I have a few questions about the New Game All Stories rule set:

1. Why are the tutorial maps required? They don't give cards, and what little gameplay is there is mostly trivial. They aren't even included in the Story Mode tab, so it makes even less sense. I realize they are mandatory from a fresh start, but since they don't give you anything relevant to a run, I don't see the point.

2. Is the unskippable introduction required? The rules wording makes it sound like time would start after that, and it would actually allow you to freely change your controls without losing time. However, the only run currently on the leaderboard apparently includes the introduction in the timing. Which is it?

I also wondered about why first completions of levels are required for a New Game All Stories run. I'm guessing it's because even with a stock setup at base level, any cards you'd get per level completion would be extra because your base save file already picked up some cards.

Would it really make THAT much of a difference in a run though? It seems like the only real barrier for eliminating pointless cutscene skips that just slow down the run's pace. I imagine it would make slightly more of a difference at higher difficulties, but still. Only other thing it would change is the default team, but you could just require a runner to re-enter Story Mode between arcs to fix that. (Not that I think it would even matter outside of melee somehow being super good for something.)