I'd argue that DnD (referring to the new edition here) does use a setting: essentially western sword and sorcery that builds upon previous editions of the same game. It gives you exactly what you expect from the DnD brand, along with universe building things like the planes and the baggage that is carried along with it. Classes do their iconic stuff that we expect them to do and so on. The writers even try to tie everything together in a multiverse. Sure, its to try and sell the other campaign books if they ever release them.

I find needing 2 books as something that can work well. I don't really want too much information in a single volume, especially if that information isn't usable for players. If you could move GM material to another book and even lower the price of the player book, I'd be all for that. OH and add a starter version that includes bunches of cool stuff!

I have thoughts regarding both history and (a) core book(s):

I came to L5R in 2013 through the RPG. I was happy to have a corebook that timeline neutral-ish. It gave me a goldilocks amount of history and characterization of clans that I felt I could GM it without ever having played it before (though, admittedly, I did listen to the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast L5R actual play series).

The campaign was semi-canon; it was as canon as the 4e corebook, and didn't deal with the unfolding plot of the card game (in fact, I introduced a time skip from the CCG story so that I wouldn't have to deal with it).

Only when I got comfortable with the game and setting did I start digging a little deeper into the wiki, as the conflicts in the campaign escalated to clan-wide and empire-wide. The wiki made me go "WTF?"

I felt pretty frustrated that there was this plot unfolding in front of me, and yet it also felt difficult to get a handle on it.

So for the next book, I'd really like it to treat the timeline similarly to 4e. Accompanied--or shortly followed--by the release of the core book, I think it'd be great to see a centralized imperial history book that details the plot of the CCG (not alternate history stuff). Some of the GM stuff from the 4e core book could be moved over to this GM/history book, like advanced schools, alternate paths, and maybe even minor clans. That book could include more schools, locations, spells, more combat maneuvers, etc., as well, to round it out into a bigger, more sellable book. Alternatively, I bet "Enemies of the Empire" could be reimagined to serve both its current function and a timeline funciton.

Also, it seems the thread hasn't really resolved any of the debates, only brought them up. As a fanbase, we could go a step further and generate some actual data for FFG about what we want in the new version.

I started making a Google form survey that focuses on the topics raised in this threaed (the big picture ones, anyway). Is this something people are interested in? Given that I'm a relatively new fan, I think it'd be super helpful if some of the more dedicated/long term fans wanted to guide the development of the survey as well.

Were I a designer of the RPG, I would give each family a single iconic school based upon their most prominent role (rather than some families having multiple core book schools), and then allow for modification to said schools via a 1 rank path in some non core splatbook. That way, all of the special snowflakes could be left happy to play their beastmasters and spirit hunters and the like. Essentially, the design philosophy would be "Core things belong in Core Books, Splat books for everything else".

I really don't understand your point here, because most of what you're saying are already in the 4th edition corebook. Only the Mantis and the Scorpion a family with multiple corebook schools. They decided to have 4 schools in the corebook, 1 bushi, 1 courtier, 1 shugenja and 1 iconic other school. Which is something I entirely agree with. and here's why:

Scorpion: The Yogo has their school left out for a second Bayushi school. The Clan needs both a courtier and a bushi school, and both are very iconic for the Scorpion Clan. Then, I really doubt someone would want to see 2 shugenja schools in another Clan than Pheonix in that 4 corebook schools format in order to fit the setting.

Mantis: The Kitsune are left out for a second Yoritomo school. Which is basically the same reason as the scorpion, both Yoritomo Bushi and Courtier are very iconic and needs to be in the core for the family to be functional, and I wouldn't want another Clan with 2 Shugenja schools other than the Pheonix.

Also I can't see how just a "modification via a rank 1 path" may be possible for those cases, it's about both a courtier and a bushi. None of these very iconic will be able to work properly in their respective aspect with a simple rank 1 path. There's some tough choice to do and these are compromises to do allow these iconic, if not essential, schools to have a complete corebook.

I don't want to be mean with my next question but... Did you look up the 4th edition corebook? It's one of the best corebook, as a single book, that I've seen so far for a huge universe that is L5R. I'm not saying it's perfect, because there's some flaws, but some RPG has the same amout of quality but with at least a second corebook when the universe is as big as L5R.

