Okay, how to help this player?

I'll post a conversation from IRC, and highlight the issue.

Quote:

[11:09] <AcatalepsyBeta> What's the best actual book for 'easy' character creation in GURPS? [11:09] <@Cai> Dungeon Fantasy. Maybe Monster Hunters. [11:09] <AcatalepsyBeta> I will, uh. [11:09] <@Cai> Both are specialized genre-based subsystems and have lots of easy fill-in-the-lines templates [11:09] <AcatalepsyBeta> Acquire those, I think. [11:09] <@Cai> I don't know of any huge collections of templates for other systems. [11:10] <Phantasm> DF1, Action!1, and MH1 are probably the top three [11:10] <@Cai> Oh, Action. [11:10] <@Cai> Yes, action is very good. [11:10] <AcatalepsyBeta> DF1? [11:10] <Phantasm> Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers [11:11] <AcatalepsyBeta> Those 3rd or 4th GURPS? [11:11] <Phantasm> Fantasy, Martial Arts, Space, and Traveller: Interstellar Wars have some good templates, too [11:11] <Phantasm> all those I mentioned are 4e [11:13] <AcatalepsyBeta> Ah, I see - "occupational templates". [11:14] <AcatalepsyBeta> Geez those look dense and hard to use. [11:14] <Phantasm> think of them as "classes" [11:15] <Phantasm> start with A, B, and C; select from D through H for advantages, select from J through L for disads, and P through X for skills. [11:16] <AcatalepsyBeta> I can see what they are, Phant. [11:16] <AcatalepsyBeta> They just look painful to actually read or do anything with. [11:17] <Phantasm> might just be formatting, then [11:18] <AcatalepsyBeta> Partially, but I think part of the "Uuugh" of looking at is that it's not always immediately clear what each thing does. [11:18] <AcatalepsyBeta> Does if I want to sure I understand everything an Archer template is, I need to go look up things from other books just to be sure I'm using my character's abilities. [11:23] <AcatalepsyBeta> Did no one at SJG look at these character templates and go "wow, these are almost completely unusable for a new player" ? [11:24] <AcatalepsyBeta> "And maybe this is a problem?" [11:31] * Cai isn't sure what template AcatalepsyBeta is talking about. [11:31] <Phantasm> not sure what to say, actually [11:32] <AcatalepsyBeta> The occupation templates in Space or Fantasy. [11:33] <Phantasm> those are older books... have you compared them to the templates in DF1? [11:34] <AcatalepsyBeta> Don't have DF1. [11:35] <Full_Metalix> They're better, but still a bit lacking. [11:35] <AcatalepsyBeta> Perhaps a better question: If I was going to run GURPS and expect that no one will read anything until they arrive at the game how do you recommend getting them to make characters quickly? [11:35] <Fen> >No one will read everything [11:35] <Fen> Man, those players make me sad [11:36] <Phantasm> hand them pre-gens [11:37] <AcatalepsyBeta> Like....I am convinced that some of the players I've played with *could not* make a GURPS character. Not because it's hard, but because it's presented in a way that's practically designed to confuse. [11:37] <AcatalepsyBeta> Phantasm: There are a lot of people that are allergic to pregens. Also, I don't want to.

So, how can we make character generation even easier for a new player than the templates in DF1 and Action!1?

Okay, how to help this player?