I only have one copy of the base game and the expansion. Any advice on tweeking the starting deck rules for a 5 player game?

My initial thought is to have each player start building their deck with 3-1 gold, 1-2 gold, and the usual 3- 1 cost units. However this seems like a lucky draw could unfairly benefit some players.

Another option I considered was a 4-1 gold, 3-1 cost units, and everyone starts with a stronghold. I only had this idea since the first turn for most of us is focused on gaining a stronghold or two.

The nuclear option is just sleeving all the cards and just throwing in some gold proxies.

Gold is the only resource I'm really worried about. I think the new mercenary cards make up for any shortfalls of neutral cards. I might even use more mercenary cards than suggested.

Any thoughts or other options?

I tried that once (but only once, so not statistically significant) and I felt, as you pointed out, that a lucky draw was very powerful. Here's a thought: does anybody every purchase 2-gold cards? I know I don't. Could you just treat all 2-gold cards as 1-gold cards?

Ugh, so my computer was messed up for a few weeks now but hopefully it's been fixed. I'd have answered this way sooner.

You can play a single set of Rune Age core and expansion while playing 5 player without any other kind of acccomodation other than a real simple fix: in what would be a regular 4 player game, take the remaining 4 1-gold cards that were placed in the neutral area for the 5th player and then finally take a neutral card that everyone recognizes as not being in the game and proxy it as the final 1-gold piece card. When a 1-gold would be available in the neutral area (which shouldn't take too long), the 5th player immediately reveals the proxy from his hand, discard, or the top of his deck (if he knew it was there) and swaps it with the 1-gold available. The proxy is then immediately removed from game.

If you have any questions, post and I will hopefully get back to you. Be sure to follow rules and set-up from my previous forum about 9-player Rune Age too.