When I look at D&D, with 3 corebooks and there's basically just stats and mechanics everywhere, there's no setting. Sure it's a design decision to be setting-free which allows the GM to play in a universe they want or use a realm, but in my opinion, it makes the core of D&D bland and boring with tools to build a world. Where in L5R, the setting is strong and provides a lot of hooks and a lot of information on the universe to be able to create a game with ease. And that, with a single corebook.

I actually had what is probably a far better post typed out, but for some reason, the frigging forum malfunctioned and lost my original response. As such, I will attempt to recreate it as much as possible from memory.

The point of my previous was pretty much to state, that in my view as a game designer, there are certain things that are inherent to any role playing game. You have your base classes or roles that are simple mechanics, you have your setting, and then you have how the two interact. When one of those is off, then the whole thing will (most likely) be Less. As for reading the book, indeed, I have.

In the book, I see multiple schools belonging to one family, and I see multiple schools fulfilling what is essentially the same role. Most people I have spoken with on the subject, have stated that the essential classes/roles are Bushi, Shugenja, Courtier. Most of them come to this conclusion because they have played RPGs or MMOs previously, and understand the underlying class/role mechanics. One could argue to a lesser extent for monks, but for a core game, there is no actual need for a monk pc within the group, unless you have a game specially geared toward alot of interaction with peasantry, for example.

That brings us to the "iconic school" and repetition of core roles, or more than one core role belonging to a single family within a clan. In order for those iconic schools to have a place in a campaign, the campaign has to be geared toward a slice of the setting. Berserkers, Witch/Spirit/Kolat/Nothing Hunters, and even some of the Core Schools have little to no place within a traditional, general setting campaign. Thus, they are seldom called upon to be played, and if one of these are chosen, they are often a seldom used third wheel.

Add to this the fact that most of the CCG's storyline as far as conflicts and alliances between factions were created in an attempt to sell more cards, and that storyline directly influenced the RPG's setting, and as stated before, you have a system setting that makes sense only to those that are deeply tied to it. I can cite numerous examples, if it is desired, as I have stayed abreast of the story a bit post TotV, merely due to the fact that the few games I have participated in as a player have been run from the current editions setting. Most times, returning to the storyline with each edition beyond first has led to wtf moments for me as a player while doing research, and that was with me knowing most of the general storyline direction. Things seemed to happen for no reason, other than to create another conflict to drive card sales for the most part.

At the end of the day, all of this is opinion based, but as I said, as a game designer, I could guarantee that any product I introduced with respects to legend of the five rings would be far different in its design structure. The core would have general customs and an explanation of the setting, as well as general history up to the point where first edition picked up. Many of the "iconic schools" would be included in splatbooks that referenced either one of the story arcs, a clan, or a faction. After that point, any and all story progression would occur in the sense that many of the characters, conflicts, alliances and events would occur organically, rather than the forced manner that it took in order to sell the next CCG expansion, and would not be beholden to even the LCG, unless the LCG actually allowed for organic character decision, conflicts, alliances and events to occur.

That brings us to the "iconic school" and repetition of core roles, or more than one core role belonging to a single family within a clan. In order for those iconic schools to have a place in a campaign, the campaign has to be geared toward a slice of the setting. Berserkers, Witch/Spirit/Kolat/Nothing Hunters, and even some of the Core Schools have little to no place within a traditional, general setting campaign. Thus, they are seldom called upon to be played, and if one of these are chosen, they are often a seldom used third wheel.

You'll have to bring up example, because I have trouble to understand your point of view. From what I can understand, you want to have 1 school per family that works with their mainstream ideology. Let's look at the corebook schools:

Crab:

Hida - Hida Bushi: Very iconic, great warrior to face shadowland creatures with a great defensive kit.

Hiruma: Hiruma Bushi: Debatable with the Hiruma scout, but they made him an hybrid between the scout and the bushi; good survivability and good fighter with some tricky moves. Very fitting for the Hiruma.

Kaiu: No school, because 4 school max.

Kuni: Kuni Shugenja: Nothing is more fitting than this for the Kuni, very iconic because they are well driven against their obsession to destroy shadowland creatures.

Toritaka: No school, because 4 school max.

Yasuki: Yasuki Courtier: Very iconic of them since they are one of the best merchant of Rokugan.

Crane:

Asahina: Asahina Shugenja: Pacifist at all cost, maybe the wierdest shugenja out there (in my opinion) but their school fits very well their nature.

Daidoji: Daidoji Iron Warrior: Very iconic there again, fitting very well their mentality to defend their clan at all cost.

