You're a lot less likely to just walk away from a character you devoted that kind of time and effort to as well, whereas something you toss together in seven sentences doesn't really matter to you.
This. This is important. I know the barrier for entry can seem daunting, but once you get the necessary research/homework done, the accomplishment counts for something. At least, I remember it did to me.
Then again, I'm not trying to advocate no change being done. Just to point out certain things have advantages the way they are. What I personally feel could be improved here is a newcomer's power to make better informed decisions on how to create his new character so that the process in itself would become becomes less daunting.
As an example, the Star Army of Yamatai more or less presents three broad origin stories: the created nekovalkyrja, the youngling nekovalkyrja, and the young adult minkan and they go and become soldiers for thier nations. Going through the process in a more step-by-step fashion with clear forks in the road allowing the players to both make informed decisions, and while he reads through also understand Yamatai itself better.
For instance, the created nekovalkyrja can be either in the mass-produced variety or sprite-born to complement a ship's crew complement. In one, the way they are created and then sent to institutions to be educated takes a greater narrative role; whereas the latter puts more importance on the ship and crew the nekovalkyrja is created on and how that soldier's life is somewhat more jumpstarted, with the ship's computer being more important in that nekovalkyrja sprite's development.
For the youngling nekovalkyrja, being born smaller and needing to grow up is a different experience than being a created 'adult'. Who the mother is (occupation, rank, role) becomes more important, because the mother makes a greater impression in the youngling nekos' life - younglings may be born small, but thier childhood is all too short, especially considering they are born diminutive and inexperienced, but not mentally immature. We can touch on how the nekovalkyrja mother's role is significant, but that in a way, the 'nekovalkyrja community' collectively has a role in weaning their young ones (something I think may have commonality with created sprites as well). Environment and community also shapes them more, and the youngling nekovalkyrja gets more choices about what she wants to do out of her 'adult' life.
In Minkan, the emphasis is probably more set on their longer trek to adulthood, which makes family and environment all the more important. Defining important transitions in life (elementary school, high school, college) to historically significant events can help round out their knowledge base. Being born on a planet and selecting what city they are from also is a factor that can significantly shape them culturally and historically - though another viable choices could be in depicting people from Yamataian colonies: from people living closer to central Yamatai (Anisa, Tatiana, Tami, etc) to people living on farther off frontier worlds (the Bard Cluster, around Daichi, etc) - this makes living in planets other than Yamatai and presenting Yamatai as a wide Empire much more relevant. Family also plays a role as to current occupations and presenting people whom have lived around the universe longer than the created PC, meaning he/she is exposed to backstory normally less relevant to the nekovalkyrja. Family conditions/occupations can also play a role in showing off how prosperous the Empire is in certain locations more than others, and better define the utopic conditions of central worlds in comparison to the more ambitious struggles of frontier worlds.
Making Phodians and Kodians more relevant could also involve fleshing out those same forking origin stories as well. While involving them means more work, it also makes a statement of the Empire having expanded and being large enough to become a community of entirely different alien cultures whom - despite those differences - loyally serve under the Yamataian flag.
If we make the process of creating a character in SARP more like a story, I think we might be able to make the experience far more pleasant to a newcomer while still retaining most of the details and considerations we want out of character biographies.
