Im facing the same thing, but thinking of changing the potentially "disgraced" samurai to either a Doji duelist from the Kakita Academy, or even Hitoshi.  Still working out the details.

We need more things like this to make this game more understandable for those who are not as familiar with the culture/genre.  Personally, I am, and have been playing since 3rd edition and the CCG since Diamond Edition, but more handouts/explanations like this one for my new players are very welcome.  Thank you OP (McKeewa).

We need more things like this to make this game more understandable for those who are not as familiar with the culture/genre.  Personally, I am, and have been playing since 3rd edition and the CCG since Diamond Edition, but more handouts/explanations like this one for my new players are very welcome.  Thank you OP (McKeewa).

I wanted to pass this question up to support but apparently the contact page form is broke, or something. Shame. 
Me personally, I actually interpret this as "no". The cost for the school ability is to suffer the condition, and since suffering a condition twice does nothing (unless explicitly noted) you can't pay the cost at the time of trigger, and thus cannot use the ability. 

I designed cards for my gaming group that have all relevant information on them, helping us to keep track of all the different actions available to our samurai. I also did some smaller cards for all the different conditions.
 

 

 

 
 

+1 to what Magnus Grendel just said about mechanics.
I would also loop back to Avatar's point about honor (or lack thereof) of Invisibility. And how that intersects with the situations you find yourself in. I agree strongly that sneaking up and killing a Goblin while wintering in the Shadowlands should not require a loss of honor. Also if you are are in some kind of major "magical firestorm" as you and your friends storm the ritual chamber of powerful Maho-Flinging cultists, then I don't think you would loose honor for going invisible to better whack the leader. 
But maybe (definitely!) in other situations a samurai would need to stake and/or loose honor to attack from invisibility. Killing another samurai from ambush is usually not honorable. If you have a beef with someone and its reached the point where you needs swords, then you are supposed to challenge them. You do not assassinate them when they aren't looking. So I don't think you can go invisible to gack a rival while they're sitting in a tea house. Also you can't go invisible during most formal duels (in a magical duel between two shugenja this could be a legal/honorable maneuver). 
My two cents.

This.

Personally, I am irked by the automatic assumption that some people have that any mention of gender fluidity, non binary, or non cis het sexualities are an "in your face activism", and not simply writing that reflects reality. Writing that refuses to accept the reality of humanity and force gender stereotypes and roles on people they don't apply to is in your face activism, imo.  

Thank you very much!  That's exactly what I was looking for.  I figured it was going to be in a side bar or something that I overlooked.  It seems something like that should NOT have been in a side bar, but in a regular rule in the main print.  Anyway, thanks again!

I had the same experience! It means the character making the check has a different TN to resist, depending on what stance they're in. I'll look to see if I can find a page number for you.

Edit: Second paragraph of the first sidebar on page 22.

Sort of.  There will always need to be a certain amount of Game Moderator adaptation, though the first few FFG has done a good job of connecting together saving the DM/GM some of that trouble.

Here is the most obvious order in terms of power progression if not chronologically:
Topaz Champion(Beginner Set)
In the Palace of the Emerald Champion (Download)
A Ronin's Path (Beta rule book Download, P.207-221)
Dark Tides (Game Master's Screen)
Sins of Regret
Knotted Tails (Download, concurrent with Oni's Mask)
Mask of the Oni
The Highwayman (Download, 2019 GenCon Adventure)
Wedding at Kyotie Castle(Download, 2018 GenCon Adventure)
The Scroll or the Blade(Download, concurrent with Winter's Embrace)
Winter's Embrace

The concurrent adventures which are downloaded means they should occur within the events in the listed adventure, though they could conceivably stand alone with GM/DM modifications.  Chronologically, Winter's Embrace occurs BEFORE Topaz Championship.  But since that adventure is a higher power level, it would make more sense of the events to occur after doing all of the other adventures.  Depending on the next set of published adventures, it may make sense to push it back further if you chose to run the sequence with a new group of players and/or characters.