Doji: Doji Courtier: No need for any words else than, who doesn't think about playing "Doji" when thinking what courtier school to play.

Kakita: Kakita duelist: Most iconic school of L5R that comes with this family.

Dragon:

Kitsuki: Kitsuki investigator: They were always recognized for their ability to find the truth. Very fitting schools for them.

Mirumoto: Mirumoto Bushi: Dual sword technics, their specialties, very fitting again.

Tamori: Tamori Shugenja: Shugenja school with alchemy skills, which emphases on their magical research for improvements, very iconic.

Togashi: Tatooed Monk: Togashi is very important within the Dragon Clan and can we think of something else than Tatooed Monk when we speak of the Togashi family? I doubt it.

Lion:

Akodo: Akodo Bushi: Great honorable warrior. Very iconic school.

Ikoma: Ikoma Bard: The family that keeps stories of Rokugan that wants to spread those stories through Rokugan in order to remember the honorable past. Fitting again.

Kitsu: Kitsu Shugenja: Family tied to the spirit realm and the ancestors, their school allows them to works with ancestors.

Matsu: Matsu Berserkers: Proud family which wants to fight. They are easy to angry and are fiery in nature, cannot be more fitting.

Mantis:

Kitsune: No school, compromised for the courtier school and a melee Bushi school. Stated on my last post.

Moshi: Moshi Shugenja: They worship of the Sun, which is fairly well presented in their school.

Tsuruchi: Tsuruchi Archer: Family well known for their archery skills, very iconic school.

Yoritomo: Yoritomo Bushi and Courtier: As stated in my last post, both are very iconic of the Yoritomo family because they held the Mantis Clan on their shoulders with their intimidating and brawlers skills inherited from their descendance of the Crab Clan.

Pheonix:

Agasha: Agasha Shugenja: Curious by nature and like to experiment magical stuffs, their school may be better but fits a little their experimentation nature by using another kind of spells slots.

Asako: Asako Loremaster: They are library rats, cannot be more fitting.

Isawa: Isawa Shugenja: Greatest Shugenja family, their school demonstrate this very well.

Shiba: Shiba Bushi: The less agressive family and their school displays this defensive nature very well.

Scorpion:

Bayushi: Bayushi Bushi and Courtier: The second family and school that everyone thinks when they want to play a Courtier. As stated in my last post, there's a need for a Bushi school and without deny, they have the best fitting bushi school for a corebook, specially with the Bitter Lies Technique that became iconic to the Scorpion.

Shosuro: Shosuro Infiltrator: Cannot be more fitting.

Soshi: Soshi Shugenja: Family that supports the Shosuro family and their school is very well fitting to help them.

Yogo: Left out as stated in my last message. They also have a lesser role since their duty was to guard the Black Scroll, now they have more or less a duty.

Unicorn:

Horiuchi: No school, because 4 school max.

Ide: Ide Emissary: Their job is to combat the perception many have of the Clan and their schools focus in that direction.

Iuchi: Iuchi Shugenja: Militaristic Shugenja and their school technique display this by helping to give an edge in skirmishes.

Moto: Moto Bushi: Great Warrior that fits very well with their Mongolian influence. Very fitting and iconic for this family.

Shinjo: No school, because 4 school max.

Utaku: Utaku Battle Maiden: When we think unicorn, most people thinks about them, very fitting school for that honorable family.

I've left out the Minor Clan, Monks, Imperial families and Spider Clan because they are in another chapter in order to give some tools to the Storyteller to get some rules on these. However, when I look at all of these, and when I keep the 4 schools per Clan rule, I cannot think of a single school that I would remove for a more fitting school, except maybe for the Hiruma Family, where I see them a little more on the scout role.

That being said, I really don't see how all of these aren't fitting in, what you call, a "traditional, general setting campaign". It very depends on the campaign setting, because L5R has a vaste definition for a general setting campaign because of the Bushido. It's not just about fighting Shadowland creatures or warfare conflits, it's a lot more than just this. So as I'm saying at the start of this post, you'll have to be more specific because I clearly don't understand your point of view. I would like more examples so I would understand what you mean by: "Iconic school", "a traditional, general setting campaign", etc.

I took all the corebook schools for each Clan and I don't see any "special snowflake" school that barely fit in any game, which seems to be very well as you've said: "Core things belong in Core Books, Splat books for everything else".

