Character Design

Character design mechanics are some of the first mechanics many people are exposed to in roleplaying games.. Making them particularly significant: With regards to the "Decision Driven Gaming Philosophy" most games in existence already  fall within the parameters of this paradigm. (aside from those heavily reliant on dice for design or which strongly limit player choices in initial character design  or development.) 

Hence I have often used whatever game system seemed handiest and fit closest the characters conception, being a persistent game collector this meant a lot of games were available for my players. This method has problems and they become clear after looking at the purpose of character design mechanics.  Actual gaming was primarily using my own freeform decision driven mechanics.

Purpose of Character Design Mechanics

1. Inspire the player to design/develop characters which suit a particular game world and genre.  This part of the gaming process is even used to help the character fit the storyline and the troupe.
   
   [ hammering my game world into the character creation systems of many different games is a pain or requires a very supervised character design process]
   
   
2. Maintain a "sense of even handedness" in the handing out of goodies for the characters in terms of abilities and position etc in the game world.
   
   [This can be hard to do when working with characters created in different systems as they have differing sets of goodies and baddies and different methods for allotment etc. ]
   
   
3. Help players describe their characters in ways useful for "the game." 
   
   [Since my actual game was different than the game the character design mechanics were geared for... I had to draw out of the players additional info not typically covered by most game systems... In particular I needed personality traits that impact problem solving and conflict resolution... and that is surely a rarity in roleplaying games to this end I came up with some balanced traits which indicated a characters preferred timing, style and risk taking check out the list here
   
4. Character design is often a sub-game in itself.
   
   [Using multiple games had me experimenting even to the point of designing the same character in many different systems, Some of the features in these subgames are optimizing character design, using life path trees or random life event tables]
   

Variable Detail Design Rules

This idea evolved out of games with a zero average statistics (such as Ars Magica and Talislanta) , so its roots have been around at least a while.

 Essentially you describe your character in terms of how they differ from a relative "norm".   Each trait in some way either "names" a defined norm which you generally conform to and/or how you differ from one of your own norms.  One of the Story Guides and Game Designers jobs is to define those norms for the game world/genre.

With a customized character record sheet and the above method you are able to minimize your character record only including qualities which define your character and are significant to that character.   A trait which you are not significantly different than "normal" in needn't even be mentioned.