Thanks to a bad translation for the original German... it turns out that I've been playing this game slightly wrong for years... but I actually think it works slightly better!

Use a variant of the 7-player distribution system for games of 4-6 players.  In other words, turn one less card face-up during distribution, and instead place this card face-DOWN just to the right of the King.  The King now chooses his role from the remaining cards, which should be equal to the number of players.

Continue as normal, until the last player is passed only ONE card... but he/she gets to choose between that card and the previously mentioned face-DOWN card, which only he/she has seen.  The unchosen card is placed face-down, out of play, as normal.

This removes some of the knowledge from the King, as far as what is actually out of play, and creates a bit more guesswork as far as who might have which character. 

Try it out, and I'd be interested in any impressions that people have from your experience.

I think that the player who pick up character before the last one is the worst position.

Because the good one is not going to pass to you. ^^

I have been a fan of this game for a long time. The first night I picked it up with a friend of mine, we played for 7 hours straight, and then we diced it was best to quit.

Now we have played this game wrong from the beginning, but I think in a better way.

You see, no card is turned face up at the beginning of a round. Nobody gets buildingcards at the beginning of the game. And players draw random charactercards, so you never know who you will get. This also means that you sometimes kill/steal from a character that is not in play.

We really like to play it this way because it is more everybody's game. It's much more fair.

Gijs said:

That looks like an interesting Variant! Thanks for the idea. I'm going to try this at our next session.