If you really wanted to go for a school-lite version for the core rules, you could go with a single school per clan, in addition to one ''generic'' school for bushi, one for shugenja and one for courtier. (For a total of 12 schools, considering nine great clans and three generic) The trick would be to find the most iconic school for each clan. It would of course be impossible to please everyone, since everyone has preferences. It would of course miss a lot of each clan flavor and I'm just saying this for argument's sake. (I much prefer personally multiple schools per clan)

Let's see (the below list is highly debatable, however, and I'm perfectly aware of that)

Crab: Hida Bushi

Crane: Kakita Duelist

Dragon: Kitsuki Investigator

Lion: Kitsu Shugenja

Mantis: Tsuruchi Archers

Phoenix: Isawa Shugenja

Scorpion: Shosuro Ninja

Spider: Chuda Maho-Tsukai

Unicorn: Moto Bushi

Instead of going that route, my personal take would be to decrease the scope of each schools. I'm pretty sure each and everyone one of them could be defined by a single technique instead of five, usually with more than one effect per rank. Then, to better define your own bushi, you could expand the list of katas and their applications. The spell list is long enough to really allow specialization for shugenjas, and you can always create a new subset of courtier-only techniques called machinations which are learned the same way as katas.

Here's a few examples of iconic abilities. And before you say this is not enough, think if this is really necessary to add abilities other than that to define their individual playstyles.

Hida Bushi (spend a void point, roll earth, ignore damage)

Kakita Duelist (+1k1 to all rolls in a duel)

Bayushi Bushi (1 free raise against all attackers who missed you in their next attack or who act after you in the initiative order)

etc.

If the characters are defined by their starting techniques and the subsequent improvment are more open-ended, it would make it easier for everyone to be unique, rather than follow a strict progression. It would be a lot less work on the developers as well. Having to balance only one technique per school, rather than five, and leaving the rest to universal abilities that can be learned by anyone of the right ''class'' (katas, spells or machinations)

Subsequent books can then focus on new classes with new unique universal specializations (kihos for monks, recipes for artisans, ways of the land for scouts, battle tricks for commanders)

The funny thing is, I'd move in the OTHER direction, making the schools less about clan or family stereotypes.

Is this desire to reduce schools motivated by a need to limit player options out of the gate? Reduce size of the core book? Encourage players to play certain types of characters? I guess I'm a little confused why at least some people don't like the number of schools.

When different schools start feeling the same, that's where I see the problem. I don't see a problem with having lots of different schools that feel different and that encourage roleplaying.

Good guidance for players and GMs about what selecting certain schools means and how that will affect the game being played is also necessary.

Is this desire to reduce schools motivated by a need to limit player options out of the gate? Reduce size of the core book? Encourage players to play certain types of characters? I guess I'm a little confused why at least some people don't like the number of schools.

When different schools start feeling the same, that's where I see the problem. I don't see a problem with having lots of different schools that feel different and that encourage roleplaying.

Good guidance for players and GMs about what selecting certain schools means and how that will affect the game being played is also necessary.

This.

If it had been up to me, I'd have made the schools mostly separate from the clans... to me, that would have been more in line with the flavor of a lot of the broader inspiring materials. But, that ship has sailed, and the RPG is forever tied to the conceptual underpinnings of the card game.

If it had been up to me, I'd have made the schools mostly separate from the clans... to me, that would have been more in line with the flavor of a lot of the broader inspiring materials. But, that ship has sailed, and the RPG is forever tied to the conceptual underpinnings of the card game.

Would you mind to explain me how this would be better? That would be, in my opinion, going backward because I feel like it would desynchronize the setting with the system. Let's stop talking about the card game as if it's the problem of every world's catastrophes because most of the core schools are from the very basis of the game.

Since the very begining, the Kakita were designed to be duelist, it's nothing new, so it's fairly natural for the Kakita to have a specialized school into dueling. That's the base. Since the very begining, the Isawa were very talented as Shugenja, it's fairly natural for the Isawa to have their very own specialized school as Shugenja. I could go on with for every family and that has nothing to do with the Card Game, this is the core setting.

I cannot see how the Kakita would feel like a Kakita if they don't have their Kakita Duelist school as a core selection. I'm very confused about this because that's what gives the flavor. If I wanted to play a Bland Fighter, I would simply play D&D. I really enjoy L5R for the variation of the school and most of my games are played with the corebook only.

