Character Generation

... and Time Spent
Playing a role-play game means having a character to play. An artificial game constructed being who will serve as your playing piece and alter-ego in the game. In White Box the character is made up by rolling 3 six-sided dice six times for the characters abilities, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. The scores rolled give some suggestion about what the character is good at and what challenges them in terms of ability. You pick one of four races, human, elf, dwarf or hobbit and if human, a character class such as fighting man, cleric or magic user (dwarves, elves and hobbits are more limited). Roll hit points according to class and give your character a name and alignment. It takes almost as long to type it as it does to do it. In other words, it's a quick process...maybe 5 minutes. (Buying equipment can take longer.)
An advantage to this system is it gets one playing quickly and makes replacing a dead character little chore. Characters generated this way can achieve a great deal of "personality", individuality or "character", but such either comes as a result of play at the table or is reflected in the way the player role plays the character. Players in my game are encouraged to take this as far as their imagination allows.
In contrast I have spent hours generating a character for some of the more complex and involved fantasy role-play systems, producing characters with a number of skills, advantages and disadvantages, talents, traits, backgrounds, feats, quirks, and abilities, both prime and derived. Point buy systems can be rather tedious as the player tweaks and recalculates looking for the most economical combinations of optional characteristics to purchase. Generating a character using this method allows the player to tailor their per-concieved character concept into what they will eventually play. Having a well defined prior concept of the character in mind is a practical necessity here. There are a few lengthy chargen systems that make use of a number of random rolls, but be prepared to play almost anything when using that approach (it's all random!). There are a number of players that really enjoy "building" characters and for them this lengthy, point-buy system of character customization is an important aspect of their hobby.
Purchasing equipment can also become a rather time-consuming task even with otherwise simple chargen mechanics such as White Box. The referee can save time by assigning a "starter" set of equipment based on class. This has the additional condition that all characters of a particular class start out with equal wealth in terms of goods. It also encourages each player to spend some treasure re-equipping themselves according to taste once they have earned a little coin. Shopping can be great role-playing fun, but time consuming at the same time. Unless as referee, you would like to spend a good amount of your first session "shopping", I highly recommend assigning equipment according to class and maybe race (or at least offer an adventurer's pack).
How long it takes to generate a character often influences how attached the player is to their PC and how upset they are losing the character early on. This in turn also influences lethality in game play. Character death and the resulting need to roll up a new character can be a relatively small affair or a big deal depending on a number of factors (emotional loss, discouragement, coming up with a new concept, time lost). How much time must be spent in chargen is one of those factors, one which is perhaps more important early in a campaign than late, where raise dead is often an option for higher level PCs.
Chargen plays a part in setting the tone for the game. It helps determine if the campaign is going to be about gamesmanship, about story or narrative, about exploring the world or setting, about players or about characters. Chargen can be done differently depending on the desired tone and emphasis. It is probably a good idea to spend some time talking among the players about expectations for the coming game and what the emphasis will be. Most campaigns are a mixture, but often one aspect or "style" will dominate. It's always helpful for everyone to start on the same page. Some game systems are more geared to one or another of these style tones, but there are many, including White Box, that can be taken in many directions because the mechanics don't specifically dictate one over another.