I notice that in Blood and Smoke that starting merit dots are 10, but I can't find any further reference to this in either God Machine or Mortal Remains. Since Requiem suggest 7 dots, has the new starting been increased to 10 across the board (all character templates)? If no canonical answer exists what would the suggestion be?
Do hunters count as more supernatural or mortal for this purpose?
God-Machine mortals use the base WoD rules unless they've been overwritten, so they keep the standard starting 7 merit dots.
Dave Brookshaw, who works at Onyx Path, has said:
Supernatural creatures get ten Merit dots now.
So that's something Kindred (and Mages, etc.) get but mortals don't.
For the purposes of Mortal Remains, hunters are mortals. They're part of the category of "lesser templates," which are distinct from the "major templates" like Kindred, Mages, Forsaken, etc. Even core GMC mortals can have a touch of the supernatural, like old nWoD Second Sight characters, but still only get 7 starting merit dots.
