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How did we get to a place where the newest "Narrative System" is simultaneously the most complex, mechanically? The kind of system they've released in Beta is so closely mirrored of White Wolf's Storyteller System, and if you or anyone has ever played that, you can run that system after ten minutes of reading the rules.
Like I said, I don't want to be that guy who just complains, so I've been thinking of ways to resolve this issue and stay with the design philosophy FFG has planted their flag on.
1) Be more succinct and concise in your wording. I.e: Remove approaches and tell me in no uncertain terms what the Rings mean. Don't mince words. 
2) Right now the charts in the book are every-****-where, knock it off. Compile them into one section label it "Appendix A: Charts" and putt all the **** charts for all the **** ways to spend opportunity in one location. 
3) Simplify and speed up combat. Your fancy Wounds/Fatigue/Critical hit system is overly strenuous. Also, if you want to use unique Critical Hits, maybe try coming up with more than 12 of them 3-4 of which are the same just progressively worse. 

I've run previous editions of L5R, both in the past and recently, and yes, they are crunchy, to a degree, they also don't go around calling themselves a "Narrative System." Narrative systems are smooth, don't get in the way of the game, allow for rules arbitration to be done rapidly. 
 
But the larger problem here here is that you see the game as complex enough that a GM would need TWO Screens to run this game. I don't wanna own 1 screen let alone be nearly required to own two just to run the game. Doesn't that seem counterintuitive to the philosophy of narrative system? 

I don't know if I'm alone in this, I've poked around on here a good bit and not seen many people concerned about it...But my question: How much am I expected to memorize? Stems from a few things. 
• Approaches: 5 Skill Groups. 5 Rings. 5 (or more) skills. Is it reasonable to expect every GM or Player to remember all the different combinations or choices here? When is a "clever" mechanic just too burdensome? 
• Opportunity: Skill specific. Skill Group Specific. Ring Specific. Techniques (Kata, Shuji, Kiho, Invocations, Rituals). Combat Specific. I get it...But again, how in the **** is someone supposed to quickly and accurately adjudicate such a diverse set of options when there are so many to the point of being redundant? 
Now, I don't want to come off as a wet blanket here, I'm not opposed by any means to a new system for the game. The idea of bringing a narrative structure to dice mechanics and so on is admirable. But in other more narrative focused games it seems that the rules are designed to not impede play. Yet, through 10 hours of play, it still takes my 3 person group 10 minutes to figure out a single dice roll. And sure, that's largely due to unfamiliarity with the system, but it's also in large part everyone looking up all the different approaches, does this skill fit this task, how can I spend these opportunity points, how do I role play my Strife in this situation. And we haven't even gotten into combat yet. 
When you think of Samurai Fiction, you invariably think of flashing sword duels, and men being cut down rapidly. Take the first fight scene in Yojimbo as an example, Mifunes character dispatches 3 men in 3 strokes. If he were to do that with these rules, Yojimbo would be 37 hours long. A game about the romantic version Samurai should have a fast, seemless, and unobtrusive rules set. It shouldn't require me to consult a rule book or spread sheet with every dice roll. 

I agree that the Akodo Commander way outpaces all the others. A lot of the school abilities feel pretty similar and not particularly good or flavorful at this point. It would be nice to see the other abilities get another look to see if they can be reworked so they can rise to meet Akodo levels of awesome.

I agree that the Akodo Commander way outpaces all the others. A lot of the school abilities feel pretty similar and not particularly good or flavorful at this point. It would be nice to see the other abilities get another look to see if they can be reworked so they can rise to meet Akodo levels of awesome.

I love the advantages and disadvantages they offer. I think they're great. A mechanic for creating custom ones would be awesome mind you, but I think I could make characters forever based on what they have here. Besides pretty much every Question ends with the line: "If you want to create your own ____, consult with your GM using the guidance in Creating Custom Advantages and Disadvantages". So I feel line with it.
I just think the 20 Questions model would be strengthened and the book flipping could be reduced a lot if they consolidated the Distinctions, Passions, Adversities, Anxieties, Allies and Rivals right into the Questions they pertain to.

