Interesting enough, that can result in honour loss.  When you hit someone, it's supposed to be a clean, killing cut.  Causing someone to cry out in pain - or inflicting a crippling blow - is considered shameful (the former to the person hit and the person who inflicted the hit, the latter for the person who inflicted the hit).  As such, samurai are aiming for either a grazing blow (proving a point) or a clean, killing blow (to show skill and finesse).

Interesting enough, that can result in honour loss.  When you hit someone, it's supposed to be a clean, killing cut.  Causing someone to cry out in pain - or inflicting a crippling blow - is considered shameful (the former to the person hit and the person who inflicted the hit, the latter for the person who inflicted the hit).  As such, samurai are aiming for either a grazing blow (proving a point) or a clean, killing blow (to show skill and finesse).

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

You are my hero. 

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

Here's the link for you.

I have a Google Doc with this stuff written out, if you want the link.

That sounds pretty cool.  I've considered setting Rokugan as island-based, but hadn't quite gone that far.  I've also considered allowing ninja to not be 'verboten' - they exist, everyone knows they exist, and people hire the Scorpion Clan to get things done.

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

Here's the link for you.

I have a Google Doc with this stuff written out, if you want the link.

That sounds pretty cool.  I've considered setting Rokugan as island-based, but hadn't quite gone that far.  I've also considered allowing ninja to not be 'verboten' - they exist, everyone knows they exist, and people hire the Scorpion Clan to get things done.

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

We don't have a generic 'L5R' forum here, so I thought putting this here might be better than... err, anywhere else?
So, setting up the campaign, I decided to throw out the mythology of the setting.  Why?  Well, I wanted something that was 1) closer to Japanese mythology, and 2) something closer to Shinto philosophy.  The entire background for L5R is way too Western for my tastes.  Tsukiyomi devouring his children?  Greek.  How on Earth would the Rokugani even remotely accept cannibalism as something the kami would do?  You would think Amaterasu would have shot him for that, then fished her kids out.
Anyway.  So for my campaign, that got thrown out.  I had the story follow the Japanese myths, including the 'hide in a cave' and her brother being banished and doing heroic deeds (and founding the Mantis Clan).  I had Amaterasu's contest with her brother be what created the kami which founded the Great Clans, crafted by Amaterasu and her brother.  This (by the by) also allowed me to sneak Shosuro in as a kami.
I removed the entire idea of Fu Leng being evil, and Jigoku being evil.  This falls more in line with Shintoism - the spirits are neither good or evil.  The idea of 'good' and 'evil' is a human concept, not a divine concept.
The other thing I did was adjust what the Taint is.  For me, the Taint is kegare.  Spiritual pollution.  It isn't 'Jigoku trying to claim the mortal realm' or anything like that.  I still have the Shadowlands, but it operates differently:  A maho-tsukai tried to steal the power of Fu Leng (who is the guardian of Jigoku - he looks after the punishment of the wicked).  The ritual blew a hole open and created a gate to Jigoku.  This caused a section of Rokugan to be permanently tainted with kegare.  If you're in the Shadowlands, and you perform spiritually impure actions, you can get Taint.  Which does most of the nasty stuff Taint normally does. 
Monsters still come out of the Shadowlands.  They're not Evil.  They're simply spirits that are trying to do their job.  Punish mortals.  In Jigoku they're fine.  Here, that's kind of traumatic for the mortal population.  These oni and goblins and such aren't evil - they're not malicious.  They are spirits - lacking in the free will to choose their path (Void).  So they do what they're supposed to do - to anyone they come across.  And so they have to be killed (sent back to Jigoku), banished (sent back to Jigoku), or bound (and aren't you a bad person for trying to usurp control there...)
I've also done some adjustments to the Kolat (made them closer to the Yakuza and got rid of this whole 'overthrow the gods' nonsense), and the Lying Darkness (again, something done by mortals messing things up, this time with Meido).  So far, it's gone pretty well, the in-character adjustments are few and far between, and it feels more like mythic samurai drama rather than Western Hybridization.
 
So, for the sake of conversation - what have other people done to tweak their game settings?

I -love- the lethality of the system and if we play 5th we'll modify it to make it more lethal, if possible. 

Before starting a game of L5R I ask players "Are you okay if your character dies?" Mostly they say yes, and we try to find a way to send them out as awesomely as possible. One thing this edition does right is asking you to think about how your samurai will check out right off the bat. It's not about if, but how.

