Just a thought inspired by recent posts here and on the anvil -
might it help people to create characters if you gave them a
directed script like in MOB's MGF games - so rather than just "Write
ten things down here" you say "Where do you come from?", "What do
you do", "Who do you worship" (aka Cultural, Occupation and magic
keywords) and then "What do people first notice about you?", "What
do people who get to know you discover about you?", "Who are your
friends?", "Who are your enemies?" "What are your prized
posessions?", "What secrets do you have?" "What ambitions do you
have", "What do you fear most?"
That's a further 8 questions, any of which might yield more than one
possible answer, without necessarily leading to either a string of
adjectives or a list of "standard RPG skills". They were also
pretty much the first thing that popped into my head, and could be
refined for a specific game - ("Who do you Love?", "Do they Love
you?", "Who did you vote for as Clan Chief?", "Why did you run away
to sea/pavis/join the lunar army?" "What is your catch-phrase?")