I love the advantages and disadvantages they offer. I think they're great. A mechanic for creating custom ones would be awesome mind you, but I think I could make characters forever based on what they have here. Besides pretty much every Question ends with the line: "If you want to create your own ____, consult with your GM using the guidance in Creating Custom Advantages and Disadvantages". So I feel line with it.
I just think the 20 Questions model would be strengthened and the book flipping could be reduced a lot if they consolidated the Distinctions, Passions, Adversities, Anxieties, Allies and Rivals right into the Questions they pertain to.

This is the first time that Fantasy Flight has introduced funny dice to a game and I've been genuinely this excited about it. The dice are easy to read--basically nothing, success, success and a reroll to maybe get another success and a sakura blossom that represents some internal conflict sparked in your character from the situation which pushes him closer to emoting true feelings--which is the bane of any samurai.
I love this so hard.
That and I love the idea that you're not looking at endless situations where you succeed at a roll but something bad happens, or you fail at a roll but something good happens. All that random weirdness made it hard to tell a consistent story--things kept veering off into madcap Keystone Cops territory.
Plus some of the other symbols were so obscure I couldn't even tell if they were good or bad things, much less what they meant. I always had to keep a cheatsheet on hand. This? Super easy.

So I did a little research this afternoon and was able to dig up how the idea of Outbursts work in real world japanese culture. The results were interesting. I'm not sure if they're particularly helpful.
Tatemae is the word for what you genuinely feel, your true human feelings. It is your 'true sound' as though you were a musical instrument. You are expected to hide that under what's called honne, your guise.
In America we would call this being suave or politic. It's how you are at work, when you're with a customer. A true lapse in honne isn't some dramatic moment where under stress the clouds part and you see a glimpse of the true person within--it's more a moment of social awkwardness that's seen as unhelpful, selfish and childish. There's a social lubricant that everyone uses to smoothly navigate the day and here comes a guy who doesn't have any. Typically if you're being nice, you cover for them. You work extra hard to smooth over the interactions in the way they are failing to. This is you doing them a solid for them not having their crap together and they would be remiss at not being grateful for it.
Thus there's not really a word in japanese for what we want Outburst to mean--because real honne doesn't work like that. The actual words for outburst are boppatsu (something that happens suddenly), gekihatsu (when something flares up or spasms, like a sore knee) or bakuhatsu (when something explodes in an unexpected, damaging way--like a bomb). None of these are really things that describe people and I think in japanese were you to try to use bakuhatsu to describe a breech of civility they would think you didn't speak very good japanese.
Words that do seem to describe what we're looking for are more like:
Haji: embarrassment, chagrin, humiliation, disgrace, scandal, shame, mortification (this is the most common one used to describe a breech of honne ettiquette)
Samoshī: mean, selfish or self-centered
Wagamama: disobedience, brattiness, self-indulgeant
See how there's not much romanticizing going on here?
I thought maybe something like a word for nervous breakdown might help get us to where we want to go. It certainly seems like what's going on with a samurai who under the weight of too much Strife, just can't take it anymore. There's Shinkei Suijaku, but that seems to be a clinical term that doesn't have the informal conversational sense I think we're looking for.
There is a phenomenon in modern japan of kids snapping under the pressure of japanese society and becoming teenage shut ins called hikikomori. They don't break it down that I can find but hiki means to carry, ko means young or little, and mori means forest--children getting carried off into the forest?
https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/september-october-2006-global-warning/japans-nervous-breakdown Here's an article about the phenomenon.
Shinkei suijak
Shinkei suijaku

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.

I would imagine (not based on the rules in any book, just going on common sense) that the leaders of a family at court can raise up vassal families to serve them. Clan daimyos create clan families in the exact same way. The Emperor creates clans in exactly the same way. What they're called is just a matter of which tier of the feudal structure you're talking about. There's political consequences for all of this, of course, which is why it doesn't happen all the time. The more vassal families, clan families, and clans, the less attention and resources there are to go around--so for every new one, everyone gets less once they divvy up what there is.
Less attention means less opportunity for glory. Less resources means poorer arms and armor, less magical research, less funding for works of art and literature. New groups tend to capture the eye of court, which means the established ones have a tendency toward resentment.
A good way to think about it is a family with a ton of kids who decide to have another. What does this mean for the other kids?

While listening to Podcast of Five Rings Post Beta Game Impressions, one of the guys referred to Outburst as Limit Break (the ability from the Final Fantasy video games).  

