As a Phoenix player since release, I can confirm the cards that have taken a hit more than earned it.
Banning Isawa Tadaka (Disciples of the Void) wasn't just about removing one of the most oppressive cards in the meta, it was also about removing an extremely NPE card from the game. Kuroi Mori was errata'd because Phoenix players could legitimately stonewall opponents by putting it under their stronghold, because it's such a strong province to begin with.
Against the Waves was errata'd because it pretty much singlehandedly discouraged any other clan from playing shugenjas, ever (especially before Kyuden Isawa was errata'd so Against the Waves may as well have been 6x per deck).
Kyuden Isawa went a long time without any errata, but after a *lot* of actual play data and tournament results, it was nerfed to try to bring it more in line with the level of other strongholds. This one might have been nerfed a bit too far, but afaik Phoenix has still done well regardless. 
Kaito Kosori's errata is unfortunate, but honestly this is just to make her work as intended, she wasn't supposed to contribute from home while bowed. 
Kanjo District was banned because it proved in play to be severely oppressive and NPE, turns out the previous designer's idea to "balance" overpowered cards by making them 1x per deck was rather...flawed (see also Karada District). 
Jurojin's Curse was banned as a result of updating the game phases, as it used to be there was another phase after fate phase when you readied characters. By consolidating that into the fate phase, it basically changed Jurojin's to an auto-trigger every fate phase unless your opponent managed to bow that character before fate phase ended. Since the card never saw play before that, it made more sense to ban it out of caution than try to fix it or leave it be to warp the game in ways unintended when it was designed. 
Display of Power was restricted because it encouraged noninteraction by the player to claim rings through not defending, and was particularly abused by both Phoenix and Scorpion who not only have been top clans for some time, but are also among the best control clans who can mitigate the risk of actually having an undefended province break. 
Embrace the Void + Consumed by Five Fires are restricted as a pair to break up their combo, because players were using them together to essentially get free Consumed by Five Fires. Student of Esoterica likely could have made this even more likely by putting Embrace the Void and a pile of fate on her...but it wasn't needed to abuse the combo. 
The one card that I will say did not deserve its fate is Master of Gisei Toshi. Yes she's a strong card, she's not ban-worthy in her own right. She unfortunately had to pay for the sins of Isawa Tadaka (Disciples of the Void) and Guest of Honor, both of whom share a similar design space and proved oppressive and NPE enough to be banned. Master of Gisei Toshi was banned alongside them because of that shared/similar design space, as the designer felt it would be more fair to ban all three at once. I still hope she might one day be removed from the banned list...

Just as a note: Three hours was definitely NOT a complaint. My son has trouble sitting through most games or experiences that take this long and he completely lost track of time and we were having a blast. We played a second game after getting some new stuff... a Crane Clan pack for him, Scorpion and Phoenix for me. Amazon seems to have ended their $20 core set sale, so we've also ordered the Children set. Anyway, the latest game took just about as long, but he managed to pull the victory with a surprise appearance from Daidoji Uji having stuck around long than expected.

I'm glad both of you had fun. Three hours seems about right for a full game when neither player is familiar with the rules or cards. L5R will get faster as you gain experience, but it's usually a long game with several small decision points that add up over time.

Donovan, I didn't mean to imply that I doubted your integrity. I asked you to post the question and answer for two reasons:
1. In my professional life, I'm often required to interview people. Despite years of practice, I occasionally ask a question I think is clear only to have my subject interpret the question in an unintended way. I've also heard an answer one way during the interview only to realize while transcribing that my subject meant something else. While you seem to have a strong interest in alien species, I'm going to assume you're as human as I am and occasionally make the mistakes I make.
2. I'm used to the forums for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and Pathfinder, where people often post transcripts of their conversations with designers, customer service representatives and other rules authorities. Because the only other post I've seen on these forums regarding a clarification from Sam included his answer word for word, I assumed the same norms held here.

The rules lawyer in me might insist I ask Sam someday, but for now, "I laid out both scenarios in detail, and Sam's reply was that the second scenario (each rank is applied to a separate item) was the correct interpretation" is clear enough for me. Thanks for taking the time to participate in this discussion and making the effort to resolve it.

The downside of this is that I had my provinces separated by element. This complicates my ordering system and puts my ocd alarms in yellow alert

For me, the biggest issue is the learning curve. When the game launched, I played seven games before I felt like I even had a chance of winning. I only kept playing because I enjoyed spending time with the friend who introduced me to L5R and appreciated the art and setting.

