Just have the Beginner Box characters available, there are now 22 to choose from, that's enough variety and if itS for one shots it will be much easier for the players.

If these are long term characters then i would recommend sticking to the normal process

I'm wondering why a process that takes 10 minutes (half an hour if you're learning the system) needs to be streamlined. It's not like we're talking Champions or Cyberpunk 2020 where character creation takes all evening.

I'm wondering why a process that takes 10 minutes (half an hour if you're learning the system) needs to be streamlined. It's not like we're talking Champions or Cyberpunk 2020 where character creation takes all evening.

Or Rifts.

Or Rolemaster - at least with all the endless charts you need to constantly look up.

Or Traveller. Anyone else ever die during character creation?

But I'd second the 'starter box' characters. There's enough variety that you can find someone who matches any given archetype.

Or Rolemaster - at least with all the endless charts you need to constantly look up.

In Rolemasters defense, they have the funniest crit tables.

Have you downloaded OggDude's character generator? I think that's the only way to speed up the process. Even then, you'll need to walk them through it if they're not familiar with the system... I think pre-gens are a safer bet. If there's a character niche that you think needs to be filled you can certainly make your own, but the Beginner Box characters are all pretty good.

Or Traveller. Anyone else ever die during character creation?

We called that being “Shot out of the service”. You didn’t actually die, but character creation ended on that cycle.

I think it happened to at least two of my characters.

We called that being “Shot out of the service”. You didn’t actually die, but character creation ended on that cycle.

In the "Universe of Babylon 5" sourcebook, at least one of the failed career rolls (I think for rangers) was just "You are killed." It caused a serious "wait, what?" from the player.

It does put the game one notch ahead of paranoia - in that, the players usually got killed several times on their way to receive their mission briefing, but at least the game started before they died.

We called that being “Shot out of the service”. You didn’t actually die, but character creation ended on that cycle.

In the "Universe of Babylon 5" sourcebook, at least one of the failed career rolls (I think for rangers) was just "You are killed." It caused a serious "wait, what?" from the player.

It does put the game one notch ahead of paranoia - in that, the players usually got killed several times on their way to receive their mission briefing, but at least the game started before they died.

Good ol' Paranoia. I'd love to play in a game of that again.

And at least with Paranoia, you get 6 duplicate characters for the price of one. That takes the sting out of dying a little bit.

Shall we all break into a rousing rendition of “Send in the Clones”?

Last time I got to play it was a couple of years ago.
Game report here

I've got High Programmers ready to go, though, and keep threatening my group with it. At the moment, though, we're playing only war, and their egregious ineptitude is more than enough entertainment for the GM (they're used to playing marines and ascension level characters and being 'just' guardsmen has been a bit of a shock - concepts like "you don't have the weapon training for that weapon" and "you actually have to brace the heavy flamer before firing it" have been an unpleasant surprise).

Shall we all break into a rousing rendition of “Send in the Clones”?