Let's see how bland it could be. There's 3 generic core school: Bushi, Courtier, Shugenja. A group of 6 players picks the following: 3 Bushi, 1 Courtier and 2 Shugenja. The courtier is very happy because he's unique. Both Shugenja may be happy, depending on their selected spells, that's if the system allows spell selection otherwise it's 2 very similar Shugenja that may varies with their character points. Then there's the 3 Bushi with the same basic kit... That's very bland to me. Where's the difference? Their Clan and families? But their kit is the same and some are probably not very fitting for the school.

I really don't see the plus-value on having only "Generic School" instead of the way it is from the very first edition. I'm not against the idea of generic school, in fact I'm very in favor of these, but in addition to the actual way.

Yeah, I think that having a bunch of different schools is a good thing because it reinforces Clan identity as well -- your Clan is its own culture with its own outlook on the world and own way of achieving its goals, and so they have their own twist on how to do "the basics". Maybe the Doji are the best courtiers in the Empire, but your Clan has SOMETHING they can't do.

"One technique per School, more Schools" sounds like the way I would want to go.

This is an example of why I said that there's never going to be agreement on what everyone wants L5R to be, no common point to work from and no common goal to work towards.

In the case of the schools, I'm looking over a lot of the inspirational material for the setting, and the roles of schools are often separate from the roles of families or clans or or even sometimes states.

The Kakita being a family that as a whole greatly prizes the art of the duel, does not require that there be A school that is THE dueling school and teaches Kakita or other Crane family members almost exclusively .

Right now, in 4th edition, what I see is a system designed to funnel characters into "iconic" "archetypal" personality / family / role / focus combinations, where playing "against type" is made into an act of deliberate character-gimping on the mechanical level, and often presented as a constant struggle on the roleplaying level.

Right now, in 4th edition, what I see is a system designed to funnel characters into "iconic" "archetypal" personality / family / role / focus combinations, where playing "against type" is made into an act of deliberate character-gimping on the mechanical level, and often presented as a constant struggle on the roleplaying level.

In a society that values tradition as much as it does, it should be expected that a Hida duelist is fighting an uphill battle.

While I agree that traditional duelist schools should have a mechanical advantage over the others, it should leave the opportunity for non-crane duelists. Even the Mirumoto duelist, reknown across Rokugan for being the equal of the Kakita will get utterly defeated almost all the time.

The duelist schools should have an edge, but not an overwhelming one as it is the case right now.

My point stands, schools should have a single Technique, and further specialization could be done by generic abilities that can be taken by every members of the ''class'' (katas, spells, etc.)

As such, a Hida duelist would lack the technique to back his specialization and would face an uphill battle, but would be able to get some tricks and, with some luck, defeat an equally competent Kakita duelist. (And would defeat a lower duelist most of the time, as it should be). A scorpion duelist with insight 5 shouldn't be humiliated by a rookie Kakita.

Right now, in 4th edition, what I see is a system designed to funnel characters into "iconic" "archetypal" personality / family / role / focus combinations, where playing "against type" is made into an act of deliberate character-gimping on the mechanical level, and often presented as a constant struggle on the roleplaying level.

It's not just in the 4th edition, every editions were designed like this, to enforce the role-play in that direction, because that's how the family see things. The culture of Rokugan is a culture based on tradition and a black sheep will not be well accepted.

As Kakita Shiro said: "it should be expected that a Hida duelist is fighting an uphill battle". However, there is ways to solve that problems and it's mechanicaly possible to do, just need a way to fit in the campaign. The "Different School" advantage exists for these kind of purposes, it's a 5 points advantage that implicitly states that it may leads into conflit. Is that 5 advantage point is "character gimping on the mechanical level"? Of course not, in fact it exists for that reason.

The problem with "Generic School" is, in my opinion, where does enough school is enough to prevent "character-gimping effects"? Let's start with 3: Bushi, Courtier and Shugenja.

- For the Bushi can be a skirmisher or a duelist or a yojimbo with a single school? So that's 3 schools for the Bushi to have at least these 3 mainstream kind of bushi.

- For the courtier: relation specialist, lore/history specialist or merchant specialist? That's 3 schools.

- For the Shugenja: kami relationist, battle specilist, reaserchers? That's 3 schools.

