Has anyone else played the Armello digital board game? It's about 4 (from a selection of) heroes, each from a clan, who are trying to become the next king. The current king has become corrupted by the Rot, and is going mad, issuing strange orders across the land while slowly dying. Meanwhile, corrupt monsters stalk the land, terrorising settlements.

The whole premise matches up with the original Clan War timeline really quite well.

Could be interesting. Each Thunder or Clan Champion in place of the usual heroes, with Hantei and Fu Leng replacing the king and the Rot. I Imagine it being a much larger scale game though, since there's 8 clans (9 if you count Toturi's army as a faction). Though that might be a selling point all its own.

If we go back to Imperial edition, there were only 6 factions: Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Unicorn. That said, I think that the player numbers and game size work quite well as they are, so I'd probably limit it to 4 players, even with 6 factions. The obvious set of original heroes would be the thunders, although Toturi wasn't in a clan at the time.

Hmm basic game:

Crab - Hida Yakamo

Crane - Doji Hoturi

Phoenix - Isawa Tadaka

Unicorn - Utaku Kamoko

Lion - replace the royal guards - maybe in an expansion?

Dragon - not in play, but may appear on cards or quests - maybe in an expansion?

Scorpion - not in play, but may appear on cards or quests - maybe in an expansion?

I'd switch up the dice a bit: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Void, Taint.