@Vutall Please don't patronize me as if I'm merely confused about the rules. I've been playing tabletop games for over a decade. And I do mean games. I've played over a dozen systems, ranging from extremely popular to a homebrew systems born on an obscure forums. I was optimistic heading into FFG's L5R because I liked a lot of these concepts presented in the rulebook, dueling and mass combat especially, but I and my group found the execution awful, and drag to play. Getting back on topic, I understand that you use your current stance as the default ring for all your combat actions, from fitness to martial arts. However the common spread at CC is 3 in two different rings, (basically of your choice, unless your clan/family/school options give you zero support). Further, it explicitly says in the rulebook that outbursts in combat aren't really a big deal (p. 17, Battle Rage) because you can always choose become enraged, which have more upsides than downsides. Therefor accumulating a ton of strife in the fire stance can be beneficial, and some schools need strife to function anyway. Finally, once you suffer your outburst for a given scene, there's no longer any downside with getting more strife (excepting possibly some kata or shuji that I overlooked?). Your strife value is reset at the end of the scene no matter what. 
@Magnus Grendel Absolutely none of that is evident in the book. On Page 214 for example it states "the three types of units that are definitely available are..." which of course implies that the choice between cohorts is a choice between type, and they aren't limited in any way. At no point in the module is it ever explicitly said in plain words that the cohorts types are individual and specific units. Further on Page 214 it reads "All cohorts occupying a Fortified Position (the Kaiu Wall) reduce all casualties inflicted on them by 10." As I'm relatively certain that only one cohort can hold a position at a time, this obviously implies there are more than one of the Kaiu Wall fortification. This, as well as things like the mechanical effects of leaving the gates open or closed, aren't exactly clear because they're simply not intuitive.

I'm going to try and not bring up the flavor of the module, and things I disagree with setting-wise. This is just about the module and my experience with the game's mechanics.
[spoiler warning]
The module is bad. Real bad. The adventure begins with a murder mystery where you're intended to find zero evidence. There is no evidence to find. Everything you need to know is told to you by the introduction, head south to the wall.
On top of the investigation being unsatisfying for my group, as there was no potential to succeed in any capacity, the process of investigation was a nightmare. After being told there were TN bonuses and penalties based on your approach, my group spent nearly 30 minutes discussing 3 different rolls to try and figure out what the best approach would be. They guessed wrong on all three, and as a GM, the three "proper" approaches didn't make any sense at all. It felt random. Overall I think the TN bonus/penalty system based on your approach is a huge mistake. It creates a ton of stuff to memorize (25 individual approaches) and it also makes every check a puzzle (you're encouraging this slow play pattern by rewarding players for taking their time to think about it). 
The dice. The dice. They're just so awful. Making a roll is like wearing a straight jacket. At keep 3 (which unless the players invest 12 XP out of their starting pool, that's their cap), you can't do anything exciting at all. Unless you explode, 2 successes and 1 opportunity is all you can achieve. Even if you do explode you're still looking at 2.5 successes and 1.5 opportunity, generally speaking. There are the cases too where you get 2 opportunities on your initial roll, so you have to make a choice. Guarantee to 2 opportunities and gamble rolling a success on the explosion, or keeping 2 successes and gambling on the opportunities. Players can agonize over these choices and it slows things way down. The dice are easily the worst part about playing the game. The more my group got through he module the less they even wanted to roll dice, even for tasks they were good at.
Combat might be fun if it wasn't so swingy. I ran a few packs of enemies (from goblins up to lost samurai) and all of them were incredibly easy for my party (24 XP as recommended by the module). Meanwhile the oni boss at the end killed two party members in a single round and didn't even roll terribly well. Further, the fire, air, and earth stances are all incredibly broken in their own unique ways, while water and void seem pointless to me. In combat especially, attacking as fire can add 3 success to your rolls with little downside, as crits are so exceedingly rare and damage is relatively low (a lost samurai averaging around 2 damage a hit unless I chose to go into fire stance). The earth stance making you immune to activated critical hits is janky at best on players, but incredibly frustrating for NPCs, and air stance is so powerful because a +1 TN to be hit when everyone's keeping only 3 makes you nearly untouchable. Dueling is neat in concept but in practice the optimal play seems to be to only center and you alternate between your stats to keep yourself calm and enrage your opponent. Being at TN 4+ to hit is basically invincible at this level range.
I don't think I need to even say that the Crab are written poorly. They send you out on MMO style fetch quests, refusing to send advice to their boss unless the emerald magistrates do busy work for them. I mean, a Hida Officer refusing to give battle advice to their commander unless the players find some drunk Crab in the stables? (This isn't to mention that the advice they give is terrible. Keeping the gates closed makes the mass combat a guaranteed win).
The Mass combat legitimately took me hours to even grasp. There's some serious editing problems. How many of each cohort type are available? What is the terrain of the mass combat at the end? How many "hida wall" fortifications should there actually be? Why do they give 10 reduction? How are the shadowlands forces intended to hurt anyone? Why don't stances apply in mass combat? What happens with strife in mass combat and does it or does it not interact with panic? If movement isn't a thing in mass combat, how exactly do you determine when it is required to abandon a fortification to assault or rally a unit? When the GM says so? Again. I like the concept but the execution is awful.
Overall the only fun I had running this for four hours was making fun of how obtuse the rules were with my group, who grew to resent the system rather quickly, as they were repeatedly failing even TN 2 tasks with regularity. 
It is easily one of the worst systems I have ever played, and a lot is going to have to change for me to consider playing it again.

