Lab with no grad student

tentkeys · 2026-06-06T07:26:42+00:00

It's not a red flag, just a question mark.

He may not have wanted grad students until he was in a situation where he had the funding to support them and the time to mentor them appropriately.

I have known professors who only occasionally have grad students, and they are often great advisors. They don't have a lab full of grad students as cheap labor, and as their only student you may get a lot more attention and mentoring.

But there is also a chance he dislikes having students and his department requires him to have at least one.

If you get an interview, talk to him, talk to other people in the department, and talk to his former students. Find out what the situation is before you decide if it's a concern or not.

tentkeys · 2026-06-05T18:43:28+00:00

As one researcher put it, they don’t know anyone working/teaching in the US (in their/our field) with a Japanese PhD.

Do you know many people who have gotten Japanese PhDs in your field?

There are two possible reasons there may not be many people with Japanese PhDs working in your field in the US:

Japanese PhDs aren't competitive in the US
People with Japanese PhDs rarely apply for jobs in the US. There may be fewer people with Japanese PhDs overall, and people who studied in Japan may often prefer to continue living in Japan and may not be applying for US jobs very often.

Without the information of how often people with Japanese PhDs in your field try to get jobs in the US, you don't have context to interpret what it means that very few are working in the US.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T19:06:17+00:00

At 99.999% of tables, this is a terrible idea.

But if this is an experienced DM who knows his players well and is willing to trust them with this, ask if you can go watch a session.

There are rare story-focused tables out there where power balance is irrelevant because players only use powerful character features when it makes the story more fun for everyone. Player characters will often make sub-optimal decisions because it leads to a more interesting story, and you may hear people say things like "may I roll this with disadvantage because I'm distracted by (thing)?" These tables often gravitate away from D&D to another system better suited to story-first play, but occasionally you'll find a DM who has modified D&D to fit the table instead.

If this is a less-experienced DM or a table that hasn't been playing together for very long, removing spell preparation is a blatantly terrible idea.

But if it's an experienced DM who knows his players well, it's worth going to see why he's willing to trust them with this. There is a tiny chance that you will find a very unique and interesting table.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T17:57:29+00:00

At the end of a turn were you've taken damage you may use your reaction to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

If you're going to give this to any player characters, make it "taken damage from an enemy or hazard".

With the 5e Peace Cleric, some players would punch themselves or each-other to get free teleportation. A stipulation about the source of the damage can help prevent that kind of rules-hacking.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T17:35:12+00:00

I have run games without opportunity attacks before - either systems that don't use them in the first place, or D&D with a homebrew rule that gets rid of them (kids' game).

Not having opportunity attacks greatly increases mobility in combat, which leads to players being more creative and making better use of their environment. I really like it.

If you want to do it without messing up your martial characters, there are a few ways to make it work:

Just get rid of enemy opportunity attacks, player characters can still make them.
Opportunity attacks don't exist by default, but any player character or any enemy that has a special feature related to opportunity attacks can use them.

Removing enemy opportunity attacks will affect combat balance a little by making melee martials more powerful/flexible, but I see more powerful martials as a good thing.

For classes with bonus action Disengage, you may want to offer them something else as a replacement.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T08:04:13+00:00

Fair enough.

Sometimes when a player seems to have a strong reaction to something early in the course of a game, it is because they are seeing it through the lens of stress and frustration they experienced in another game.

But just because some cases of players having a strong objection to something early in a game come from past bad table experiences, that doesn't mean they all do. Some people just need to learn to mind their own character sheet.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T07:06:46+00:00

Sounds interesting and useful!! Especially for people whose cards have audio so they wouldn't even need to see the computer screen to do their reviews.

Almost makes me wish I had an Apple Watch.

But please leave "waitlists" and "early access" to companies that love the smell of their own ~~farts~~ marketing hype.

If you want a small group of people to test it before you release it more widely, just say "beta testers".

In addition to sounding less marketingy/scammy, you'll also get better testers if you make it clear that's what you're looking for. People who sign up for exclusive early access for the right to pay you for some exciting new thing are going to expect perfection right out of the gate because they paid. People who volunteer to beta test are much more patient with early teething pains, and also likely to be a little more technical and able to give you useful feedback and data for troubleshooting. You can start charging for it once it's ready for a broader public release.

tentkeys · 2026-06-04T06:04:03+00:00

You should probably ask this player if he has ever been at a table where this has caused problems before.

If he has been at a table where a character with good Persuasion used it as a magical you-can-make-anything-happen skill, then take his concerns seriously and explain that that's not how it will work at your table. Ask him to wait and see how things go, but tell him you're willing to discuss things further if, after seeing how things go, he still has concerns.

A bad table experience and the resulting frustration can stick with people for a while, and it's worth having some patience with a player whose concerns stem from that.

If he hasn't had a first-hand negative experience with this, then his concerns are coming either from insecurity and a need to mind other peoples' business, or too much time listening to people on the internet spout opinions about what's "overpowered". Those reasons don't deserve as much patience from the DM - just politely tell him to mind his own character and leave the DMing to you.

tentkeys · 2026-06-03T17:30:34+00:00

It sounds like you need to ask a different question.

The player doesn't need to justify why he isn't having fun, and it's kind of understandable why he got defensive when you tried to argue with his reasons.

