Hey so... this was confusing to me, and I thought it might have got some other people as well. In the New and Improved Advanced Start documentation it says:

Quote from: HalasterRequirements:

- Must have 1 karma
- Character cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.  This is for pure mundanes only.  Normal racial restrictions apply based on the organization.
- If you start in the Byn, AoD, or Tuluki Sun Legions, your character must remain an active member of the organization for at minimum of 2 Real Life months, actively played.  If the organization has a longer commitment, such as lifesworn, that still applies.  Starting unclanned does not have this commitment.
- Must have a Special Application slot available.  See https://www.armageddon.org/help/view/Special%20Applications

And everything was cool, until I then looked at the new karma scale and saw that my favorite race was now a karma race (dwarves, because I love to be annoyingly single-minded, just ask my wife).

What's the definition of 'pure mundane' only? Would you accept, for example, an advanced start dwarf, half-elf, or city elf? What about a desert elf? The Advanced Start seems to indicate that you would, except that half-giants and muls are specifically called out. What's the cut-off for races in the advanced start?

I can't talk for staff but mundane usually refers to anything non-magic, rather than human. It's also implied by the line "Character cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.".

QuoteCharacter cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.

Anything else is fair game.

Although I see why you're confused. The following line could suggest that muls and half-giants are not mundane, and therefore are dwarves not mundane? Half-giants and muls ARE mundane! But they are also excluded from Advanced Start along with non-mundane classes.

Quote from: Usiku on June 01, 2024, 03:03:18 AM

QuoteCharacter cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.

Anything else is fair game.

Although I see why you're confused. The following line could suggest that muls and half-giants are not mundane, and therefore are dwarves not mundane? Half-giants and muls ARE mundane! But they are also excluded from Advanced Start along with non-mundane classes.

Thanks, Usiku! Yes, that was exactly my confusion. I had wondered if the meaning of 'mundane' had come to mean, 'non-karma'.

Thanks for pointing this out, I've updated it to read:

- Character cannot be a mul, a half-giant, nor any kind of mage or psionicist.  Other races such as city elf, desert elf, dwarf, and half-elf are allowed to use this option as long as they are not a mage or psionicist.  Normal racial restrictions apply based on the organization.

With this new Advanced Start updates we can only pick AoD or Sun Legions to have an advanced start. Having House Tor open, why don't we add Tor Scorpions as an Advanced Start option as well?

Quote from: eska on July 25, 2024, 10:53:57 AMWith this new Advanced Start updates we can only pick AoD or Sun Legions to have an advanced start.

To be clear, you can create an Advanced Start character who is not clanned, log on the game, and then go manually, IC-ly join the T'zai Byn.  This means you are just like everyone else, in that you start as a Runner, altho you have Advanced Start skills.

What we have removed is the ability to start the game already as a Trooper, whose background included them having already finished the IC year as a Runner.

An Advanced Start directly into a clan (like the AoD) just means you start as a higher rank.

You may already understand that, but your wording of the question made me not totally sure, so apologies if I'm explaining something you already get.

For Tor Scorpions, you can still have an unclanned Advanced Start, then IC'ly go join the Tor Scoprions right away if you choose (going through the normal process of joining the clan, of course).  But for the moment, there is no plan to have someone start the game as a higher rank in the Scoprions.  That totally could change, and we may add that if it makes sense and the Tor staff want to do so, but there's currently no plan for it.

Right. My bad about the wording. I was in a hurry to leave the work. I meant to ask Advanced Start in House Tor as higher rank. Since Tor Scorpions are elite fighters, I thought it would make sense.
Thanks for the answer.