Now that I've climbed the initial learning curve, I have a different issue. Because they have so many moving parts, L5R games often feel like they're decided by who makes the fewest mistakes rather than rewarding players for taking calculated risks and outsmarting their opponent. For example, I got my first win at a tournament because my opponent played Talisman of the Sun before I attacked his stronghold rather than waiting until I'd declared the attack so Kisada could stop my Calling in Favors and he could move me to his fourth row province. While I had to get him to a point where that mistake mattered, it still took much of the satisfaction away from victory.

When I lose, I often find myself cataloging missed triggers and obvious misplays rather than considering my opponent's overall strategy or marveling at their best plays. For example, in my most recent game, I forgot that my opponent still had Lion's core stronghold available and played Banzai without the kicker when I had no other military buffs in hand. My opponent activated his stronghold to bring our totals to parity and claim a critical ring, which put him on the path of taking control of the game. He played well, but because the game hinged on that small mistake, I felt like an idiot.

It's hard for me to justify playing a game where I rarely take pride in my victories and feel like a fool when I'm defeated for its own sake, so I generally only play if I can turn the game into a social activity or I'm more interested in exploring a deck's strengths and weaknesses than winning. Usually, I have more fun watching better players duel and trying to understand why they do what they do. Good commentators can make this more fun and reignite my enthusiasm temporarily by showing how tense some of the mini-games–such as baiting out cancels, trying to turn off Voice of Honor, or playing around Noble Sacrifice–can be.

Kenson Gakka - 5Str Air Province.  Honour all defenders after losing. Samurai of Integrity - 3/3/2 for 2. Ardent Omoidasu - 2/3/2 for 3. If an opponent dishonours one of your characters take 2 honour from them. Kitsu Motso - 3/3/2 for 3.  Participating, if you have less cards in hand, move someone into the conflict. Akodo Motivator - 5/2/1 for 4.  If someone makes you discard from hand, they discard the same number. Matsu Tsuko - 5/4/3 for 5.  If this character wins an attack while you're more honourable - break the province. Champions of Yomi - 6/6/2 for 6. If you lose as attacker, bow stronghold to put this into play from discard.  If still in play remove from game at end of phase. Hall of Victories - +1 holding.  Whoever wins a conflict gets +1 honour. Yasuki Hikaru - 3/2/0 for 3. If defending, move someone with more M home. Doi Kozonubo - 3/4/2 for 4.  While participating, no reactions. Isawa Tsuke - 3/3/2 for 4.  When resolving Fire ring effect, target all of same cost controlled by 1 player. Moto Ariq - 3/2/0 for 3. Participating, if opponent is more honourable, they must move someone in to conflict. Caravan Guard - 3/2/0 for 1. Pay 1F to attack. Insolent Outcast - 1/1/0 for 1.  +1/+1 per honoured opponent character. Tactical Ingenuity - +1/+0 for 0.  Attach to Commander. Participating, search top 4 for event. Total Warfare - Attach to unbroken province. 1 Battlefield /province. Loser at this province must sacrifice a participating character. Honour in Battle - If you control a Mil ring, honour someone. Prepare for War - Choose character. Discard any of attachments and status tokens, if it's commander, honour. Right Hand of the Emperor - If more honourable, play from discard.  Ready 6 cost of Bushi, put this on bottom of deck. Kitsuki Kagi - After winning conflict, remove up to 3 cards from opponents discard from the game. Those Who Serve - During Dynasty, -1 your character cost this phase. For info, the unique Crab is the minor character from the story about Lost Samurai attacking a Crab village; the unique Crane is Hotaru's husband; the unique Dragon is Toturi's head Yoriki; the unique Phoenix is the Master of Fire; the unique Scorpion is the Commander of the Thunder Guard from Ryoko Owari and the unique Unicorn is a guard in Khanbulak from the story that introduced Chagatai.

For me, the biggest issue is the learning curve. When the game launched, I played seven games before I felt like I even had a chance of winning. I only kept playing because I enjoyed spending time with the friend who introduced me to L5R and appreciated the art and setting.

Now that I've climbed the initial learning curve, I have a different issue. Because they have so many moving parts, L5R games often feel like they're decided by who makes the fewest mistakes rather than rewarding players for taking calculated risks and outsmarting their opponent. For example, I got my first win at a tournament because my opponent played Talisman of the Sun before I attacked his stronghold rather than waiting until I'd declared the attack so Kisada could stop my Calling in Favors and he could move me to his fourth row province. While I had to get him to a point where that mistake mattered, it still took much of the satisfaction away from victory.

When I lose, I often find myself cataloging missed triggers and obvious misplays rather than considering my opponent's overall strategy or marveling at their best plays. For example, in my most recent game, I forgot that my opponent still had Lion's core stronghold available and played Banzai without the kicker when I had no other military buffs in hand. My opponent activated his stronghold to bring our totals to parity and claim a critical ring, which put him on the path of taking control of the game. He played well, but because the game hinged on that small mistake, I felt like an idiot.

