I don't really have a problem with char generation. I've never used a calculator or a spreadsheet. It's just addition not triple integrals. There are definitely systems out there more complicated than this. Oh and Codebreaker, what do you mean with balanced? Admittedly I haven't created a ton of characters for large groups so I might not have seen the problem if there is one. The only real issue I have with character creation is that Infolife as background work so much different from others.

OK In trying to respond with a solution to the OP's actual question I just convinced myself that CG is really cumbersome. Honestly it never takes me more than an hour to stat a character I'm going to play or more than 15 minutes to come up with an NPC but in trying to streamline the system just now I think I actually made it more complex. Here's what I learned about my process though. (maybe this will help) 1. follow the step by step on page 130. The only thing I change about this is choosing motivations at the same time as I'm going through steps 1-3, This helps me keep my concept straight while I'm choosing skills. 2. Dont' screw around with aptitude points. Make everything 15. If you know you have a dumpstat for the character concept then you might cut out 5 and add it to one of your more important aptitudes. It's definitely not a good deal to spend CP on aptitudes. 3. buy moxie and reserve 100 CP for morph and gear but; Do skills first, Do morph last. I build my character as if they were a flat and choose skills at levels that fit my concept before I think about morph and gear. This makes it easy to calculate and ensures that my character will be able to do their "job" somewhat effectively regardless of what morph they happen to be wearing. 4. I always assign Knowledge, Networking and "utility skills" (In order of importance: Perception, Fray, Research, Interfacing, Freerunning/Freefall) first. This gives me a budget for the other MOS and secondary active skills and avoids unintended handicapping of my character. 5. I choose 4-5 specialist skills that fit my archetype (combat, hacking, psi, social etc.) and buy those up to 50 or 60. Then decide which secondary skills I'm going to have. If there's anything left over I'll buy specialist skills above 60 but more often I'll buy specializations. Often I'll end up robbing points from my gear reserve. take what's left and get a morph and gear that suits the character apply those mods to stats on the sheet and I'm done. Occasionally I'll find a morph/gear combo that raises one of my skills high enough that I feel I can sacrifice some points to another skill but I don't end up spending a lot of time trading skill points around. Leaving gear to the last step ensures that I don't over spend and makes selection quick.

I'm sad about your group getting blocked by the CG. Can I ask; what games do you usually play? And have you tried selling them on the Pre-gen characters? There are about 30 of them in the main book, sunward, quick start rules. They're pretty solid characters.

I can't really offer any assistance beyond ecchoing how easy a spreadsheet makes it. I did generate a character just on scratch paper though and it wasn't too difficult. The biggest problem was losing track of what I spent. I really like the high point buy system though, it allows such customization. I have a lot of fun with tossing things around until it's just what I want. If I had to though I'm sure I could hammer out a character fairly quickly.

So they can't handle downloading a spreadsheet? I play D&D too but I use online character sheets to track things in it. I suppose some people just insist on doing everything on paper? If that's the case then they are missing out on some nice tools to manage their characters. However they could just not be interested in EP very much at all and are using character generation as an excuse not to play it.

Well I really like the character creation system. Others are entitle to their opinion but that doesn't mean I can understand it.

I am naturally suspicious about systems that need tools or a spreadsheet. Play WoD or Fate and you'll know what I mean. In particular, there are too many skills, a lot of them have new, creative names. You need to know what's relevant. You need to keep a running tally to meet the "spend 400 on x" targets. You need to keep another running tally on total points spent. Changing morphs involves revising the entire character sheet. It's a mess. It feels like work. Games should not feel like work. I'll say it's been quite a deterrent for the more casual players in my group.

