1200 posts and I never posted my two house rules ^_^;;;
not really big things, but just in case you were wondering:

Free Raises and TN (I've got 10 Free Raises but I still didn't make the TN!)

If you get a Free Raise (from you Techniques, Mastery Abilities, or just because I say so ^_^) you may apply that Free Raise to lowering the TN of whatever you're attempting by 5

High Rolls and TN (Why didn't I take a few Raises!):

when rolling for non-combat, non-contested rolls (Lore skills, Investigation, etc.) you receive a free raise for every 10 by which you exceed your TN (you would still do better to take the raises, but at least you're not punished so severely for being cautious)

Yadomejutsu (arrow cutting)

yadomejutsu (arrow cutting) used to be a skill back in 2nd ed, so we'll house rule it into an emphasis of the defense skill, +10 to your TNs if you don't have the emphasis

With this Emphasis you can cut arrows on air. The TN to do it is equal to the Strength of the shooter's bow x10.

I just found this nifty rule for arrow cutting in the L5R fanzine--it seems more appropriate for 3rd ed anyway--we'll keep the bit about multiple arrows though.  So, here's the new usage for yadomejutsu ^_^ (it's not retroactive, so don't worry about rerolling)

Yadomejutsu: While in the Full Attack posture, the character can cut arrows aimed at someone within 10 feet (TN equal the archer’s attack roll). On Full Defense, the character can roll Agility/Defense (Yadomejutsu) and add to his TN to be hit against all ranged attacks he is aware of.

For every additional arrow the TN is increased by + Shooter's bow Strength.  If the incoming arrows have been shot with different bows use the highest Strength to calculate the TN, and if the arrows come from different directions the TN is increased by 10.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Fri 13 Mar 2009.

Recognizing School Styles without Know the School:

Make a raw intelligence check and add your insight rank to the total

New Advantage:  School Familiarity 6pts

you are broadly familiar with the Schools of a particular type across the Empire.  Add one rolled die to all of your Know the School rolls, even if you do not have the Know the School skill.  Any school that you recognize, add your insight rank to all rolls against that school.  This stacks with your know the school bonuses.  It costs 4pts for bushi to be familiar with bushi schools, courtiers to be familiar with courtier schools, shugenja to be familiar with shugenja schools, and ninja to be familiar with ninja schools.

Extra Attacks via raises

An extra attack that you get from taking raises may be used on any opponent within reach.  This differs from the Rules as Written.  However, from my (admittedly limited) experience with kendo and iaido, training outside of competition tends to focus more on dealing with multiple opponents rather than single enemies.  Moreover, from a game standpoint, being able to hit multiple targets at the cost of four raises doesn't significantly increase your effectiveness against powerful opponents (i.e. other samurai) but it does make you more effective against mooks (which you should be anyway).

Redirecting an attack against another target (thanks Kedo)

If an enemy misses you with an attack:

Agility/Defense roll with relevant Kenjutsu emphasis to hit TNtbH + 4 raises and uses one of your attacks for the round

in preparation for Winter Court:

first, it's Winter Court, so there will be a tournament.  I'm leaning towards a Go tournament (because I like Go ^_^), but I might expand it to something like the Topaz Championship or the Tournament of the Emperor's Favored if you're interested (there will be the typical politicking and other plot stuff going on, so don't worry that you won't have anything to do if you're not involved in the tournament--you will ^_^)

second, we'll be using the optional non-bugei dueling rules for non-combat tournament events from Art of the Duel (I'll post the essentials in this thread when I have the time and my books on hand)

third, new emphases:

Clan Specific Emphases:  if you are from the Clan in question you may buy the Emphasis at the normal cost, if not, it costs 2 extra XP

Go emphasis:
Kaiu's Defense (Crab):  you may add your ranks in defense OR craft(any) to your Go roll.

Art of the Game (Crane):  you may add your ranks in artisan OR calligraphy to your Go roll.

All Ways Lead to the Way (Dragon):  you may add ranks in any two rings OR meditation to your Go roll.

Akodo's Leadership (Lion):  you may add ranks in battle OR games-shogi to your Go roll.

Fortunes and Winds (Mantis):  you may add ranks in commerce OR games-fortunes and winds to your Go roll.

Scholar's Advantage (Phoenix):  you may add ranks in any one lore skill to your Go roll.

Tangen's Lies (Scorpion):  you may add ranks in deceit OR points that opponent has in disadvantages (up to 10) to your Go roll.

I'm still trying to come up with something for the Unicorn ^_^;;;
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:01, Thu 24 Nov 2011.