Listening to Dungeon Crawl Classic game I hope there is a Character Funnel like feature for Red Markets. It can be called Free Market Character Creation, the character you play is decided by the market
This is a cool idea.
You could have a pool of random early survivors like CEO, Human Resources, Public Relations Officer and they would start off with class appropriate gear like that stupid executive ball-pendulum toy, "You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Work Here; But It Helps" mug, or ten cellphones with no batteries because they were all playing candy crush, respectively.
The characters who managed to survive the first zombie dungeon get the opportunity to get a real job like mechanic or woodworker.
On a more serious note, roll up a number of characters equal to the players with random stats and attributes/disadvantages. Then roll up a random amount of equipment. Everything from toothpicks to hunting rifle.
Give each player an equal number of poker chips, then have the
players bid with each other for the right to play a specific character like a draft. Then do the same with the limited equipment pool.
So you could spend all your chips on a character with good stats but you only have like rags and a shiv while someone else has a dude with a club foot but a flamethrower.
Something like how Amber has the players barter over which character gets the best stats.
Edit: So I was thinking about the flaw in a competitive barter-for-your-character-and-then-your-equipment system. The issue I can see is that the guy who gets the Ubermench, eventually turns on the other players and loots their equipment.
To encourage cooperation after this competitive draft, one solution could be to enforce distribution of specialization in the party.
You could do this by bundling skills + the appropriate equipment. So in the first round of the draft, you bid for your randomly statted character. In the second round, you bid for your specialized skill set + equipment. So in this case the equipment really isn't as random as I first suggested. For example there is ONE skill bundle "IT guy" which includes a multitool, a PC and the skills to use both.
So the guy who spends a bunch of points on the Ubermench has a few skills at the end of the draft, while the guy who spent fewer points on a disadvantaged character with sub average stats has more skills. This should encourage interplayer reliance and cooperation.
It also would make everyone valuable to the team and increase tension if a character dies/is threatened with death.