It's hard for me to justify playing a game where I rarely take pride in my victories and feel like a fool when I'm defeated for its own sake, so I generally only play if I can turn the game into a social activity or I'm more interested in exploring a deck's strengths and weaknesses than winning. Usually, I have more fun watching better players duel and trying to understand why they do what they do. Good commentators can make this more fun and reignite my enthusiasm temporarily by showing how tense some of the mini-games–such as baiting out cancels, trying to turn off Voice of Honor, or playing around Noble Sacrifice–can be.

For me, the biggest issue is the learning curve. When the game launched, I played seven games before I felt like I even had a chance of winning. I only kept playing because I enjoyed spending time with the friend who introduced me to L5R and appreciated the art and setting.

Now that I've climbed the initial learning curve, I have a different issue. Because they have so many moving parts, L5R games often feel like they're decided by who makes the fewest mistakes rather than rewarding players for taking calculated risks and outsmarting their opponent. For example, I got my first win at a tournament because my opponent played Talisman of the Sun before I attacked his stronghold rather than waiting until I'd declared the attack so Kisada could stop my Calling in Favors and he could move me to his fourth row province. While I had to get him to a point where that mistake mattered, it still took much of the satisfaction away from victory.

When I lose, I often find myself cataloging missed triggers and obvious misplays rather than considering my opponent's overall strategy or marveling at their best plays. For example, in my most recent game, I forgot that my opponent still had Lion's core stronghold available and played Banzai without the kicker when I had no other military buffs in hand. My opponent activated his stronghold to bring our totals to parity and claim a critical ring, which put him on the path of taking control of the game. He played well, but because the game hinged on that small mistake, I felt like an idiot.

It's hard for me to justify playing a game where I rarely take pride in my victories and feel like a fool when I'm defeated for its own sake, so I generally only play if I can turn the game into a social activity or I'm more interested in exploring a deck's strengths and weaknesses than winning. Usually, I have more fun watching better players duel and trying to understand why they do what they do. Good commentators can make this more fun and reignite my enthusiasm temporarily by showing how tense some of the mini-games–such as baiting out cancels, trying to turn off Voice of Honor, or playing around Noble Sacrifice–can be.

Sorry, was on my phone earlier and it's a whole bunch of links which is a pain to try and share via mobile...and then I crashed when I got home so just now getting back to the boards. 😅
Put what I had into a single folder for sharing: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ANeTwL8F9i_s5oryWH63qrCrvIx5kq7Q?usp=sharing

Gelanin, RLogue177 has posted PDFs with all of the universal talent trees, including Ship Captain and the five others from Dawn of Rebellion.

And here they are. For organization, I have put all of the universal specs from all three games into one pdf file. I suspect further Era books will have more universal specs in them too.
 
As always, please point out any errors or typos or misspellings.
 
Universal Specs in green and tan
 
Universal Specs in traditional red and blue
 
Universal Specs in printer friendly greyscale

Post fully edited. Putting the relevant links here for anyone just finding this thread. Specs are in three styles: classic red and blue colors, gray scale, and green and tan to match my homemade character sheet which is also linked below. The Force power are also posted.
As always, if you find errors, please let me know so I can fix them. Thanks!
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Age of Rebellion spec sheets in traditional red and blue
Edge of the Empire spec sheets in traditional red and blue
Force and Destiny spec sheets in traditional red and blue
Universal spec sheets in traditional red and blue
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Age of Rebellion spec sheets in grayscale
Edge of the Empire spec sheets in grayscale
Force and Destiny spec sheets in grayscale
Universal spec sheets in grayscale
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Age of Rebellion spec sheets in Maklunky™ green and tan
Edge of the Empire spec sheets in Maklunky™ green and tan
Force and Destiny spec sheets in Maklunky™ green and tan
Universal spec sheets in Maklunky™ green and tan
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Clone Wars Era spec sheets in traditional red and blue
Clone Wars Era spec sheets in grayscale
Clone Wars Era spec sheets in Maklunky™ green and tan
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Force Powers sheets in traditional green
Force Powers sheets in grayscale
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Smuggler to Scoundrel and Scoundrel to Smuggler in all three color schemes
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Combo Character Sheet in Maklunky™ green and tan
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Capital size ship sheet in Maklunky™ green and tan
Small size ship sheet in Maklunky™ green and tan
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Photoshop files
 
Enjoy!
 
 

To my understanding, Genesys uses a "talent pyramid" system. Each talent has a rank between one and five, with rank one talents costing five experience, rank two talents costing 10 experience, rank three talents costing 15 experience, and so on. To acquire a talent above rank one, the character must have more talents in the previous rank. For example, if I wanted to buy a second rank three talent, I would need at least three rank two talents.