The complexity of the chargen system are threefold; 1) The section just isn't well laid-out. OneTrik really broke it down nicely. Follow that, and you'll be fine. (Well, probably a bit more. For instance, stats for your muse should be included in chargen, as well as what a muse is.) 2) It offers more choices than we need. I don't know why the skill list is as long as it is. Fewer chargen choices would be nice, just so we can blast through and move on already. 3) It involves a lot of concepts very early on. Jumping in with Kinesics, morphs, backgrounds, etc. so early is tough for new people. I don't think there's any solution for this (except perhaps to offer fewer choices). Less of an issue, but still notable, there are significant 'good choices' and 'bad choices'. It's very easy to make a terrible choices if you don't understand the system. I don't think this is something that should be changed; the game supports playing all sorts of different character types, and some character concepts are in fact useless. I don't think the mechanics need to be balanced, but greater explanation of what's a mechanically good choice would be helpful.

Yeah, that comment is a bit of the asinus variety. System and setting are really different things. Being poor at one does not mean they cannot enjoy the other. In fact if I recall my biology they even use different parts of the brain. There isn't any reason why someone who doesn't like complex and nuanced rules systems couldn't like complex and nuanced plots/settings. But that aside, if they system didn't have any merit we would be trying to adapt the setting to another rule system, rather then come up with an alternate character generation. Though I am sure someone has done just that.

my only suggestion would be use a piece of scratch paper and a calculator. I'm not much for fracking with systems that already make sense to me. OneTrikPony has the right idea with bundling certain archetypes though, I kinda like that.

My way of doing a character would differ slightly from OneTrikPony, I am more prone to buy aptitude points for example. What I would do is the following: 0. Decide a character concept; choose background and faction. 1. Set all aptitudes to 15, if your concept says one should be lower (say SAV for example) then lower it by 5 and increase something else that fits (when in doubt choose WIL). 2. Divide your CP's into three pools. Pool A: 300, Pool B: 300, Pool C: 400. 3. Start with pool A (we will get back to it later as well). Buy 4 moxie for 60 points. Then look at your aptitudes again and see if there is 1 or 2 of them you really want to have higher than 15 for your concept. Some aptitudes are easier to increase than others and some are more "important" than others. Make sure you talk with your GM about what sort of campaign it is. If you are going to do a lot of resleeving, increasing SOM could be good otherwise let SOM stay at 15. High base WIL is always good, so if you don't see another aptitude you want, you can always increase that. By now you should know approximately what your morph will cost (as you know your concept) so if you are going for something very cheap you could increase 3 aptitudes, and for something expensive 1-2 is enough. Reduce your pool A buy 50-150 depending on how many you increase. 4. Go to pool B. Look at knowledge skills and write down any that are of importance. You probably have at least one Academic skill, maybe an Art, maybe an extra Language or two, probably an Interest skill and a Profession skill. Look at the suggestions in the book for ideas but don't forget to think for yourself what is fitting. Once you have them all written down, put in the base score for your aptitudes. Organise them in order of importance for you and decide if you want token (30), decent (40-50) or good (60) rating in them. Raising them past 60 is often not worth it. Buy them to your desired rating in order of importance. If you have any points in pool B left, either increase them even further or look for more skills. Once pool B is at 0 you are done. 5. Now go to pool C. Go through the list of active skills and write down all of interest. Organise them in order of importance. Do the same as above, buy those you want to be good at to 60, decent to 40-50 and token ratings at 30. Move down the list in order of importance (Fray and Perception should be high on that list). Important to note is what skills your MUSE have. That is listed in the gear chapter, never buy LOWER in a skills your muse has. Higher yes, but lower no. If you want a token rating in something your muse has, just skip it altogether. When your pool C points are 0, you are done. 6. Go back to pool A. Check if there are any traits you want. Then check with your GM what sort of campaign it will be. Can you be expected to keep your morph or not? If yes and you are a combat person; buying a Fury with 3 levels of Tough might not be a bad idea. Dur is very important in a fight. Otherwise buy morph + augmentations + gear as is fitting for your characte concept, this should cost somewhere between 40-100 points. If you didn't get any traits then you should have like 40-60 points left. Buy more moxie then increase your rep / get more credits / increase some skill / get a specialty with what is left. Then you're all done!