I ran a 2.5 year long Unicorn campaign that killed 4 out of 6 characters. One guy died pretty early and loved it so much that he played the rest of the game from the afterlife, briefly communicating with other players when they prayed to him at a shrine. Another played a shugenja and literally offered her body and life to the fire kami to importune a spell that turned the tide in the final battle. Another committed sepukku after the battle because the conclusion of his duty allowed him to remove the stains on his families honour. At the end of that game every player felt like they had contributed to (and in most cases died for) a major advancement for the cause of good in the Empire. When we closed the book on the final chapter, we had to take a month of so for everyone to really savour the story and mourn / celebrate the memory of their characters. It was amazing.

To be fair, I'll almost always throw in a bumper if someone is getting way out of line prematurely. 
e.g.
Rank 2 Character - "That scummy Matsu general can't talk to me like that, I call her out!"
Me - "I just want you to know out-of-game that pursuing this action will be the end of your characters life. Consider that strongly."
R2C - "Oh yeah wait I didn't ask who this woman works for or what rank she is."
Other players, after talking to Matsu-Sama - "HOO HOO HOO THIS IS AWESOME YOU ALMOST ATE IT SHE'S RANK 5"

I killed a character once like that. He sassed a rank 5 Hida guard and relentlessly provoked him inside of the palace. 
Hida Guard - "I have told you many times to back down. I have lost patience. Further inquiry will be met with force."
Overconfident Player - "I PROVOKE HIM!"
Me - "You need to know that your character is about to die."
Every Other Player - "Man seriously this guy is a palace guard outside of a Hida dojo. He's got to be at least double your rank. Don't, you'll die."
OP - "I said I provoke him! My defence stat is 8! My TN to be hit is 55!"
Me - "The RANK 5 Hida guard beats your initiative and rolls an unarmed grapple and gets 87. He uses the chance to do raw damage. He grabs you by the kimono and punches you solid in the face and does 46 damage."
OP - "Well my damage tracker only goes to 38! What does that mean?"
Everyone - "That you just got one-shot punched to death for screwing around when literally everyone told you not to."

That guy was maaaaaaaaad. I had a shugenja revive him so that he could keep playing, but his mempo was shattered and his face was all messed up and he talked funny for the rest of the game. He learned his lesson though.

I love the high lethality of L5R. It makes it for me. Players learn really fast that you'd better be willing to kill a man in a round or two if you engage in a fight, because otherwise you're pretty dead. It makes even minor fights and skirmishes a real threat and consideration.

I really love L5R.

Ooo, nice answer.
"If your lord assigned you this task, then your lord should be providing you what you need.  If your lord didn't provide it, you don't need it.  Otherwise, ask your lord."
And that's the crux.    I'm quite familiar with how this kind of thing goes.  It would take a lot of Sincerity rolls, Courtier rolls, and possibly bribes (depending on the Honour of the person) to get them to teach you something that your sensei should be teaching you.

With 1e and 2e, I often found that bushi could keep pace with shugenja.  In later editions... the bushi got hit by serious nerf.
Also, the GM is the one who chooses what spells shugenja get from their mentors, so... if the PC shugenja are so 'swiss army knife', I'm placing that at the feet of the GM.

Which is interesting, as a lot of the older Japanese stories are deeply rooted in the mythic, yet still focus on human emotion and drama.  Look at the Kojiki as a good example, or Kwaidan, there's Akura Kurosawa's Dreams as another example.  I mean, the setting has the spirit realms, Jigoku, and shugenja - that in and of itself kind of lends to the idea that the spirit world is there.  And then, of course, if you lean in towards Shinto, on top of everything else, the entire idea is that the spirit world and the physical world are side-by-side - everything is alive and filled with spirit.
That's not Dragonlance - Dragonlance is left in the dust.

I also like my Rokugan as a deeply mystical place ripe with the supernatural. I like to take the world creation myth as the actual reality, with a chance that one can even run into a Kitsu or another member of the Ancient Five Races who can tell what the world looked like before it had taken form, because he/she was there and saw it with his/her own eyes. It really gives a lot of depth to the setting.
I also like my supernatural weird and bizarre, with lots of false expectations tied to the various supernatural creatures. For example, Yuki no Ona, or the Snow Maiden, is a fairly well-known spirit. The common expectation when encountering one is a beautiful young woman in a snowstorm or similar snowy environment. Everyone who hasn't met one will recall this image, and the more knowledgeable blame this false picturing as the primary reason for the many victims. Because the Yuki no Ona is not the woman. It is the snow. In its natural form, the Yuki no Ona is a massive, formless mound of fine white powder, almost unmistakable from snow except that it is not wet and it doesn't melt. It also has a quite freakish ability: it can consume and "assimilate" anything that comes in contact with it (people, objects, anything) and then perfectly replicate the assimilated thing from its own body mass. The spirit makes a habit out of assimilating and replicating things indiscriminately, so if you enter a village where the Yuki no Ona was sighted, chances are high that the whole village is already the Yuki no Ona, from the houses to the villages to that annoying dog that barks at you when you enter the village - they are all one spirit manifested in a series of replicas connected by its body mass (in this case, the snow that seemingly covers the whole village). Just touch the snow on one of the roofs. I dare you  !