As in Star Wars, some talents are ranked and can be taken multiple times. However, each time they are acquired, their rank increases by one. To compensate for the higher cost, a few talents provide extra benefits when they are purchased a second time, such as applying to two skills instead of one. Even so, this system should discourage players from investing too heavily in a single ranked talent.
I haven't played Genesys or read the book, but from what I've read on forums and seen in online character builders, I suspect I'd like the system if it had more support. I find Star Wars' talent trees unnecessarily restrictive. I grew up with Pathfinder, where it is easy to build characters who can play a supporting role in every theater, from combat to social interaction and exploration. Because Star Wars advancement is based on individual purchases rather than universal increases in power, it is much harder to do that here, especially given how focused many of the specializations are. For example, with the exception of Teacher, which has access to Well Rounded, I can't find a Force and Destiny career that has access to both Ranged (Light) and Negotiation. However, if I favored Lightsabers rather than pistols, I'd be set, because FFG has given us the Arbiter.

You might reply, "Just suck it up, Thaliak! Buy a negotiation specialization and a gun specialization if you want to excel in both fields." To which I'd reply, "That would be ideal, but almost every game I've been in has ended before the third or fourth session. I'm hopeful this one will be an exception, but I'd have more fun if the system were flexible enough to let me realize the character concept quickly, even if that meant my character ended up less powerful than he would with a more focused build."

Specializations also interact in odd ways with the skill system. For example, if I know I want to be a Teacher/Arbiter with at least two ranks in Lore and two ranks in Education, the optimal move is to start as a Teacher, because unlike the Arbiter, they can use their free skills to get two skills to rank 2 for a 10 experience bonus. Similarly, if I want to eventually acquire a specialization with Ranged (Light) as a career skill, I should wait until I'm ready to do that before buying any ranks in the skill, even if it makes sense for the character to pick up the skills immediately.
As frustrating as I find specializations, I'll admit that they reinforce the setting, encourage characters to focus on one or two areas rather than stepping on each others' toes, and occasionally allow players to discover the upside of talents they would otherwise never take. They're also thematic, so I can understand why others like them. But I've had far too many times where I look at a tree only to discover that the talents I'd be interested in are buried behind talents I'd never use–or ones that I'd be tempted to use even though doing so would step on other players' toes–not to think that a more open system would be more fun.

The main perk of the PB08 is that Despairs can't be spent to make it run out of ammo, effectively giving it the benefit of the Spare Clip talent.

And before anyone else asks it...
Can you go into the design philosophy behind the new universal specializations? Why take this approach of making them universal, rather than linking them to pre-existing careers, like making Pirate a Smuggler spec, or Retired Clone Trooper a Soldier spec? Likewise, the Retired Clone Trooper deviates from previous specializations in requiring the PC to be a human male. Why this approach rather than, say, including Republic Clones as one of the species in the book and letting the spec be a more generic combat veteran talent tree?

I agree with you, but its tough to consider what might be the solution...  I kinda feel like Ninjo and Giri should be more like (dis)advantages - something the player can call upon for a direct mechanical benefit when they can justify that their character is following their ninjo/giri and something the GM can call out against them when they shirk these same things.
The problem with this is that we have quite a few advantages and disadvantages, and the mechanics are already so similar that it doesn't make much sense to pile more on...  I wonder if we should dump adversities and distinctions, using Ninjo/Giri in their place.  These give the immediate powerful ability / penalty of re-rolling that let them be front and center in a gaming session.  A player immediately sees the karmic consequence of their actions.
Then we take distinctions and adversities and we make them a MUCH simpler mechanic.  These turn into a simple list of keywords.  Whenever you commit to an approach you can pick 1 applicable trait to also apply to it.  This trait simply upgrades 1 ring die to a skill die for that roll.  Similarly negative traits can be called out by your GM to downgrade 1 skill die to a ring die.  These traits could include skill specializations rather than subskills as well.
edit: I'm totally with you on the discord wheel...  its something new GM's may find useful as they begin running rpg's but pretty worthless to a gm who knows what they're doing.  Honor / Glory tracking could be scrapped completely and the game would only be made better for it.

