I ran my game, it went great according to my players, and they were interested in having friends play a game on another day. So I thought I'd try my hand at perhaps some IS Clan stuff, where the players would be forced to get their hands dirty with... eww... politics. Then let them go hog wild as gladiators for Zellbringen Stables on Solaris later on.
Rather than start a new thread, this one seems watched enough.
So my focus would just be on making something "canonically correct". To give people the option to play whatever they want, just that the eventually become part of, say, Clan Jade Falcon.
So during the Life Stages, they would choose any affiliation, go through the training, then maybe make them "repeat" a module. So if a player was some Capellan, but fought a Trial of Position, they could begin: CC -> IS Stage 2 -> IS Stage 3 (Academy or whatever) -> Stage 4 IS Tour of Duty, but then maybe have them take Freeborn Sibko, or Tour of Duty as an additional module?
Would you use the "dual affiliation" rule?
I think easier for those who want to be a member of another Clan, just make a character as normal, then say they were taken as a Bondsman and moved to the Inner Sphere. Or something.
I admit, I never liked the Clans, so my ideas on them are fuzzy. And I get confused going through the Clan Chatterweb threads. :)