Huh. Somehow I missed that. My bad.
Geeze, my reading comprehension has just gone down the tubes as of late.

short discription doesnt cover it
 

I thought that they had said they were going to cut out that nonsense with Asmodée Store exclusive stuff that undercuts FLGS?

Eh, sure, but at the same time "the new dice killed it" is about the dumbest possible take on what's going on with L5R. The new system is also definitely no more shoddy than any of the other editions.

As someone who played the living heck out of 4th Edition, I very much prefer the special dice system. Like, a system were you have to think what dice you keep? And Raises actually matter? What kind of trickery is this ? 

Yeah, Avatar is not representative. I'm not the only one, I think, who has him on block at this point.
The game's not perfect, but it is a lot of fun.
And ****, the art. For me, Francesca Baerald's maps are the best bit because those are sweeeeeeet but really all of it is gorgeous.

I strongly disagree. Because the next sentence is "If a choice would[...], then you must choose a different ring to increase instead",  which to me, rather clearly says that you can make the choice but you can't apply it to that ring.
Otherwise, it should be "If a choice were to raise a ring beyond 3, another option must be chosen." Instead, we got the explanation that if a choice were to raise a ring beyond 3, we have to choose a different ring, which also may not rise beyond 3. Seems pretty cut-and-dried to me.

Why do you feel it makes things odd?
 
To me, it makes it so that I needn't worry about mechanics while answering the 20Qs, and it'll all work out anyway.

Core rulebook, page 41, under Limits on Skills and Rings:
"You cannot raise a ring or skill above rank 3 during character creation. If a choice would result in a ring rising above rank 3 during character creation, then you must choose a different ring to increase instead, as long as that ring would also not be increased above rank 3."
So in the example in the OP, if you choose to stand out in the Kuni Purifier school by your extreme thoroughness, the increase that would go toward Earth instead has to go somewhere else. You still get your characterization, but another ring has to increase instead.
I will say, Question 4 is a weird one to choose a ring you already have at 3, since you can already choose any ring. Moreover, the question is how you stand out in your school. I don't think any Kuni stands out by being patient, thorough, or calm. By RAW, though, it works.

As much as creating characters is fun, I know I will have plenty more fun with this game with my group. Again, I know my group (although I haven't played with all of them equally much) and am confident in my general ability to GM this and other games.

What I'm looking for is more stuff like "oh, X is subtly different in the beginner's game, make sure to explain that." or "It's easy to overlook that not only do weapons now have damage and deadliness and crits work differently, but Y is also different now." or "Oh, just add a Passion and a Disadvantage to the pregens, and they'll be fine."

Besides, your group, playstyle and general attitude to this and likely all RPGs seems radically different to mine and my group's, so I'm not sure you're well-equipped to answer any of my questions.

thats avatar trip ace for you, he makes comments like this on just about any thread. 

The Emerald Tournament was in the fictions - it's called Bright Flame Of The World's Glory.
Have a look in the fiction collection here.
The story of the Emerald Championship and it's leadup is:
Blind Ambition (The Emperor decides to hold the Emerald Tournament) Court Games (The Emerald Tournament is announced) Honour, Duty, Loyalty (Kachiko being Kachiko and trying to 'fix' the Tournament) The Bright Flame Of The World's Glory (The Tournament Itself)  