My gut says that making rings non-school, increasing the  exp requirement for each rank, and decreasing the rate at which exp is given - all at the same time - is going to combine to dramatically slow down character advancement.  How do other players feel about this?  From playtesting, is advancement currently too fast?  Is it that too fast that all three of these changes are warranted?
Here's a suggestion to the dev team; implement the ring and exp ladder changes, but in the guide suggest a couple of different options for exp gains per sessions so that play groups can decide for themselves how fast to advance. Now sure, giving out more experience is always an option, but IMO it would still be useful to the players if the book included info such like "giving A experience per session will result in characters dedicating their experience to school advances to reach rank 2/3/4/5 in 10/20/35/55/80 sessions, while giving B will allow them to reach ranks in 5/10/18/28/42 sessions, while giving C...."  For the non-fanatic GMs who wouldn't do this math themselves, this provides them a nice menu of options  to consult when designing their campaign.

Oh, and my groups reaction to Tea Ceremony was "the description is super amazing, the effects are OK if you can get enough Opportunities rolling, but......WHY PERFORMANCE?????"
Performance feels like an odd choice for the Ceremony. Not a single character in my group that was interested in performing tea ceremonies got a single skill in Performance, and they are super bummed out ,as they expected it to be one of Meditation/Courtesy/Culture trio instead. Tea Ceremony requires a lot of investment into it - Void Ring + Performance good enough to keep 2 Successes + 2 Opportunity (so about 3 skill 3 ring to do it consistently), 3 XP that does not count towards School Progression. Perhaps allowing more than one choice of a skill here would be wise. They also feel that the effect is super not worth it if you don't get the Void Recovery, as spending 3 XP to get something you could emulate with scene shifting/Water&Earth Opportunities feels little underwhelming. 

I would prefer that the character creation ends up with all the bushi having a chance to have the same effective level of xp out of character creation. Since some bushi can start with rank 2 in 3 skills (and rank 1 in 3-5 others not counting heritage table), it would be nice if other characters had the option to shuffle skills (perhaps in exchange for honor or glory, since they are going against their clan/family/school values).
I'd also prefer that rank 2 remain the skill limit (some of the heritage table results can get you up to a 3) for character creation. The heritage table is a tough to balance properly, regardless.
I don't really have a problem with the two rank 1 skills that are available in exchange for honor or glory at character creation for going against type.
I also don't have a problem with the Hida Defender not having any good way to get Courtesy at rank 2 at character creation, as long as their total xp remains the same.
It's also possible that the less efficient skill allocations are meant to be balanced by more efficient school abilities, but I think this is unlikely.
Edit: Unrelated to the rest of my comments, there's a bit of discussion about whether hereditary traits make sense. In the real world, they wouldn't, but in Rokugan they do. Whether that's the influence of the Kami, or just part of the world flavor is up to you, but that's the setting.

I honestly don't like anything that pigeonholes characters by family. One of my loudest objections to the character creation process.  Took something that was a flaw in 1-4E, and turned it up a notch by not only linking it to a Trait, but also to two fixed skills.  At least my feedback about making it a choice of two traits (which was something I'd house-ruled into my 4th games) but they kept the two skills, which is almost worse, since skill points are at such a premium.  I use the Matsu/Ikoma comparison.  A Matsu Bushi will likely begin the game with 2 in Tactics, Command, and Fitness (3 is even possible).   The Ikoma Bushi can only get Tactics at 2 outside of taking an extra rank with a Disadvantage.  You literally put the Ikoma character in a capability hole right off the bat, which just further incentivizes the templated samey feel of characters.  Poor Ikoma Tsanuri and Kitsu Motso.   Doji Hoturi () knows more about accessorizing his outfit than he does about anything combat-related, lol.
Making every Hida Large or Brash just further reinforces the Factory Model Hida problem of character creation in this edition. 

