I have discovered an interesting, and as far as I know, unique (surely it's been done before) form of character creation that could be used for many RPG's – especially freeform or minimal ones.
It came about playing The Window by Scott Lininger. I have been a big fan of The Window RPG for some time now and have on numerous occasions encountered players who suggest a point based system for "purchasing" dice for traits and skills.
Recently I followed a link on The Forge to James D. Hargrove's site and there he offers the same suggestion with "The Window Frame".
Here's what we do - the GM (Storyteller) assigns the dice for the character! This is a lot more interesting than you would think. You interview the player about their character and as the player is describing the character you write down traits and dice and ask a few questions to clarify things if needed.
The amazing thing is you (the Storyteller) can glean some very interesting things from your players description that they may not have been aware of themselves!
Many players are turned off by the idea at first but when they see there character sheet they often get a pleasant surprise and have a few laughs. Then you can discuss the character further and adjust anything if the player so desires.
This eliminates the whole "balance characters" thing and is a lot of fun.
ummm. sorry this post should be in RPG Theory. I will put it there now.