I am about half-way through reading the CAR including all its footnote glory. This has given me an idea for how the various starting rules could be combined. I realize there are many ways this could be done but this method appeals to me:
Setup
1. Lay aside the river fork tile, the basic starting tile and the windroses starting tile.
2. Shuffle together the normal river tiles, the volcano on river, the spring with road and the city upon lake.
3. Assemble the city of Carcassonne, the wheel of fortune and the school.
4. Shuffle together all the normal tiles apart from the six plague tiles into the bag.
5. Draw a stack of 20 plague-free tiles face down from the bag.
6. Shuffle the plague tiles into the bag.
7. Roll the flier's die to determine the starting player; rerolling to break ties as necessary.
Initial Play
1. The starting player places the river fork on the table and proceeds with the rest of his turn.
2. The starting with the player on the left, each player draws a tile from the river stack and has a normal turn with that tile. The river phase ends when all three ends are the river are closed and any remaining river tiles are laid aside. The player who plays the volcano upon the river gets an extra turn like a builder with a tile drawn from the plague-free stack.the
3. The next player plays the City of Carcassonne as a single large tile (with the area outside of the city available for followers).
4. The next player plays the wheel of Fortune as a single tile (with the area outside of the city available for followers).
5. The next player plays the school and basic starting tile as a single tile subject to the constraint that the player may not complete any of the school roads at this stage. All of the three tiles apart from the school are available for follower placement.
6. Then the windroses starting tile is played.
7. The plague-free tiles are played out by the players.
8. Finally the bag is played out.