In other threads we have debated trying to create as much diversity as possible between characters. Here is an idea to attempt to maximize it.

1. Select Home World

1. Agri
2. Forge
3. Hive
4. Void Born
5. Shrine
6. Armoury
7. Feral
8. Feudal
9. Mining
10. Fortress
11. High Born

This has been talked about including adding some other neglected options from past iterations such as Shrine and Armoury worlds. Depending on the selected home world a character would be granted a boon to a stat and perhaps a particular talent or skill.

2. Choose Background

1. Administratum
2. Arbites
3. Astra Telepathica
4. Mechanicus
5. Ministorum
6. Imperial Guard
7. Outcast

This is the same as the old beta rules but within each background there are roles that differ. Each background might also bestow a particular bonus, talent, or skill.

3. Roles

Instead of having generic roles like the old beta rules, why not have specific specialties? I thought that Only War portrayed this well for the Imperial Guard. Each role would essentially have their own unique set of starting talents and skills that both differ from other roles within the same background and potentially differ vastly from roles within separate backgrounds.

As character progression continues through the game, the characters can still pick new skills or talents from a pool that is available to everyone. Each roll might even be granted a particular skill or talent at certain ranks.

Skills / Talents

To further create diversity between characters, it's important to properly balance skills and talents. In other rpgs and even DH what tends to happen is that there is a small grouping of skills/talents that become no-brainer purchases while there are others that are rarely ever purchased.

I think that if careers are tailed well enough to certain skills and talents, players would build upon those strengths further creating specialists. This also fosters the importance of team work within a group along with enhancing the value/importance of each career and background.

For Talents, I love the Talent Tree thing in the Failed Beta. It is an awesome idea, but it needs more tree types (like separate Psyker tree and a stealth tree) and some tweaking around the prerequisites/connections.

Also, for backgrounds, I think generic backgrounds would be better than big named ones. For example, in our post-cyberpunk-ish homebrew 40k setting, we have the following general backgrounds available:

- Corporate

- Criminal

- Civilian

- Freelancer

- Government

- Military

- Nomad

- Scientist

And each of these backgrounds have a set of generic roles available, like assassin, engineer, medic, infiltrator, scout, sorcerer and warrior. This allows the player to make all the typical characters (like Scientist+Engineer=Techpriest, Military+Warrior=Guardsman) but also let the player to invent more exotic backgrounds (like Military+Warrior=PDF Trooper).

I was going to start a new thread to talk about this but in a OW game the gm let us make characters from different regiments. I was thinking that a specialization when you pick background and another linked to homeworld might be the step people felt was missing from character creation.

Birthrights from Rogue Trader are definitely an option. For those who don't know, they basically describe your general life experience without being particular to a homeworld; a colistered Ministorum upbringing, life amongst mutants mired in toxic waste, a life amongst the seedy criminal elements of whatever world you called home, etc. Helps flesh out a character, and lets you diversify the group a little more.