First, it might be worth it to remind the players that this is a game of heroes.  You are playing characters who are big dang heroes who pro-actively do heroic things like argue a lost cause at court, get their hands dirty in a murder investigation, and yes, fight some baddies.  I think it was Matthew Coleville (https://www.youtube.com/user/mcolville/videos) who said that RPG player characters should not be like Harry Potter, waiting under the stairs for an invitation to adventure.  They should be Conan the Barbarian who sees what needs to be done and tries to do it.  There is only so much you can do as a GM to provide story hooks, set the scene, and instigate conflict.  If a player is still unwilling to engage, whether it's with a courtier in a battle or a bushi in an intrigue scene, that might just be on them.
Second, starting characters aren't that different or specialized yet. Doji Ren, while a courtier, is well rounded enough.  He starts with an Air Ring score of 3 and Martial Arts [Ranged] score of 1.  Akodo Masako, the supposed bushi of the group, has 3s in Earth and Water and a Martial Arts [Melee] score of 2.  So Ren could roll four dice in combat while Masako rolls five, which is close.  Doji Ren would be fine as an archer in Air Stance firing off sniper accurate arrows while the more rough-and-ready characters fight with sticks and swords. 
There is room for the player to be creative with opportunities too and rolling four dice per shot should give Doji Ren some to use.  Perhaps encourage the player to add some elements to the scene like a rope to swing on, a table to get behind, or a row of easily thrown lit paper lanterns.  Or, use the opportunities to have the character do something really cool other than just "I fire off another arrow".  Some of the suggested uses of Air opportunities are:
*+: During a Movement action check, 1 range band of any distance you move per * spent may be vertical.  (How cool is that?) *+: You are very subtle. Additional * spent this way increases the subtlety of your method. *: Add a kept Ring Die set to a * result to your next Martial check. Social skills can also be useful in combat.  A good Performance roll could scare off or at least intimidate the adversary.  Command could be used to get others involved.  Sentiment might tell you whether the baddies are angry, frightened, nervous, protective, etc.
Low rank Kata that would help an archer character include:
Hawk's Precision (rank 1).  Spend opportunities to increase the range of a ranged weapon. Pelting Hail Style (rank 2).  Spend opportunities to inflict strife on targets equal to the base damage of the player character's weapon. Striking as Air (rank 1).  Reserve unused dice and use them on the next roll. Striking as Water (rank 1).  Spend opportunities to reduce a target's physical resistance until the end of the character's next turn. Low rank Shuji that would help in combat include:
Feigned Opening (rank 2).  Make it easier for everyone in the party to hit some target character(s) for a turn. Honest Assessment (rank 1).  Let one of your allies ignore one of their disadvantages for the rest of the scene. Sensational Distraction (rank 1).  Get the target(s) attention on you so your allies can sneak around. Stirring the Embers (rank 1).  Make an allies' advantage even more advantageous. Courtier's Resolve (rank 1).  Spend a Void Point to remove some of your strife. Lady Doji's Decree (rank 2).  Target's can't attack you.

Look, I realize you draw a lot of satisfaction from your incessant whining, but other than you, I dont see anybody anywhere , including my own table and one I have friends in, having these problems and hating the game for it.
I dont know what you compare it to, we ve had this conversation elsewhere, but I am comparing it to other current RPG rulesets, and its pretty much in the middle of those. Some are mechanically more robust, some are less. Since you seem to be mostly entertained my whining about the same thing, for months now, in every possible thread, without actually ever offering much to the discussion but constant bashing of a product you do not enjoy, I am simply discarding your opinion at this point. You got the biggest chip on your shoulder of everyone here. Its not everyone ELSE being wrong by defending an indefensible product.
Or your GM is simply bad. Bad GMs create bad experiences. I am starting to suspect that might be the problem. For example, you still dont know how to handle Mr. High-Earth-Hida, and your answers have made it abundantly clear you dont really grasp how encounter design works, instead always going for the argumentative extreme. And if you care to recall, there are solutions to said Hida that have nothing to do with ignoring armor. Last but not least, you argue with a PvP perspective. Again, if your GM is big on PvP, he is probably not well suited for tabletop RPGs, and you d all be better off with the tighter rulesets of boardgames or tabletop strategy.
You want garbage rules? I present to you DnD 3.0, the entire WH40k line by FFG, Star Wars D20 and Iron Kingdoms. L5R problems PALE in comparison, as these systems produce overpowered insane combos by ACCIDENT, whereas in L5R you have to at least try.
But i am tiring of this. If you cant add anything to the discussion except "its OP, its trash, as is the entire game" for 50+ posts, it would be the wise thing to do and remain silent.
Btw, your answer shows you havent the grasp of the rules that you seem to think you have, AGAIN. Acquisition of items is a downtime action. Taking a shikigami out of your pocket is an action, meaning unless you are in water stance, thats the only thing you do, at which point everyone is free to shoot/burn/hit/spellcast on the shikigami for an entire round. Not to mention pocket-sized paper shikigami are quite limited in what they could do.
 

Dude, just make peace with the fact that pen+paper RPGs have to accommodate a much wider range of situations (near infinite) than any other game, and cannot be mechanically complex to the point of there not being any misunderstandings. I ve played RPGs for 25 years now, and the current L5R is in the upper third in terms of rules quality and loophole scarcity. At some point, you simply need the GM to cover some of these interactions.
Yes the system has its flaws and omissions, but I am not sure what your background is in terms of rules quality. I played all the big systems and plenty of smaller ones, and the only ones I vouch for as being mechanically better made are the new Modiphius systems - and a huge criticism of these is exactly that: People feel they are lifeless mechanics akin to a boardgame, lacking in flavor and style.
L5R 5th is without doubt the best-working L5R ruleset so far, easiest to remedy and adjucate, and allows for the widest range of mechanically supported tactics and playstyles. Just have your GM (or yourself, if you are stuck with the task) put a limit to obvious cheese.
And be glad we are not talking about immortal kobold sorcerors, bugbears with whips and bags full of rats, unkillable jedi cyborgs with 4 meter lightsaber blades, infinite-loop attack bushi, wild west card mages who instant kill anything in the entire game just by touching it or cybernetically enhanced thugs who can shoot an entire clip, reload, and empty it again before anyone even got to take an action.

