Another thread in the GM's section made me think that one of the disadvantages of RM is that creating a character takes a lot of time (expecially in FRP/SS). It really sucks to have your character killed in the middle of a session because you spent a lot of time creating him/her and because you cannot really create a new one immediatly, it would take too long to do it.
So I thought it would be cool to have a quick system to create characters (other than using a spreadsheet), better yet if it could be used to create characters almost instantly, to "replace" PCs that die in the middle of a session...
I like the depth and detail of RM character creation, so I would use this "quick" system as an option, only when the need arises.
Imho one of the things that make character creation so long is the vast amount of choices you have to make: you need to choose how to distribute stat points (or roll for them), DPs, Background Options... Reducing the choices you've to make (or spreading them throught time) should reduce the time needed to create a PC.
So, first of all I would use a set of pregenerated Stats (like in RMX), and a set number of DPs.
Then I'd give each profession a set of skills, to which a given number of ranks is assigned, much like Adolescence development (for example: a thief would gain X ranks in Sneaking, X in Hiding, X in Ambush, and so on...) [each set of skill would use more or less the same number of DPs, which should be already deducted when calculating the # of starting DPs].
Just add your racial adolescence ranks (maybe even hobby ranks should be fixed) and you'll have your "Base Character".
Base Characters can be used immediatly to join the game, even if they've still to spend all their DPs (and they're a bit all alike).
When the remaining DPs should be spent?
During the game: when your character must check a skill you may choose to spend DPs in it and develop ranks as during normal character creation. So, for example, if your character has to jump a cliff you may choose to spend some of your DPs and buy him a couple of ranks in Jumping.
There are some of rules about spending DPs this way, though:
1) you may not buy more ranks than you could normally do in normal PC generation
2) you may not buy ranks in "profession skills" (skills given by profession)
3) if you buy ranks in a skill, then you may not buy other ranks until next level (so if you buy 1 rank in Jumping to jump that cliff, you may not buy another rank later, when you have to test your skill again)
4) you may not buy ranks in a skill if are not using it
5) you may not buy ranks in a skill if you've already tested it earlier and decided not to buy ranks in it
6) the GM may decide to veto your choice
If don't spend all your DPs during the session, after it you must spend the rest (all rules above except #4 still apply).
It may seems a little strange to develop skills as the need for them arises (maybe sounds a little like cheating, too), but keep in mind that the amount of DPs of "quick" characters will be probably lower than normal.
So, what do you think? Does it seems a good idea to you? Do you see any flaws?