The Joy of Typecasting, Mentor Spirit goodness Options

[Backgammon]

One interesting thing about Mentor Spirits that makes them so attractive to players are the personality write-ups that shamans must adhere to - Dog shamans are loyal, Shark is a fighter, etc. Not that we are not capable of creating our own personalities for our characters, but this makes it much easier to get a distinct flavour to characters, often in ways we wouldn't have thought of. It gets the imagination rolling and opens a lot of doors.

In fact, this "typecasting" is pretty much the basis of the WoD Vampire clans. Toreador are artsy, Bruja (sp) are rough and tough fighters, etc. Which really is ingenious, because, even as a rare breed of people that like to roleplay, we are not always that great at coming up with distinctive and flavorful characters (how many of you have had players that seem to "roleplay themselves" every time they play a new character!).

So my question is, why not spread the love? Only Mentor Spirits provide preset personalities, so non Awakened characters can't pick from them.
Picking up a concept from many other roleplay systems and an idea thrown around for SR every now and then, perhaps we could have "Backgrounds" for sammies and hackers and stuff.

My (crappy) examples are

Ex-Soldier Background
Ex-Soldiers tend to like to plan by the book. They are mentally disciplined and can operate without comforts without complaining.
Advantage: +1 to Will when resisting the effects of fatigue
Disadvantage: Must make a Will+Cha (1) test to agree to a plan that isn't "by the book"

Go Ganger
Go-Gangers are wild and freedom loving. They have no respect for authorities and live for the thrills of life.
Advantage: +1 to social tests involving other Go Gangers
Disadvantage: -1 to social tests involving figures of authority

Anyway, I'm at work and haven't fully though it thorigh, but the basic idea is to create broad (stereotyped) personality types, similar in write-up to what Mentor Spirits are like, that provide a few simple bonus and disadvantages. Characters could then buy Backgrounds for 5BP like an Awakened character would with Mentor Spirits.