Forums of the Megaverse®

Inspired by http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=108491 that thread and not wanting to thread drift.

Everyone does character creation differently. House rules rule. When I'm GM'ing, this is how I have my players roll up their characters.
Before the first die hits the table, I would like a concept. Race, O.C.C., and general concept of what the player has envisioned for his character.
Since vision and concept can change during character creation, I wait until it's rolled up (right now I don't have a group but when I did, I would trust them to roll it up without me being present) and then I review the character and we get a solid background on this guy. I ask a bunch of background questions and trivial questions like what was your childhood like, what was your parents' profession, who is your hero, what's your biggest pet peeve, what's your favourite colour, and things of that nature (so the mercenary, big tough guy who was raised in an underfunded orphanage and escaped at the age of 12 to live on the streets learned gymnastics when?). I think it helps the player play in character.
Because vision and actual gameplay may kind of drift, I also allow a player after the first session to re-roll a character and keep the experience the previous character had in order to better fit in with the group.

Even if my GM Doesn't allow it, I also do it with my characters, just so I can help keep them on track.

Does anyone else do this? What kind of questions do you ask your players?

I make my chars as per canon, or per canon with a few twists/custom bits, and then mod the char to any particuler GM's 'house rules'

-concept (this includes personality, race and class)
-rolls
-the type everything out slog

The char background is usully not even thought of till the game be started.

Keep in mind I play Heroes Unlimited primarily:
First I ask if the player has a concept in mind or, if writing an NPC, determine if I want a crtain concept. If so, I can match the concept to available OCCS and powers and abilities. If not, I have them/myself random roll from the books to determine OCC/category.
Basic attributes and AR and SDC come next, then PPE and possibly ISP. Any modifications due to class are noted and left blank where necessary.
In the case of mages and psionics, they/I shop for the number they/I are/am allowed to select. In the case of Robotics, bionics, eugenics or BIO-E systems, they shop. I usually have to oversee this since they usually get confused.
With powers, concept determines what they/I can have, though they/I random roll number of majors and minors. Since I create powers and have ready access to the Black Vault Wiki, this gives a wide range of options. Players without a concept are limited to random rolling from the books.
I usually hand out extra abilities if they make sense for a character, but not extensively, usually just from characteristics tables.
For APS powers, I have a house rule that the flat amount of SDC stacks on the character's SDC for the APS SDC to allow uneven numbers and amounts.
After the bonuses and numbers get fixed and calculated, the gear is set up and we go over the character backstory situation leading into the campaign story and make sure it makes sense. Any tie-ins between PCs and NPCs are usually determined before gameplay, though sometimes just get made up on the fly.
It really comes down to the kind of time we are working with before the group session, since characters are not made at the gaming session itself. If the player has a strong concept, I sometimes allow the player to fake it through one session if their sheet is not ready, but any errors in the way it is played due to poor preparation will not be counted against the player. I would rather they feel part of the story than nitpick about stats early on. Once they have their character written up, however, they are expected to play it as written.

I go by the book, I think...