I'm already 9 schools, now, there's some left out, the 3 most important: monk, scout and ninja. Which goes to 12 generic schools to prevent "character-gimping effects". I could keep doing this exercice, but at the end, there's always something that I'll end up saying: "Something's missing... oh yeah! cavalry specialist and archers, etc." and keep on going until there's nearly the same amount of schools as there is right now. However, this will create an effect of: "Why am I choosing a Clan?" or "Why am I choosing this family?" Because the school will no identity and this also removes the traditionnal culture of the setting.

While I agree that traditional duelist schools should have a mechanical advantage over the others, it should leave the opportunity for non-crane duelists.

Uhm... like Alternate Paths/Advanced Schools? I mean. if you want to go against the archetype then you can do it in 4th edition too with these two things.

Not all clans had dedicated duelist schools/paths, and balance is extremely hard to achieve to more options you give.

Not all clans had dedicated duelist schools/paths, and balance is extremely hard to achieve to more options you give.

Personally, I wouldn't care about balance that much. Make everything do what it is supposed to do, and the setting will sort out the rest.

@MaxKilljoy I think your idea for clanless-schools makes a great alternative setting, assuming I'm understanding you correctly.

I don't see these clanless-schools (or independent schools) as being generic, rather merely not constrained to clan. I think this opens up interesting roleplay and interpersonal conflicts. What happens when two samurai of different clans, but the same school are asked to work against each other or two samurai of the same clan but competing schools? Those could be really interesting interactions.

If I were going to offer this to my players I'd do it as an alternate setting akin to Imperial Histories 2. I'd say, after Kakita won, he wasn't allowed to join the Crane clan so he started his own school and welcomed students from any clan. This established a precedent whereby other individuals could also start independent schools. I guess this would be similar to monks.

I agree that the setting as established uses the family schools, but it would be an interesting alternative setting to tweak this conceit slightly. Though I wouldn't want it to be the default setting.

I think this opens up interesting roleplay and interpersonal conflicts. What happens when two samurai of different clans, but the same school are asked to work against each other or two samurai of the same clan but competing schools? Those could be really interesting interactions.

But you can have this already with the Different School advantage.

Not all clans had dedicated duelist schools/paths, and balance is extremely hard to achieve to more options you give.

Just my two zeni.

Not all clans had dedicated duelist schools/paths, and balance is extremely hard to achieve to more options you give.

Which is a side reason I like the idea of making the schools less "secret techniques of the X Clan"... each clan doesn't need a Y school or Y alternate path to fill out that role within the clan. Instead, you just have 3 (or whatever) competing dueling school, for example.

That's not to say that students the dueling-focused families wouldn't fill a lot of the openings in those schools.

@MaxKilljoy I think your idea for clanless-schools makes a great alternative setting, assuming I'm understanding you correctly.

I don't see these clanless-schools (or independent schools) as being generic, rather merely not constrained to clan. I think this opens up interesting roleplay and interpersonal conflicts. What happens when two samurai of different clans, but the same school are asked to work against each other or two samurai of the same clan but competing schools? Those could be really interesting interactions.

If I were going to offer this to my players I'd do it as an alternate setting akin to Imperial Histories 2. I'd say, after Kakita won, he wasn't allowed to join the Crane clan so he started his own school and welcomed students from any clan. This established a precedent whereby other individuals could also start independent schools. I guess this would be similar to monks.

I agree that the setting as established uses the family schools, but it would be an interesting alternative setting to tweak this conceit slightly. Though I wouldn't want it to be the default setting.

Something more like that, yes. Not generic schools, but more open.

@kakita shiro

I agree, there are just two slight tweaks, which may truthfully be distinctions without differences.

1) you wouldn't have to "pay" for it by taking an advantage

2) settingwise it would be way more common.

I completely agree with you that you can do it in the 4e rule set, which is why I think it is more of a setting consideration than a mechanical one and why I'd do it as an alternative setting not the base setting or maybe just a sidebar alternate setting, like a what if setting.

@kakita shiro

I agree, there are just two slight tweaks, which may truthfully be distinctions without differences.

1) you wouldn't have to "pay" for it by taking an advantage

2) settingwise it would be way more common.

I completely agree with you that you can do it in the 4e rule set, which is why I think it is more of a setting consideration than a mechanical one and why I'd do it as an alternative setting not the base setting or maybe just a sidebar alternate setting, like a what if setting.

Frankly, one could just handwave the Different School requirement altogether if that's the kind of Rokugan you want to play in.