First stages of the campaign:
They compared notes with their totally-not-a-ninja ally, Bayushi Nobunaga, and determined that the tactical problem boiled down to the following elements: The pirates had occupied a fishing village with a very sheltered bay, protected by a cliff that formed a tall, natural sea-wall with no adequate landing point for their forces outside the village itself, and there were a large number of rocky islets and reefs breaking up the sea outside. The pirates supposedly had five ships - presumably four now that the Tsuro had destroyed one. It could be assumed that at least one would be out raiding at any given time, but this couldn't be guaranteed, and it would be hard to see how many ships were in the bay without someone advancing past the cliffs and discovering their ill-fortunate timing after committing to the assault could be disastrous! Assaulting the channel would result in them having to pass the channel slowly (not knowing their way through the reefs), expose them to bow-fire from both cliff-tops, and - since the break in the cliffs wasn't wide enough for all three ships in Kinzoku's command to pass abreast , maybe not even two, would leave whoever passed through the gap first outnumbered by the pirate ships, at least by two-to-three, maybe even by four-to-one. Even with a Mantis commander, that was pretty bad odds. The closest place they could set down their troops (a hundred or so disciplined Ashigaru they could anticipate cutting any pirate mob to pieces in a straight formal battle) would be at least two days' hard march away from the village. Assuming a half-dozen or so sentries scattered here and there on the cliffs, by the time an army on foot could make it to the village the pirates would be gone. Blockading the bay whilst an army reduced the village would work in theory, but they couldn't invest the entrance too closely (again, without risking both bow-fire and reefs), but maintaining a patrol too far out would risk the pirates splitting up and vanishing into the maze of islands that they knew and the Imperial fleet didn't. More to the point, firstly they'd have to maintain the blockade throughout at least one night (where the pirates could easily slip between them in the dark) and secondly if all four pirate ships were there, then there would be one more pirate than blockader, meaning one ship wouldn't be pursued and would be certain to escape, even if Kinzoku was prepared to commit to a series of one-on-one fights. As a result, (whilst the Matsu was a continuous, vocal and kind of annoying advocate of a head-on assault with the soldiers), they decided the best plan was a cutting-out expedition; sending in a small boat with the PCs, the Matsu (as the second-in-command they couldn't really exclude him from the single most dangerous and courageous bit of the action) and half a dozen picked Bushi. The Samurai were dropped off half an hour from the village as it was getting dark, and made their way carefully to the cliff-face opening. Kinzoku used Seafaring (Air) to find a stealthy route Murasaki used Rushing Waves to help the boat be carried along on a current, avoiding the need for noisy rowing. Nobunaga used Survival (Water) to survey the cliffs for a viable route to the top - not one an army could climb, but one he could climb personally to find and kill the sentries. Nobunaga found his way up, and with a Fitness (Air) managed to sneak up it. Aided by Yasoroku, his hawk, and some noxious poison he had bought and coated his arrows in, he took out the sentries quietly with a Martial Arts: Ranged (Air) check, then repeated the feat (thanks to a void point) shooting the sentry on the other side of the cliffs. One of the picked Bushi was sent scrambling up the cliff after him with instructions to light the signal fire once the pirates' boats were fired. The Tsuro and the imperial fleet (hiding half an hour away in the rocks where the PCs had set off from) would see it and make for the gap as fast as they could, but it would be the PCs and their aids who would need to damage the ships, foul rudders, slash sails and ropes, and generally delay them to avoid them making it to sea before the fleet arrived. With eleven samurai against the combined crews of three warships, that was achievable, but pretty much a suicide mission.   Nobunaga made a fitness (fire) check to flashily dive back into the water from the cliff-top now the sentries were dead. His reward was being told to 'stop showing off' by Masakuri, who was busy concentrating. This was our first use of importune invocations. Masakuri gave up a family necklace (her non-weapon item from question 14), throwing it into the sea as an offering, and used a void point to cast Summon Fog. With quite a lot of opportunities and successes (one of those rolls that just keeps exploding) she was able to provide cover for the party all the way to the fishing villages' docks. The boat pulled up between two of the three ships docked, and the matsu and the veteran bushi went onto one, whilst the PCs went onto the other. The scene changed to a skirmish between two groups of three bandits and an experienced bandit, and the PCs. The bandits somehow managed to draw initiative (despite using vigilance not focus) against Nobunaga and Masakuri (going first due to their lower honour). Kinzoku handily went first, though. He charged out of the mist, brandishing his sword, using the Lightning Raid shuji - boosting his allies initiative by 10 (the Akodo Commander's ability in Fire Stance is just filthy), and getting an opportunity to strike the experienced bandit into the bargain, incapacitating him and inflicting a critical that thanks to the bandit's fitness check damaged his armour rather than wounding his arm. The experienced bandit used calming breath to un-incapacitate himself, and guarded. Not knowing what was going on, the bandits used guard to protect themselves, upping the TN to hit them by 2. Nobunaga killed one with an arrow (in conjunction with his hawk's assistance). Masakuri released her hold on the mist invocation, letting it disperse slowly, and used Bo of Water to create a weapon. Due to her Meishodo Talisman giving her a lower TN, she was able to trigger the opportunity to make it take the form of any weapon she liked, and immediately make a strike action with it. Technically a repeater crossbow would have had the same effect in terms of bringing down a minion, but since I figured "why not, just don't count on being able to do this in the future" she formed the water into a Third Watchtower Command Ballista (hey, it's a weapon) and basically nailed one of the minions to the wheelhouse, three feet off the deck, with a two foot long shard of ice. The PCs then essentially had a second turn immediately following the first thanks to Lightning Raid taking effect. Kinzoku finished off the experienced bandit. A fire stance strike action with Way of the Lion does exactly what you'd imagine to an essentially unarmoured opponent. Masakuri nailed a second bandit to the wall. Nobunaga finished off another, and dropped enough strife on both remaining bandits that they fled in panic. With the mist clearing and the sounds of fighting coming from both ships, the pirates started to rouse. It was clear the other ship had also been taken by the Matsu and the Bushi, and they fired it and - moments later - they saw the answering fire from the cliff-top. The Tsuro would be on its way, they just had to hold out. "Famous Last Stand time"....   

