Firstly, it's not always clear what colour goes which which caste or aspect; for the Exalted/DragonBlooded, we've fairly clearly got Earth->W, Fire->R, Wood->G - but both Air and Water are essentially U, just different aspects thereof. The other exalt types suffer similar problems, even ignoring the fact that Lunars only have 3 castes, as I remember. In addition, I wasn't overly happy with the fact that having Plains out would give you access to, say, both Dragon Blooded Earth-aspect stuff, and Exalted/Solar? Zenith-caste stuff. Lastly (and probably leastly), you loose a lot of the feeling of a set of epic characters going forth to do epic things - although, of course, legendary creatures would help that.
So. Change of perspective. There are 5 Exalt types - Exalted/DragonBlooded, Exalted/Lunar?, Exalted/Sidereal, Exalted/Solar? and Exalted/Abyssal?. Why not map the colours to them? It works much better. Without too much squinting, I reckon you can get:
Of course, that loses a lot of the fine distinction within each type; but what if each colour played a dual role? You could have a Blue-aligned DragonBlooded? spell. This is where the lynchpin of this idea comes in.
Before you start play, each player would get a handful of "Party Points" - say 8. These could be spent at a rate of DB=1, Lunar or Sidereal=3, Solar or Abyssal=5. The player then starts with a "Party" of appropriate Exalts (caste/aspect of their own choice). This party potentially acts simply like Vanguard cards - they modify the player's abilities in some way, without necessarily impinging on the game.
Each Exalt in a players Party carries an ability of the form "You may spend <colour> mana as though it were <exalt-type> mana." That way, you can only play spells appropriate to the Exalts in your party. Got a Sidereal and an Island or two? Then you can play AvoidanceKata. But you can't pay the cost of Ready-in-Eight-Directions Stance (a Solar charm) unless you have a Solar and a Plains, or something that modifies the rules. To allow for the fine-tuning aspect, simply add a colour onto the casting cost; so the DragonBlooded? "Indisputable Physical Analysis Technique" could cost {U}{DB} - ie, UR with a DB member of your party.
You could even implement the Anima powers of the castes. Got an Earth-Aspect? Then you can always pay {DB}{DB} to prevent, say, 4 damage, once per turn. You could then have the Eclipse Caste Solar (and Moonshadow Caste Abyssal) have "You may pay {S}{S} (resp. {A}{A}) or two of the appropriate colour of mana to add one mana of another Exalt type to your pool" - in addition to a MTG: Frankie Peanuts ability (Eclipses get to learn other Exalts charms, and sanctify oaths...)
Thoughts?
You do realise that you have essentially recreated LegendOfTheFiveRingsCCG? Although I do think a templated "You may only play this card if you control a permanent of casting cost at least blah (blah includes colour)" would be nice. Call it 'aspect' if that's not already taken. --Vitenka (Who doesn't like altering the startup sequence of play, which l5r is famous for)
Not that closely, but the whole 'select a party who then interact' thing is pretty close. Come to think of it, it was used (badly) in Rage too. --Vitenka
Another thought. There's nothing stopping you just having a huge number of enchantments templated as 'enchant legendary exalted solar creature' and the like. If you had these be single use instant speed (template that as 'charm' - though that is already taken, I think) then you wouldn't need to change as much - though you lose a lot of the exalted flavour by having them just be creatures. As an alternative, you can have them as levelling creatures. (Minami, casting cost 2 crappy creature has a UU2 ability - search through your deck for a card named 'invincible shovel princess' and replace this with it, this has haste until end of turn, add UU2 to your mana pool.) - which would, of course, be templated as 'exalt as'. --Vitenka
Another another thought - you could have vast costs which are regained from certain actions. Sample card: GGG2 Big hairy lunar of doom Lunar Exalted Creature 2/5 Trample 1: Exalt. (Bring bhlod into play directly from your library with haste. During the next end phase, pay its casting cost or sacrifice bhlod and lose 10 life) Lunar (When a creature bhlod has dealt damage to leaves play, bhlod gains that creatures creature types) When bhlod is dealt damage, add GG to your mana pool, this mana does not drain from your mana pool or cause mana burn at the end of a phase (except end of turn) - template as 'stunt 'is dealt damage' for GG' somehow) (Exalted - when this creature leaves play, remove all copies of this creature from every zone from the game)
Another^n+1 thought. You could just have +1/+1 tokens and a huge number of cards whose cost includes 'remove a token' to cast. This does lose the flavour though - ewxcept as enforced by deck construction, anyone could use any charm. Perhaps the colours would be sufficient for this? --Vitenka
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