What's OLD is NEW uses a "life-path" system for character creation.
You create a character by selecting a number of sequential careers which represent periods of your character's life since childhood. Each career adds to your character's age, and increases various attributes and skills, as well as granting a special ability, while adding to your character's history and backstory.
Most characters start with five careers. For example, a character may have started as an orphan, grown up as a cutpurse, but then became a squire to a noble knight, before later becoming a knight herself. Each of those careers increases different attributes and skills, and grants different abilities, and your character is the sum total of those career choices. This character would have gained some thievery skills as a cutpurse, perhaps learned some heraldry and etiquette as a squire, and mastered the use of sword and shield as a knight. She would be fairly agile and strong.
There are dozens of careers for each of the fantasy, modern, and sci-fi genres.