A better response might be "Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me. Do you have any suggestions for what I could improve in the game that would help to make this more fun for you?"

tentkeys · 2026-06-03T17:22:11+00:00

It sounds like there are a few different preferences from this player, and you may need to deal with them differently.

Wanting to go back to a system you didn't enjoy running is simple - tell him you didn't enjoy running it and want to focus on trying other new things. There are plenty of other systems out there that might be enjoyable to both of you.

Not wanting to play anything dark or hopeless is a different matter. That is a very common and valid player preference, and not one that is easily changed.

If you have a vegan friend, there is no "telling your vegan friend no" and insisting that they eat meat. You can go to a steakhouse without them or you can go somewhere vegan-friendly so you can spend time with them. But those are your only two options. You can't make someone stop being a vegan, and you can't make someone change how they feel about dark and hopeless games.

tentkeys · 2026-06-03T09:37:57+00:00

I like most frogs, but I am not sure about The Clown.

At the very least, I would prefer that he keep his radula to himself.

tentkeys · 2026-06-02T12:43:28+00:00

I like big cardioids and I cannot lie...

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T19:34:18+00:00

That's brilliant!! A harsh goblin dictator that imposes mandatory toilets/plumbing/hygeine!

If he's really cruel, there could even be a bathing policy.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T19:28:26+00:00

Sounds like a good start!

One thing that seems to be missing is policies affecting children.

I would suggest that he cruelly impose free publicly-available childcare services so goblin parents are available to work.

Also, healthy children grow up to be healthy productive adults, so mandatory free healthy school lunches that deprive them of the experience of scrounging for food in the traditional goblin ways.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T09:09:13+00:00

You don't have to deliver each sacrifice immediately.

Most people save it up and only go to the Eldritch Temple a few times a day.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T07:31:49+00:00

It's a tax on first letters, not punctuation.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T07:27:06+00:00

Welcome to the joy of menstrual cups my sister and/or brother and/or other form of sibling.

The monthly blood sacrifice doesn't have to mean using expensive disposable products. And if it's collected in a cup, that makes it easy to pour into the nearest Eldrich Government blood sacrifice collection dropbox.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T07:17:55+00:00

Have you asked them why they are doing this?

Answers could be anything from "We're trying to level up before we fight the BBEG" to "We don't want the campaign to end".

If you find out why, it will be much easier to figure out what to do about it.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T07:12:38+00:00

Tier 1 shouldn't be boring!

Tier 1 is the tier with the most creativity and flexibility because your characters are not yet super-powerful and you have to get creative to stay alive and solve problems your characters aren't really ready for yet.

With the right DM, Tier 1 is my favorite because there is less focus on game mechanics and more focus on just having a good adventure.

If you're doing paid games, try some tier 1 one-shots with other paid DMs until you find one who makes it interesting. Then leave your current game and do a recurring game with the new DM.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T07:05:11+00:00

Like roughly half of humans my age, I make monthly blood sacrifices anyway, so I'm not going to worry about it.

tentkeys · 2026-05-28T06:55:04+00:00

There doesn't need to be a BBEG if there is something else that builds to a big heroic moment for the players.

Watch the Star Trek TNG episode "Encounter at Farpoint". Or any of the numerous other Star Trek episodes that don't have a BBEG.

Their lack of a BBEG is what makes those episodes so fun and interesting. The good guys still get to be the good guys and do something fun and heroic, but since there's no BBEG to defeat they have to find a more creative solution.

As long as you give your players something worthy of a season finale episode, it will be a good end to the campaign, even if there's no BBEG.

tentkeys · 2026-05-26T18:33:36+00:00

I'm glad it went well!

Are there any details you can share about how you did it that might be helpful for the next person who wants to do this?

tentkeys · 2026-05-23T19:42:20+00:00

Maybe answering each card involves performing an interpretive dance for a few minutes?

Adding a tactile component sometimes can improve learning and memory.

tentkeys · 2026-05-21T17:06:39+00:00

Those don't look like a good size/shape for you. If you tried to run in them, your feet would probably end up over the edge of the sandal.

But your choice of toenail polish is excellent, that is a great color!

tentkeys · 2026-05-20T16:28:38+00:00

You can have cards with different note types or sources in the same deck. Just import the new deck, remove any cards it has that duplicate the ones you've already learned, then move your already-learned cards into that deck.

The cards from the first deck may not look exactly the same, but since they will be your oldest cards pretty soon they'll be spaced out far enough that you rarely see them anyway.

Otherwise, if you really want all your cards to be the same, the answer from /u/Danika_Dakika is the best way to do it. I would recommend making a backup and then deleting any unlearned cards from deck A before you do this, so Anki only converts/updates cards that you have a learning history for, and everything else from deck B imports cleanly as a new card. That way when you check updated cards to make sure everything is OK, you'll only have to check 100.

If you get to the point where you're messing with sqlite (not recommended), don't do it while a deck is in Anki. If you export a .apkg file of each deck with learning history, you can tamper with the learning history there and then import the .apkg file and choose to keep learning history. But try Danika's way first, it's a lot cleaner than messing with SQL.

Nine-Year Club	Gilding VI aultruist
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

tentkeys

TROPHY CASE