While characters with 46 experience, I've noticed that the character advancement tables encourage players to plan their characters' advancement paths rather than spending experience on the areas they find most entertaining. For example, a Kuni Purifier that wants to be good using melee or ranged weapons needs to raise those skills at Rank 1 or Rank 4 if he wants the experience to count toward advancing in rank. Furthermore, any Earth Invocations he gets past Rank 1 won't count toward advancement until Rank 4. This is true even if that invocation is Bind the Shadow, one I suspect almost all Kuni Purifiers would encourage their peers to learn,, or Courage of the Seven Thunders, a thematically appropriate invocation for a school that specializes in fighting creatures so horrible they're rarely discussed by other clans.

Although I'm only creating characters for fun, I find it frustrating that I need to constantly ask myself if I'm raising skills at the right time. As a player, I'm sure I would be even more frustrated realizing that my Rank 2 Kuni Purifier who has just spent an entire session studying people in court for signs of the Taint should wait until Rank 3 to raise Sentiment, because he wants to be good at Performance and Government, skills that won't count toward advancement again until Rank 5.

In addition to forcing character advancement to be out of sync with the story, the need to plan characters in advance makes experience itself less rewarding. With a more open advancement system, I would say to myself, "I want my Kuni Purifier to be great at dealing with Shadowlands creatures but still useful in other situations, so I'm going to raise my Earth and pick up Earth Becomes Sky." Instead, I'm finding myself thinking, "Wait. I can't raise my Earth yet because I want the the skills and techniques available at this rank to count toward advancement. I'll have to wait to be great at using Jade Strike, Armor of Earth, and Bind the Shadow, even though they're techniques that are central to my school's theme."
In some cases, I also find myself thinking, "I want to raise a skill from Rank 1 to Rank 2, but I only have 2 experience left to advance to the next rank, and that would cost 4. I'd better learn a new skill that still counts so none of my experience goes to waste."

The easiest way to eliminate the need to plan characters would be to allow any experience expenditure to count toward advancement. However, that would make the only distinction between schools their school techniques and which technique categories they have access to. I may not like the advancement table, but I'm glad they encourage the Kakita Duelist to master art as well as swordsmanship, the Shiba Guardian to explore the finer points of philosophy, and the Hida Defender to gain the nature skills necessary to survive in the Shadowlands. More school techniques would help schools stand out, but since that is the approach previous editions took, I'll assume it was discarded for a reason, such as keeping certain schools from pulling too far ahead of others.
We could get rid of advancement tables and assign each school a list of skills and techniques that count toward experience. For example, the Kakita Duelist might have all Martial Skills, Courtesy, Culture, Aesthetics, Design, Smithing and all Kata count toward advancement, as well as gaining access to Crescent Moon Style, All Arts are One, and A Samurai's Fate a rank early. This approach would allow schools to stand apart, but it would also make it harder to create characters who break from the norm, such as the Kakita Duelist who has mastered survival and theology while serving as a shugenja's bodyguard and champion.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a change to advancement tables: Let experience in any skill count toward character advancement as long as it appears in the current rank or a prior rank. Under this system, the first rank or two would represent the skills and techniques the school considers fundamental or has a knack for, with higher ranks allowing members to be recognized whether they become experts in those fundamentals or broaden their capabilities. For example, the Kuni Purifier table might look something like this:
 

Like the current advancement tables, the expanding table approach would keep the schools distinct while allowing players to create unusual characters by rewarding atypical experience expenditures at higher ranks. However, it would also eliminate the need for players to plan their characters in advance to ensure they are picking up skills and rings at the perfect time. In addition, it would allow fun and mechanically sound characters, such as a Kuni Purifier that focuses almost entirely on Earth Invocations rather than dabbling in Water and Fire because those are the only invocations that count at Ranks 2 and 3.

The expanding table approach has the potential to be less realistic than the current advancement tables. The example table would allow a Kuni Purifier to advance by becoming a master of the martial arts rather than communing with the kami. I doubt this will be a major concern. Most people who want to play a certain type of character will choose a school (and school technique) that is appropriate for that character. If they don't, they'll still have an incentive to diversify unless the campaign is laser-focused on one area, for the higher, more expensive skill ranks have a less significant impact on players' chance of success than their predecessors.

The expanding table approach also retains some of the disadvantages of the current system, such as forcing people who go against their school's stereotype to wait a long time before their experience expenditures count toward advancement. However, I suspect it will still be more enjoyable than the current system.

