[3.5] Favorite Unusual Character Creation Methods?

[Unusual Muse]

Some of you will perhaps remember a nifty little computer game from the '80s called Ultima IV. At the start of the game, you (the protagonist) wander into a gypsy tent and are presented with a succession of conundrums for which you must decide between two responses. Each response aligns you with a particular virtue (and hence a class), and in a decision-tree progression your answers eventually whittle down to determine what class you will play in the game.

I really like this for a lot of reasons, particularly for flavor and particularly for shaking up the usual hum-drum character creation process that we've all done a million times. Soooo....

What unusual 3.5 character creation methods in a similar vein have Playgrounders used and found functional/enjoyable/intriguing/epic failing?

I'm considering options, including the players having no idea what character they're going to play and doing a decision-tree process as above; or perhaps a mini-adventure, the outcome of which determines their class. Any and all ideas would be appreciated (especially if they've been playtested!).

EDIT: Ideas incorporating alternate ways to generate ability scores would also be of interest.

[VGLordR2]

I once made charts for my players to use. One was for base classes, one was for races, one was for alignment, and there was one for each ability score. Each player would roll randomly on each chart, and they kept what they got. The results ended up being hilarious, if suboptimal. We had a Wizard too stupid to cast his spells, an Artificer with inhuman strength, and a Halfling Barbarian. None of the characters were very good, but I nerfed the monsters in my campaign, and we had a lot of fun.

[Unusual Muse]

I once made charts for my players to use. One was for base classes, one was for races, one was for alignment, and there was one for each ability score. Each player would roll randomly on each chart, and they kept what they got. The results ended up being hilarious, if suboptimal. We had a Wizard too stupid to cast his spells, an Artificer with inhuman strength, and a Halfling Barbarian. None of the characters were very good, but I nerfed the monsters in my campaign, and we had a lot of fun.

Hmmm... randomness is certainly an option and could be fun if everyone's on board. I think what I'm looking for is more of a way to bring some engaging fluff and uniqueness into the crunch of character creation.

[ThiagoMartell]

This reminds of me Kingdom Hearts. You have to choose your focus between Attack, Defense and Magic, then you have to give up either Attack, Defense or Magic.
Well, the game calls it give up, but it's just not being that good at it.

[Quirp]

Use the random tables in the DMG to create characters, roll abilities randomly and assign them in order. Then play a kick-in-the-door dungeon crawl and roll on the encounter tables for which and how many monsters you meet in every room. Roll out treasure randomly and put it into piles of equal value, which are assigned to the players by drawing cards. Use any random table that exists, hope that you roll the right numbers to give out a rod of wonder and robes of useful items and have fun for one week with only one relatively small dungeon.

And the rest of your life you will begin to panick, when you see a d100.

[docnessuno]

"I'm going to start a new campaign next month, start thinking about your characters. Pick your stats, classes and magic items as you please but don't overdo it. Write a nice backstory and think about the character's personality."

That's pretty much as one of my old group used to do it, and it worked pretty well, requires lots of trust between the players and the DM and also requires knowing quite well the power level the group expects.

[Titomancer]

Well, it's not D&D, but in an old Cyberpunk 2020 group, we would roll on the history/background/style tables first, see what we got, and figure out what kind of character that was based on events. The sad part was, the characters (I and my friend rolled these characters up to join an existing game that used regular creation) ended up being too....straight? for the rest of the party. They weren't weird enough. Too perfect, I think the phrase was.

Another that -was- D&D, albeit 3.0, was at a Convention. The guy said "Anything d20 is allowed. Break my game. I dare you." I dont remember the stat system, but building was nuts.

[Curmudgeon]

I recommend point buy with a weighting system to take relative class power into account.

There's no rolling for any part of character level gain. (Hit points at later levels are always average + ½.) Adjust the points available for point buy based on the Tier System for Classes (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5293.0):

15 point buy (This is where the Wizard is.)
22 point buy
28 point buy
32 point buy
40 point buy (This is where the Monk is.)
You might try 50 here, but really: Just skip characters this weak.

This assumes PCs are going to start in their primary class. If they change the primary class in later levels they'd retroactively lose points if necessary, but would never retroactively gain points.

[Unusual Muse]

As an idea of what I'm looking for, I ran across the Book of Beginnings, which has three cool character creation methods (Tarot, Astrology, and Choose-Your-Own-Adventure). Anyone have any other ideas along these lines?

[AntiTrust]

Dragon Magazine 346 has a dragon ante tarot-esque character creation method. I never tried it, but it looked cool

[CTrees]

What my group is talking about doing for a one-off at some point is:
-Everyone make a ridiculous character, and provide some backstory and roleplaying notes.
-Either pass that character to your left, or have it randomly assigned to someone else.
-Begin play.

We got this idea from basically messing with a friend of ours who was coming in for just one session. Gave him things like a donkey rat familiar (because what the heck is a donkey rat?), an enchanted hook hand, and a painfully ridiculous personality. Hilarity ensued. A full party... it'd basically be Toon, in D&D.