In previous editions, if you didn't outright kill your opponent or successfully strike to first blood, the whole thing immediately ended without resolution or devolved into a clash until someone yielded or died. I think that if the intention is to reconstruct the thematic feel of an Iaijutsu Duel, it really needs refined parameters within the current ruleset (what is or is not acceptable actions in an iaijutsu duel) or is mechanically rewritten so the one strike kill is achievable without exploding dice, rings maxed out, or higher rank kata.

Y’know, I wonder if we (who are trying to fix this mechanically) are going at this a little wrong? @Avatar111 is absolutely right that there are mechanical issues to the iai duelling. However, I wonder if we haven’t considered the narrative enough.
The intent of the iai duel is a one cut resolution. So perhaps the fact that you are better always striking is a mechanical issue, but not a story one. After all, how can you win an iai duel if you just wail at your opponent? Sure, they will be injured or dead, but anyone watching just saw you fail at iai. That’s got too be worth a glory penalty. Any if you go into an iai duel then deliberately don’t iai? Honour loss, for sure.
Low or no honour characters can do what they want, sure. Or those away from view can do what they want if they are willing to forfeit honour. But that’s not necessarily a problem in character or in setting; walking the path of honour is supposed to be difficult (see ninja, Giri, strife, etc). 
Perhaps thinking like this this will push people towards trying for the one-hit unmask victory; which makes all the options much more useful.
The one change I can see bing needed mechanically is to allow the free attack from unmasking to include readying 1 or 2 one-handed weapons. This is an exception-based rules, sure, but then so is the unmasking free attack.
So I wonder if they way to fix this is with Rokugani social expectations, rather than mechanics?

Honestly, I think it's kind of strange that we're talking about delays while it's already on the way. There's a huge lead time for stuff like this. They say the SSD was in the works since Wave 2.
Radio silence is super annoying, but if you know the game isn't dropping it can be a good sign. X-Wing got quite a lot of radio silence before 2.0 dropped (nothing near what Armada has now, but still 6 months, 1 annnouncement, then 5 months is pretty long for X-Wing). It was actually that period of radio silence that got me to buy into Armada because the X-Wing meta was crap and I'm a sucker for thematics.
I'm also pretty sure Armada's getting Clone Wars pretty soon, which means the devs must be putting a lot of time and energy into Armada. The fact that there hasn't been an announcement doesn't mean work isn't happening, it just means whatever they're doing isn't ready yet.
Armada has the advantage of decently-balanced points and slots on the cards themselves. X Wing 2.0 is probably as well balanced (or will be soon) but requires frequent changes and updates to keep it that way. The slower production timeline of Armada has helped it to maintain its balance and generally avoid power creep throughout the lifespan of the game, without nearly as many errata as X-Wing 1.0 or the adjustments of 2.0. I'd say it's worth waiting for.

And 90% of the time you see an SSD in Armada, it’s NOT going to be an Executor class.
 
it will be a mere prototype, and thus, you should use that to fuel suspension of disbelief rather than dismiss it 🙂

A Donald trump victory.

My wife, when I decide that staying for an extra match or two, instead of being home for dinner at 6pm like I *said* I would be...

People have been adding vanilla to coke longer than either of us have been alive, so it has the weight of Tradition.
However, that orange Mtn. Dew carries the Taint. You have been warned.

I prefer the term 'Classic L5r' myself.
Though I hope I haven't jinxed us into a New Coke, Classic Coke situation.  
New Coke stank on ice. 

I liked the story up until Kachiko showed up.  Then it felt like Hotaru went from interesting character to hormonal teenager with the thoughts of most beautiful woman in the empire and wanting to kiss her etc.  I felt like a jump cut from a samurai political drama into Twilight.  Also, it may be due to the fact that you don't get kachiko's thoughts, but the relationship felt very one sided.  To me it felt like Hotaru was fawning over Kachiko and Kachiko was playing Hotaru like a fiddle.

I'm somewhat torn on this fiction, largely just because of the faux pas with the pillow fight comment from the AMA.
 
Part of me is excited that a company that has the helm is willing to actually use homosexual storylines.  Part of me is worried that this might just be some weird fan service.
 
The rest of the story was well done, and I think this topic is going to be handled tactfully.  But part of me is still a little worried.

I am about to start a new RPG game of star wars with a group of mates, thank you sir for my characters name.

McDickwind... Con McDickwind. Best smuggler this side of the Galaxy. They used to call me the Emperor....don't ask me why....