Or… Bore Vs More!
Character creation says alot about how a campaign will work out. I don’t think this has much to do with the game system being used. There are no victims in the room. Everyone present knows why they are there and the game they are creating characters for.
What works for me is to make it as quick as possible. Preferrably it is a process that occurs in tandem with the starting action/mission/adventure. I want as much of the character creation to occur within the gaming story as possible.
As an aside, it is now common in computer games with rpg elements to do character development based on player choice once the game story has started. There is a reason for this. Spending ages sitting around creating characters in a pre-game vacuum is boring. Maybe not for everyone. Remember that guy who came to your game, created his character and then was late or didn’t sh0ow up at all for the next session? You bored him. He chose not to participate because he anticipated that you are more willing to divert the game to the immediate now of paper, pencils, dice and snax than the shared illusion of the game.
So I told my wife that her character was on a plane. In 10 minutes the seatbelt lights will go on. It smells like sweat, frustration and bad coffee. It is 5.30 zulu. Her character, as a matter of habit checks her PDA. It has an internal receiver and some fancy software. She reads the local RF chatter. Suprise. A man sitting a few rows behind her and a woman a few rows ahead are communicating about her. They are going to follow her through customs. And then they are going to point her out to the capture team that is awaiting her arrival.
This was her response.
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