Small correction: as long as a character has access to kata, they can buy any kata they qualify for. Some kata can be bought early based on school, and different schools start with different kata. Same goes for Shuji. So all Bushi and Courtier can buy striking as Air.

I agree. It doesn't fit the definition of an edition in any way. It's the first edition of a new game entirely. 

Your arguing that RAW you don't need a ready weapon to deal damage with an attack technique. OK.

I get this. I pointed it out myself. I know why FFG makes them a mandatory part of chargen. That doesn’t change the fact that chargen is more restraining than in previous editions, precisely because it has more mandatory parts and less optional ones. It is what it is, let’s not pretend otherwise.

The difference between you and I,  I think, is I would rather just play another game that doesn't require rules gyrations to be fun in the first place. To each their own, my dude.

@Doji Tori is correct. As a side note, you can win conflicts even when all of your characters are bowed because the Favor still gives you +1 as long as you control a character in the conflict.

Any suggested change to the dice is a fool's errand. Given the accelerated beta schedule, I would put good money on the dice design already being finalized and at the manufacturer's.

Any suggested change to the dice is a fool's errand. Given the accelerated beta schedule, I would put good money on the dice design already being finalized and at the manufacturer's.

Any suggested change to the dice is a fool's errand. Given the accelerated beta schedule, I would put good money on the dice design already being finalized and at the manufacturer's.

@Doji Tori is correct. As a side note, you can win conflicts even when all of your characters are bowed because the Favor still gives you +1 as long as you control a character in the conflict.

Considering how easy most enemies are, I think they're balanced where they should be, mechanically. I think what you're experiencing is that character creation doesn't feel satisfying.

Any suggested change to the dice is a fool's errand. Given the accelerated beta schedule, I would put good money on the dice design already being finalized and at the manufacturer's.

This seems like it's way out of line with the intent of the system. A critical hit is 2 opportunities and isn't anywhere near instant death.

This isn't remotely true. It's done in the card game for cohesive visual design, but basically all of the actual lore of the setting contradicts this idea. There are certain occasions when samurai are expected to wear their clan's colors, but it's not an every-day thing.

I would have to assume the other poster meant "gygaxian" when they said "traditional", and the gygaxian school of thought is that the character and roleplaying comes first, and the mechanics are how that character is represented. A person allowing the mechanics to dictate their character is a person that many old school roleplayers would call a munchkin or powergamer. Of course this all gets chucked out the window, I think, in the context of a game that has specifically designed mechanics that tell you how to roleplay on occasion.
Needless to say, your history with the hobby doesn't make you "traditional" by default. 

@Doji Tori is correct. As a side note, you can win conflicts even when all of your characters are bowed because the Favor still gives you +1 as long as you control a character in the conflict.

This seems like it's way out of line with the intent of the system. A critical hit is 2 opportunities and isn't anywhere near instant death.

This seems like it's way out of line with the intent of the system. A critical hit is 2 opportunities and isn't anywhere near instant death.

This isn't remotely true. It's done in the card game for cohesive visual design, but basically all of the actual lore of the setting contradicts this idea. There are certain occasions when samurai are expected to wear their clan's colors, but it's not an every-day thing.

This seems like it's way out of line with the intent of the system. A critical hit is 2 opportunities and isn't anywhere near instant death.

Can't say I ever liked the Naga, or any of the beast races. Not only is the entire concept of Naga in Rokugan a bastardization of Hindu mythology, but they don't really serve any specific purpose. They smack of the old DnD style "throw in some more monsters because more is better".

Can't say I ever liked the Naga, or any of the beast races. Not only is the entire concept of Naga in Rokugan a bastardization of Hindu mythology, but they don't really serve any specific purpose. They smack of the old DnD style "throw in some more monsters because more is better".

Can't say I ever liked the Naga, or any of the beast races. Not only is the entire concept of Naga in Rokugan a bastardization of Hindu mythology, but they don't really serve any specific purpose. They smack of the old DnD style "throw in some more monsters because more is better".