill a role then post example " Group is looking for a bard. What idea for a bard do you have?" This is much much more helpful even if we don't know anything about the campaign. Third, what does backstory have anything to do with most of these published campaigns that people are using for 5e? It is ok for how you are going to roleplay your character but a vastly more potent question would be " How would you roleplay a bard, mannerisms, personality, flaws, desires? Saying those things doesn't have to go into stories and background which are things the GM knows and not the players AND knowing how a person would give life to a character is more telling and relevant.

I understand, I really do. Every GM is different. Probably the general reason is, the GM thinks this question is a way to get-to-know the applicants quickly, trying to spot the player(s) who they feel would be the best match for their campaign, or setting, or group. If they asked a really open-ended question like "How would you roleplay?" that might generate longer responses (harder to sift through). On another level I think it sounds like a good thing that many GM's are asking what do you want to play, rather than just trying to find someone to play something they already thought of. In reality there are some LFG's of both. I have seen a lot where the game is looking for a Thief, looking for a Cleric, and so on.

Thank you, I can see that better now. "Probably the general reason is, the GM thinks this question is a way to get-to-know the applicants quickly, trying to spot the player(s) who they feel would be the best match for their campaign, or setting, or group. If they asked a really open-ended question like "How would you roleplay?" that might generate longer responses (harder to sift through). On another level I think it sounds like a good thing that many GM's are asking what do you want to play, rather than just trying to find someone to play something they already thought of." I didn't see it that way but I understand better now how that could be true.

As a GM, when I ask for character concepts in my LFG I'm looking to see a few things; Creativity is namely the first and most important, and secondly the effort potential applicants are going to give me, and lastly to weed out character types that just don't mesh with my chosen setting (where applicable). I always append this request with a simple request of a single paragraph or two. Considering a paragraph is at a minimum three sentences, fulfilling this request shouldn't be hard, yet often I have encountered the short worded answer, 'I want to play x' with no further thought put into it. Getting people to play isn't an issue for Gamemasters - anyone can post as a Gamemaster looking for group and have a reasonable filled game in a matter of hours or days. This sort of request feeds into the desire to create a compatible starting group - and after some trail and error (as bad combinations happen for a variety of reasons), the initial group can grow in future character concepts once personal interaction has been established over time. Hope this point of view helps a little bit in your understanding from the other side Sam. =D

I ask my players for concepts for two reasons: 1) It gives me a better reason to choose you to invite to my game. I don't want to invite someone who said "Id like 2join!" and find out, once he's playing, that he doesn't actually PLAY a character, he just rolls dice (for example). 2) My game creates characters by starting with character concept. Your character isn't a bunch of numbers with a story tacked on. You're a character first, with details to support it. So posting some concept ideas shows that you can handle that.