The vast majority of problem I've had with my players and their characters can be simplified by this: instead of acting the pcs reacted. They didn't take any initiative, they just waited until some shit hit them, then did something to get that shit away, and then waited for more to come. This often happens: the pcs just suppose that since the gms is "in charge" he must make everything happen.
That shouldn't be, the players are the "heroes", they must act, make things happen, not just wait until something happen that implicates them. They should seak out for their job themselves, not just wait for some random Johnson to find them some. They should have ideas as to what to do next, they should take initiative; I'm dreaming of the day when one of my players will go out by himself to do something that wasn't told by some npcs or isn't evident in the current setting.
But of course, to do this, players must have goals. That's what a lot of pcs sorely miss, goals, objective, something they want to achieve. When pcs have such goals, usually they don't play them since the whole of the pcs don't have any common goals, they don't have anyhting they want to achieve in group, as a gang. All in all, pcs must wait for the gm to give them jobs because they don't have anything to do by themselves.
So, what is the first step in having a team of
acting players instead of reacting players? Have
a group with a purpose, a common goal. How to do
this? Get the players together before they make
the characters and let them choose what they want
to do, together, as characters, with some common
goal in mind, any goal: from the fall of Damien
Knight to the finding of some incredible new
hardware/magical stuff/Elvis impersonnator. Then
they can take personnal goals, which make even
more interesting characters and action.
That's the question some players forget to ask themselves when they build a character. The normal (for me) process of character building is by determining what is his personnality, past, background, etc. and then building the character in consideration of these. I seem to be one of the very few who do this, since a lot of players build their characters with numbers first, then consider the background, personnality, goals, etc. in consideration of the numbers, to fit relatively well ("well my character have a million bucks, has 6 in body and an MP laser, I wonder what I will find for a background..."). Then comes the trick, which came with the advent of Shadowrun Companion, the trick for lazy players: "... I know! I'll pick the amnesia(-2) flaw! It's the gm who'll have to find one!"
I'm considering making the flaw "amnesia(-2)" an edge...
Or only allowing amnesia(-5)... (I'd be glad to make a character for one of my players... muhahahaha!!!)
Background should precede stats, since background represents what the character did in his past, and what the character did in his past determines what the character is able to do. And, most of all, this makes more interesting characters: if you know what you want to play before you make it, the character should be even more interesting.
No?