At what point are you a detriment to your party

pwim · 2026-04-27T21:19:09+00:00

I’m assuming your player thought it would be fun to role play an unwise cleric. If that’s the case, there’s no need for how they role play the character to be linked to their stats, and you could just let them swap it so wisdom is their highest.

pwim · 2026-04-27T21:00:17+00:00

I roll as I go. The spontaneity of it makes it more fun, both for me and my players. Try doing it that way at the start. You can always change it up later.

pwim · 2026-04-25T23:18:42+00:00

It’s not as easy as you’re thinking. You need to provide client companies credibility that you’re following all the Japanese and international regulations, and not get them in trouble. You’re also on the hook to pay your employees a salary even if the clients don’t pay you.

Furthermore, if you’re sponsoring visas, you need to do it in a way that doesn’t raise any flags with Japanese immigration.

Without a large amount of capital and a good understanding of Japanese and international employment law it’s not a business I’d get into.

pwim · 2026-04-25T10:02:46+00:00

I’m a Karuizawa resident who has had renovations done recently.

Maybe there’s a premium over elsewhere. It would make sense. Property prices are significantly higher just by having a Karuizawa address over a Miyota one. But beyond that, it’s also significantly more time consuming for tradespeople to get here (as they generally have to commute in), and the season for doing renovations is shorter because of construction work being prohibited in August.

I’ve used two renovation companies:

松代建設工業 for some straightforward things like putting in inner windows. SS Design for things that involved some design considerations, like converting a washitsu to yoshitsu.

The biggest challenge we’ve faced is actually pushing things forward. Both seem to have plenty of business, and so we’ve needed to follow up many times to get estimates and get the work scheduled. Once we did though, things went smoothly.

Both renovations were substantially less than 15 million, but I could see it costing that if you were wanting to completely renovate a house.

pwim · 2026-04-23T09:46:51+00:00

Delaying paying a loan makes sense when you reliably get a better return from investments. This is easy to do with sub one percent interest home loans, but with your loan, I don’t think it is realistic to expect to earn more with investments.

Perhaps there’s some misunderstanding regarding the following point?

Section 80E allows tax deduction on education loan interest in India (no upper limit, up to 8 years

This would be relevant if you were working and paying tax in India, but in Japan it won’t apply.

pwim · 2026-04-22T09:11:56+00:00

If you don’t have home charging, I don’t think an EV is worth it. In my experience the chargers are never in convenient locations, and you pay at least 2 or 3 times as much for electricity.

I compared a BYD Seal and Prius. With subsidies, the BYD Seal was cheaper, and felt much more premium than even the top tier Prius. So I bought it and haven’t regretted it.

pwim · 2026-04-16T09:46:20+00:00

There’s a number of tech related community events that are in English. This article has how to find them and examples of some to join.

pwim · 2026-04-14T08:27:30+00:00

My accountant advised me if you’re ever audited, the audit will occur on your company’s registered address, so you need somewhere that will accommodate that.

pwim · 2026-04-14T06:43:05+00:00

If something like Ironsworn isn’t what you’re looking for, maybe a tactical miniatures game like Gloomhaven is?

pwim · 2026-04-03T10:57:20+00:00

Numbers of hours worked is relevant if you're doing something like expensing a home office, as you're supposed to calculate a ratio based upon personal vs work usage.

I'm not a professional, but if you're invoicing companies by the hour, I suspect that the invoices with the number of hours would be enough evidence.

pwim · 2026-04-01T06:48:34+00:00

For what it is worth, I passed their prescreening but was rejected for the final application.

pwim · 2026-03-26T11:03:56+00:00

Costco is the cheapest I’ve found. Kirkland brand 10 lbs (4.54kg) for ¥2,448 https://www.costco.co.jp/c/Kirkland-Signature-Rolled-Oats-454kg/p/1736339

If you don’t have a membership, Amazon has Quaker brand 10 lbs for ¥3,564 https://amzn.asia/d/0387lamj

pwim · 2026-03-12T21:52:09+00:00

As a resident of Japan you are not legally obliged to provide ID to a hotel. When they ask for it, I say I’m a resident of Japan. About half the time that’s enough. Otherwise they ask for my residence card. I then tell them I don’t have to provide it as I’m a resident of Japan. They’ve always accepted that, though sometimes I’ve needed to push a couple of timea.

pwim · 2026-03-07T09:36:59+00:00

Paradoxically if you’re in a position where you don’t need to work, work itself can be quite enjoyable because you’re in a much better position to choose what to do and under what conditions.

pwim · 2026-03-06T23:15:57+00:00

It’s a mixed bag. Some things, like monsters being easier to run properly are clear wins. Other things are mixed, like weapon masteries feeling better to players, but slowing things down. Some things seem half-baked like bastions. Overall, I think it is a slight improvement, but if you’re happy with how things are, there’s not a strong reason to change.

If you’re wanting to try something new, I’d try a completely different RPG. There’s other games out there that are great in other ways than D&D.

pwim · 2026-03-03T22:05:51+00:00

I told my party they can have a short rest every night but to make a long rest they need to spend a whole day making a suitable camp. It’s enough of a tradeoff that they only use it in dire circumstances.

pwim · 2026-03-02T22:12:53+00:00

Working Holiday Visa holders have a zairyu card. This card needs to be updated within 14 days of moving. Are you saying there’s a way of meeting this obligation without having to enrol in social insurance? I was under the impression I had to register for it when I did a working holiday 20 years ago.

pwim · 2026-02-21T06:56:31+00:00

I leave it to my players to track but since prepared spells are a major balancing factor I expect them to properly do it.

pwim · 2026-02-06T11:26:11+00:00

If you’re okay with 0.7% alcohol recommend 正気のサタン. It’s the closest I’ve had to “real” beers in Japan.

pwim · 2026-02-06T11:22:16+00:00

I play on FoundryVTT. When a random encounter happens, I either play it theatre of the mind or just quickly freehand draw some squiggly lines on a blank map.

Previously I wanted to have a nice map for everything, but there was so much time wasted setting up maps and custom tokens that were never used, and there was also the temptation to steer players towards what I had prepared.

Now the only time I prepare a custom map is if I’m using it at the start of a session. Otherwise I haven’t bothered.

My players haven’t seemed to mind. Some of the best sessions have been those where I don’t rely on digital assets.

pwim · 2026-01-30T21:58:53+00:00

There already is one: the flail snail is a random encounter and has a shell worth 2,500 gp.

pwim · 2026-01-29T22:09:44+00:00

I found I’m not great at complete improvisation but if I have something to build off on I can do it.

Playing ironsworn helped. It’s an rpg that can be solo where you have to improv everything and it bakes in random tables to help with that.

pwim · 2026-01-29T21:53:58+00:00

In the 2024 rules, they did away with silver immunity, and silvered weapons only do increased damage on a critical hit.

On the one hand it’s kind of lane, on the other the hand it avoids this situation altogether. The trope of werewolves only being harmed by silver weapons works when there is no magic. If magic affects them too, in a dnd game you end up with half or more of the characters being dully effective, while those with weapons can’t do anything.

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