While characters with 46 experience, I've noticed that the character advancement tables encourage players to plan their characters' advancement paths rather than spending experience on the areas they find most entertaining. For example, a Kuni Purifier that wants to be good using melee or ranged weapons needs to raise those skills at Rank 1 or Rank 4 if he wants the experience to count toward advancing in rank. Furthermore, any Earth Invocations he gets past Rank 1 won't count toward advancement until Rank 4. This is true even if that invocation is Bind the Shadow, one I suspect almost all Kuni Purifiers would encourage their peers to learn,, or Courage of the Seven Thunders, a thematically appropriate invocation for a school that specializes in fighting creatures so horrible they're rarely discussed by other clans.

Although I'm only creating characters for fun, I find it frustrating that I need to constantly ask myself if I'm raising skills at the right time. As a player, I'm sure I would be even more frustrated realizing that my Rank 2 Kuni Purifier who has just spent an entire session studying people in court for signs of the Taint should wait until Rank 3 to raise Sentiment, because he wants to be good at Performance and Government, skills that won't count toward advancement again until Rank 5.

In addition to forcing character advancement to be out of sync with the story, the need to plan characters in advance makes experience itself less rewarding. With a more open advancement system, I would say to myself, "I want my Kuni Purifier to be great at dealing with Shadowlands creatures but still useful in other situations, so I'm going to raise my Earth and pick up Earth Becomes Sky." Instead, I'm finding myself thinking, "Wait. I can't raise my Earth yet because I want the the skills and techniques available at this rank to count toward advancement. I'll have to wait to be great at using Jade Strike, Armor of Earth, and Bind the Shadow, even though they're techniques that are central to my school's theme."
In some cases, I also find myself thinking, "I want to raise a skill from Rank 1 to Rank 2, but I only have 2 experience left to advance to the next rank, and that would cost 4. I'd better learn a new skill that still counts so none of my experience goes to waste."

The easiest way to eliminate the need to plan characters would be to allow any experience expenditure to count toward advancement. However, that would make the only distinction between schools their school techniques and which technique categories they have access to. I may not like the advancement table, but I'm glad they encourage the Kakita Duelist to master art as well as swordsmanship, the Shiba Guardian to explore the finer points of philosophy, and the Hida Defender to gain the nature skills necessary to survive in the Shadowlands. More school techniques would help schools stand out, but since that is the approach previous editions took, I'll assume it was discarded for a reason, such as keeping certain schools from pulling too far ahead of others.
We could get rid of advancement tables and assign each school a list of skills and techniques that count toward experience. For example, the Kakita Duelist might have all Martial Skills, Courtesy, Culture, Aesthetics, Design, Smithing and all Kata count toward advancement, as well as gaining access to Crescent Moon Style, All Arts are One, and A Samurai's Fate a rank early. This approach would allow schools to stand apart, but it would also make it harder to create characters who break from the norm, such as the Kakita Duelist who has mastered survival and theology while serving as a shugenja's bodyguard and champion.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a change to advancement tables: Let experience in any skill count toward character advancement as long as it appears in the current rank or a prior rank. Under this system, the first rank or two would represent the skills and techniques the school considers fundamental or has a knack for, with higher ranks allowing members to be recognized whether they become experts in those fundamentals or broaden their capabilities. For example, the Kuni Purifier table might look something like this:
 

Like the current advancement tables, the expanding table approach would keep the schools distinct while allowing players to create unusual characters by rewarding atypical experience expenditures at higher ranks. However, it would also eliminate the need for players to plan their characters in advance to ensure they are picking up skills and rings at the perfect time. In addition, it would allow fun and mechanically sound characters, such as a Kuni Purifier that focuses almost entirely on Earth Invocations rather than dabbling in Water and Fire because those are the only invocations that count at Ranks 2 and 3.

The expanding table approach has the potential to be less realistic than the current advancement tables. The example table would allow a Kuni Purifier to advance by becoming a master of the martial arts rather than communing with the kami. I doubt this will be a major concern. Most people who want to play a certain type of character will choose a school (and school technique) that is appropriate for that character. If they don't, they'll still have an incentive to diversify unless the campaign is laser-focused on one area, for the higher, more expensive skill ranks have a less significant impact on players' chance of success than their predecessors.

The expanding table approach also retains some of the disadvantages of the current system, such as forcing people who go against their school's stereotype to wait a long time before their experience expenditures count toward advancement. However, I suspect it will still be more enjoyable than the current system.

The Ki Protection kiho removes the Injured Body Part condition. I believe it should be updated to remove the Wounded and Gravely Wounded conditions instead.