Inspiration is always fun to get. Though my problem tends to be it wakes me up one day... then I have to wait a week to put it through the crucible of 'is this really a good idea?' and 'will it be playable?' That takes a lot of ideas out right there, or at least puts them into NPCdom.

Anyway, my best characters are the ones I tended to think about, usually with a basic framework bio. (I'm talking around 500-750 words or so, nothing elaborate, but I do like to think about a character before playing)

Though along with that, I don't like wasting time investing into bios and ideas, which is why I do my screening. So most of my characters tend to work quite well.

My best characters though? I have no idea how I find them, in the end. I've found them from random inspiration, filling holes of not having enough characters... though one of my current favorites is an NPC that took on a life of his own.

I'm also generally a fan of a bio or something so I know where my character is going. Though I have done some in depth research for a couple ideas.