New Players

Creating a Character
For establishing a character, especially for new players or for characters that don't seem to want to differentiate themselves in my own brain, I use the 3x3 System:
 * 1) A three-sentence backstory. Where are they from? What was their family or home life like before they were an adventurer? Why are they an adventurer now?
 * 2) Three one-sentence beliefs or ideals. These can straddle the gap between "ideals" and "flaws" in the PHB; "I truly do believe that everything is about me" is an ideal just as much as "Justice will inevitably prevail over lawless chaos" is.
 * 3) Three one-sentence goals. At minimum, I want a short-term, a mid-term, and a long-term goal. Examples of short-term goals include "I want to find enough money to buy that set of plate armor I've always wanted." Mid-term goals are somewhere on the order of "I want to quest for the treasure sleeping below Sumner's Keep." Long-term goals can stretch as far as "I want my name to go down in history as a merchant prince of unparalleled wealth and power." Generally, the more specific and attainable, the better.