For 5e, how do you want your fantasy?
When I got into L5R with 1e, there was a strong mythic element to the setting.  The kami were a solid foundation of the setting, and in the very first adventure in the book, one of the gods themselves shows up to see the PCs in disguise.  As you go through the adventures you encounter mythical creatures, one of the Oracles, oni, undead, and strange creatures from inside and outside of Rokugan.  The game setting itself has a strong mythic feel to it and the samurai themselves progress from 'normal people' to iconic and archetypal heroes after a fashion - the techniques and abilities they use making them less than human.  (If they survive)
In my campaign, the PCs had to face shuten doji - a possessing spirit that could transform entire armies into a hive mind.  A PC dissolved into a pool of shadow when they gave themselves up to the Lying Darkness.  One PC died when Fu Leng ripped out of his torso and was made manifest for the Day of Thunder.  One PC faced herself because of the Egg of Pan'Ku, and another held the bloodsword Passion.  Heck, one married a literal phoenix from the spirit world, giving it a tangible anchor to the physical realm and granted it mortality.
I like my Rokugan with bright colours, and the feeling of myth.  Later editions seemed to kind of grind it down closer to reality.
Where do you want your 5e?

Anything that makes combat in L5R quick, bloody and brutal meets with my approval. I just made a Lion Clan samurai for the playtest. The idea that the Lion "lives three feet from death" needs to be a real thing.
I'm not sure how I feel about "living three feet from a couple of painful wounds, and maybe another one that might leave a scar, and then another one that makes me feel woozy, and then I'm unconscious and unable to be damaged more because my poor character might die...boo."
Samurai are about meditating on their death at all times. Serving their Emperor. Dying for their Empire. Refer all questions to Question 20.

Let's see if I have this right.  There's a general in an army, commanding his forces against his enemy.  I'm playing a Scorpion and have been tasked with killing off the general at range, so that his opponents can overrun him.  He has 10 Resilience (He has 3 Earth, 2 Water, can take 10 Wounds, 20 before he's unconscious), and is wearing Lacquered Armour (Resistance 4), which makes sense for an enemy general.
My character takes out his bow.  (Damage 5, Lethality 3.)  I take the shot.  This is a Skirmish action, so I'm going to go with Fire Stance.  This is an Water + Martial (Ranged) attack.  Water 2, Martial (Ranged 2).  So rolling four dice.  The character has Keen Sight, so can re-roll two dice.  The character rolls Explosive Success + Strife, and Opportunity on Ring Dice.  On Skill Dice, Success + Strife, and Opportunity.  The character has Water 2, so can keep two dice.  That's going to be the Explosive Success / Strife and an Opportunity.  He rolls again, gets another Explosive Success / Strife.  Rolls again, and gets an Opportunity.  This ends with 2 successes, 2 strife, and 2 opportunity.
According to Skirmish, a Strike requires 2 successes.  Got it.  Fire Stance gives 2 more successes for the 2 strife.  The arrow inflicts 7 Damage.  The armour removes 4 of that, leaving me doing 3 damage.  It would take four such hits to inflict a critical strike from damage alone.  I've got two Opportunities however, which can be used for a Critical Strike.  The Yumi's lethality inflicts the dazed condition, presuming the opponent isn't in Earth Stance.  The opponent, however, gets to make an Earth (Fitness) roll to reduce the critical strike, and is quite possibly going to reduce this to something less.
So what this tells me is, unless I somehow get a god roll of multiple exploding successes (along with gathering a metric boatload of strife to go with it)... it isn't happening.  Now, in theory, it should be a lot easier once I'm into Rank 3 or Rank 4, but... that's kind of contrary to the feel of the game.  That any encounter can easily result in death in an instant - from an enemy samurai, from a shadowlands goblin, or from a desperate peasant with a spear.