My local store called to say it's available for pickup tomorrow and I'll be getting it first thing. My only question is why is this a 2-5 player game? With 7 clans shouldn't this be able to handle up to 7?

There are 5 rounds in a game. If there were 7 players, 2 players would never be first player during a game. Plus, there are only 5 shugenja cards and 10 scout cards (2× each player) which these components are enough for only 5 players. These limitations seem easy enough to compensate for but don't know how it would turn out. Right now my biggest hang up are from a thematic point of view. I think that all 7 clans should be represented during the game, even if some clans would be represented simply as allies of other clans. Example: Why would the Dragon and Crab just abandon their lands while all the other clans battle across the entirety of Rokugan? I realize it's "just a game" but theme is what really draws me to the L5R IP. I'm hoping that the game will expand this for all 7 clans, or I'll have to figure out how to make this work for myself. I bought it, so now I can do what ever I want with it, so 7 factions it is.

On 12/8/2017 at 8:33 PM, HirumaShigure said:

There are 5 rounds in a game. If there were 7 players, 2 players would never be first player during a game. Plus, there are only 5 shugenja cards and 10 scout cards (2× each player) which these components are enough for only 5 players. These limitations seem easy enough to compensate for but don't know how it would turn out. Right now my biggest hang up are from a thematic point of view. I think that all 7 clans should be represented during the game, even if some clans would be represented simply as allies of other clans. Example: Why would the Dragon and Crab just abandon their lands while all the other clans battle across the entirety of Rokugan? I realize it's "just a game" but theme is what really draws me to the L5R IP. I'm hoping that the game will expand this for all 7 clans, or I'll have to figure out how to make this work for myself. I bought it, so now I can do what ever I want with it, so 7 factions it is.

Did you ever try this out? How’d it go?

Sorry, actually no. I have only ever managed to play with 3 players and although this is still one of my favorite games, because of life it's been awhile since I have played this. I've gotten distracted by traveling abroad, L5R LCG, L5R RPG, Journeys in Middle-earth, and the Transformers TCG... among other things! My sons and I have had this on the mind lately though, so if we decide to play a variant we'll try out using allied clans.