Character Generation part I

I stumbled over a few comments about character generation at a few blogs, that currently slip my mind, that got me thinking about character generation.

I've probably rolled up more characters for games never played than characters for actual games.  There is something about the creation process I love.  It must be my inner accountant.

The Traveller chargen is probably the easiest for straight randomness, with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Mechwarrior close on its heels.  There may be other systems similiar to Traveller, but I've not yet encounter such.  I know that with Traveller chargen there is usually a good chance of death and with Mechwarrior some short of uncool injury or addiction was 90% going to rear its ugly head.

Why is this all important?  Because I think this is a fundemental way to approach the game - play the role of the character that you are given/rolled, don't try to create your alter ego, ala The Matrix.

My introduction to D&D was at the Hilsmere public library.  I was visiting my grandfather and  wandered into the library and found a group playing.  They offered to let me play handing me one of the henchmen and the rest is history.  This is why I prefer to play anything and really don't care too much about party balance and other esoteric gaming concepts; I want to see if what happens when you play your character to type.