The vast majority of Rokugani samurai will probably never encounter a Shosuro. In fact, the vast majority of Rokugani samurai are unlikely to encounter many samurai from other clans during their lives; those who do will have duties that take them outside of the clan's lands, and this really isn't very many of them. The big opportunity to "encounter" samurai from other clans will be during times of war, and those encounters are likely to be across drawn weapons in a line of battle. PCs are, obviously, not typical clan samurai; they often range across the Empire dealing with just about every family of every clan, but that's because it's fun and cool to do that, and fun and cool is kinda the point of playing the game. Unfortunately, in the setting's reality, most samurai will spend most of their lives performing duties given to them by their lords, that involve overseeing commoners, dealing with largely domestic issues, patrolling the clan's and lord's lands and borders, and the like--they just don't travel much.
So, if samurai DO encounter a Shosuro, it will probably be in the context of a performance of some sort put on by a traveling  Shosuro troupe, or in Court, if there happen to be Shosuro delegates. Outside of this, given their education and the demands of things like their gempukku, Rokugani will probably be aware of the Shosuro as a family of the Scorpion clan, even if they have no direct experience with them. This creates the perfect conditions for people being judged mainly on the basis of reputation, and the reputation of the Shosuro is probably going to be mostly one of being enigmatic, heavily colored by gossip, rumors and the Rokugani version of urban legends. People will probably be at least somewhat suspicious of Shosuro they encounter...but this is Rokugan, so the social niceties of etiquette, the Bushido virtue of Courtesy, and the realities of simply not insulting people you don't know because they might be useful and/or a threat to you, probably also mean the Shosuro will be treated politely--if somewhat warily.

You know, I'm not certain. I know the core book had a lot of errors in school curricula that got cleared up in the PDF, and Shadowlands I believe had some clarifications as well. I don't have a physical book to compare to, so I'm not sure what changes were made.
I do know the released a version with better maps, at least.

Yeah, there's a misunderstanding somewhere. If the intent is to power game, he's failing.

Yeah, there's a misunderstanding somewhere. If the intent is to power game, he's failing.

No one who can answer that posts on the forums. This wait does seem longer even than the previous ones. Generally they seem to do a bit of errata before posting the PDFs.
Hopefully they will be up soon. If you really need an answer, you can always try contacting Customer Service.

Earth stance does prevent your opponent from spending opportunities to inflict a critical strike. It applies to all Attack action checks and all Scheme action checks. They cannot spend opportunities to inflict critical strikes or conditions.

Earth stance does prevent your opponent from spending opportunities to inflict a critical strike. It applies to all Attack action checks and all Scheme action checks. They cannot spend opportunities to inflict critical strikes or conditions.

I don't see anything unbalancing about that. Keep in mind Kuni Purifiers already have both tags and access to Invocations and Kata.

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.
 

I heard back today on the questions I sent. Here they are for context:
Hello, I had two questions regarding timing around Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade:
1) If I spend an opportunity from IC:RB to draw a second weapon and then spend an opportunity for the Mirumoto Two-Heavens Adept mastery ability Heart of the Dragon to perform a strike action with the second weapon, does the strike action resolve before finishing resolution of Rising Blade, or does Rising Blade finish resolving before the strike action is performed?
2) Let's say my opponent has a Vigilance of 3. If I use Rising Blade in fire stance, and I keep one success and one opportunity, and I use that opportunity to inflict strife on my opponent making them Compromised and setting their Vigilance to 1, does the TN change to 1 (meaning the attack succeeds), or does it remain at the initial TN of 3 (meaning the attack fails)?
I received this response:

Earth stance does prevent your opponent from spending opportunities to inflict a critical strike. It applies to all Attack action checks and all Scheme action checks. They cannot spend opportunities to inflict critical strikes or conditions.

I heard back today on the questions I sent. Here they are for context:
Hello, I had two questions regarding timing around Iaijutsu Cut: Rising Blade:
1) If I spend an opportunity from IC:RB to draw a second weapon and then spend an opportunity for the Mirumoto Two-Heavens Adept mastery ability Heart of the Dragon to perform a strike action with the second weapon, does the strike action resolve before finishing resolution of Rising Blade, or does Rising Blade finish resolving before the strike action is performed?
2) Let's say my opponent has a Vigilance of 3. If I use Rising Blade in fire stance, and I keep one success and one opportunity, and I use that opportunity to inflict strife on my opponent making them Compromised and setting their Vigilance to 1, does the TN change to 1 (meaning the attack succeeds), or does it remain at the initial TN of 3 (meaning the attack fails)?
I received this response:

Earth stance does prevent your opponent from spending opportunities to inflict a critical strike. It applies to all Attack action checks and all Scheme action checks. They cannot spend opportunities to inflict critical strikes or conditions.