I really enjoy Outburst. It feels like common use english rather than gamey jargon and it's evocative of what it is--emotion built up to a breaking point where you can't help it anymore and something slips out. You cry or you smile or you laugh. That seems pretty straightforward.
Oh and awesome!
That this is the central focus of the game; a game with magic and gods and zombies and kung fu.
That the central focus is on the human drama of these people shouldering responsibilities that are so all pervasive and huge that they are supposed to literally negate who they are as human beings--and the impossibility of carrying around that kind of burden without your emotions suddenly and uncontrollably manifesting in startling ways.
I love that so much.

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.

I like the idea that much like minor clan that there's a concept of minor family and minor school where basically you have a block of potential bonuses that aren't as good as the major versions, but you get to customize your own and name it. I like the idea that you can be dressed in dragon colors and introduce yourself as Hagiwara Yota from the Chiben Spearmaster Bushi School. And everyone is like WHAT...

I think much of the overwheming problem could be solved by reorganizing the the sections of the Great Clans like this:
 
The <Animal> Clan
Modifier and general description what makes the clan the clan.
Families
An overview over the 3-5 families that make up the clan with modifiers listed etc.
Schools
An overview over 3-4 schools thought in this clan.
 
 
Currently there are no rules for taking schools from other clans. And even if they introduce out of clan schools and and multiple schools they are advanced player options who already know their stuff.

I like the idea that much like minor clan that there's a concept of minor family and minor school where basically you have a block of potential bonuses that aren't as good as the major versions, but you get to customize your own and name it. I like the idea that you can be dressed in dragon colors and introduce yourself as Hagiwara Yota from the Chiben Spearmaster Bushi School. And everyone is like WHAT...

I like the idea that much like minor clan that there's a concept of minor family and minor school where basically you have a block of potential bonuses that aren't as good as the major versions, but you get to customize your own and name it. I like the idea that you can be dressed in dragon colors and introduce yourself as Hagiwara Yota from the Chiben Spearmaster Bushi School. And everyone is like WHAT...

I like the idea that much like minor clan that there's a concept of minor family and minor school where basically you have a block of potential bonuses that aren't as good as the major versions, but you get to customize your own and name it. I like the idea that you can be dressed in dragon colors and introduce yourself as Hagiwara Yota from the Chiben Spearmaster Bushi School. And everyone is like WHAT...

If that’s what you think I think, you’re thinking right.

I think a bit of this is having just started contributing to the open beta, I'm not really sure what trains have already left the station and what things are up for grabs in terms of making the new L5R what we want. The ad that brought me here gave me a pitch that I think led me to believe that things were a lot less decided on and more up for discussion. I'd heard word that FFG was talking about resetting the timeline. It now seems after a few days of looking around at the new LCG and watching some YouTube videos that the setting part of the game is fairly set in stone. I think that makes this seems a lot more like I'm just griping, which really isn't how it was meant.
With regard to being able to do what I want in my home games. Of course. It's not like, whatever happens with the rules, I can't go back and play the new game with my old books. Heck, I don't even have to buy the new FFG edition at all depending on how it goes. Right? Obviously the hope here is to hope influence the shape of the new edition, to say the things I love about the game and to try and pick away at a few of the things I've always been irritated by (a lot of which seem like they already got sorted out...which is great).
Trying to see anything of what I'm interested in make it into the game is kind of inherently a longshot. Like being one voice in a giant whirlwind. Part of making that work is figuring out what things are set and what things are open to change. It'd be nice to have a better picture of what's still open for change.
Right now I'm pulling together a character to get a better sense of how that works (hope to give some feedback on that) and I'm negotiation with my game group to try and run this new version of L5R so we can actually do some real playtesting rather than just theorizing. Until then I'm just waiting for my dice to show up from Amazon.

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.
 

I'm looking over the game's rules on critical strikes, and ... is there any way for a character to get to 16+ severity?  Is there any way for a Rank 1 character to get to that point?  The reason I'm asking, is because I was a huge fan of 1e and 2e's high levels of lethality.  The idea of a character going from 'Totally Healthy!' to 'Blarg!  I'm Dead!' in a single shot.  I liked the idea of an ashigaru with a spear being able to (potentially) take out some Rank 4 legend with a single blow - or an archer picking off the commander of an army with a lucky (or skilled) shot.
I'm ... not seeing that here.  Am I missing something?
As it stands, it looks like I may be reducing the Critical Success scale down to 0 to 8+, instead of 0 to 16+.