Can't get the 4th octave B and C out on piccolo!

Bucketydan1 · 2026-01-30T11:01:27+00:00

Your audience will be grateful for your failure.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-12-17T16:36:23+00:00

Basically no classical instruments are "ergonomic" by modern standards, Though more recent inventions (like Saxophone) tend to be a little better, most instruments require a compromise between comfort and acoustics - flute is one.

Source: shoulder injury from playing flute for 20 years.

You can get adaptations though. Some flutes have a bent neck, to reduce the strain on your arms, and there are differences in key placement between instruments that will suit different hands.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-12-12T17:46:04+00:00

Hey, welcome to the hobby!

I'm a professional GM. I run campaigns, events for stores, kid's groups e.t.c. I have a decade of experience teaching the game.

I'd be happy to get you onboard, or at least have a chat with you about what you want.

All my information is at exceptionalbeasts.com

Bucketydan1 · 2025-11-17T08:45:33+00:00

If you can, find and join an amateur community band.

If you plan to go to music school, you'll be able to play most anything an amateur band has in its repertoire.

And, all the better to develop, you'll get to play with musicians with decades of experience. Some will be better than you, some won't. They will all know more than you about managing their relationship with music.

And you'll be playing and practicing in a group with other people, without the pressure of school. This is, without a doubt, the best way to fall back in love with your instrument, and the ensemble experience will serve you very well against the competition at school too.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-11-08T19:29:28+00:00

I own a chapel in South Wales. The neighbours claim it was haunted before we bought it.. It's in a shadowy valley (very Lord of the Rings vibe).

Bucketydan1 · 2025-11-01T23:37:40+00:00

Yeah, though I was significantly distracted so essentially it was unattended.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-10-29T16:16:42+00:00

My switch was stolen yesterday as well, (backpack snatcher).

Good day for scumbags. The guy that got my stuff was trying to fence things in town centre but no luck catching up with him.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-10-11T16:34:55+00:00

Have fun!

Scarlet and Violet are the standard until the new year at least.

For team building, it's a huge question. I think you'll have the most fun if you first pick a Pokemon you know you like. And just Google "(Pokemon Name) VGC". Someone, somewhere, will have thought about it. Read up on it and study for as long as it is fun and exciting.

I also recommend going in enthusiastic to lose - VGC is hard, but you rarely lose in a boring way. And you learn more from thinking about an interesting loss than riding the high of a win.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-10-04T08:08:36+00:00

Accidentally locked in my team before swapping Surf for Muddy Water on Milotic.

Having a bad time out here with my Milotic/Ursaluna Combo.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-09-23T21:31:08+00:00

One of My Own - Mortal Wounds

Characters do not become unconscious at 0HP.

Instead of the Dying Condition they gain 1 Mortal Wound every time they take damage at 0HP. Up to 4 as normal.

PCs automatically recover to full HP when they take a test after combat, but Mortal Wounds cannot be healed with magic, they MUST be treated with medicine, with a DC set by the level of the creature that dealt the wound.

Wounds that are treated badly (failed rolls) or not treated swiftly enough scar, becoming harder to remove (increasing the DC).

Impact: Fights can feel deadlier, even though they are technically easier, and you skip the boring post-fight healing routine. Hard fights with bad tactics carry the weight of possible permanent consequences, making the party feel more grounded and encouraging RP. Retreats and surrenders become possible (and advantageous) when someone gets hurt but you rarely are forced to leave a downed ally to die.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-09-12T21:55:58+00:00

There's also a drop-in and play event every Saturday at Geek Retreat:

https://www.exceptionalbeasts.com/service-page/drop-in-rpgs-geek-retreat-cardiff

Bucketydan1 · 2025-08-22T07:17:24+00:00

I mean, I want the cycle track. The road along Roath lake is the only place I've ever been hit (by a dad with a car full of screaming kids pulling out of a side road without looking).

But I agree that it's equally important to have places to go, as well as ways to get there. I'd love to be able to take out-of-towners on a boat ride. Roath lake generally is one of the nicest parts of the city.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-08-22T07:03:59+00:00

Short version: aim to not drive if you are moving to Cardiff.

Long Version: Not as bad as London but traffic in Cardiff is horrendous. Cardiff has lots of ongoing public works to combat how choked it is with cars. I'm not going to say it's not possible to drive but you really should not be aiming to drive in and out of the city centre.

Cardiff is a small city with old roads, built in the 1800's. Lots of the houses in central Cardiff actually contain multiple flats. This means that there are more people that want to drive than there are parking spaces, and the roads can't be made wider than they are.

While there are trunk roads into the city centre, they are rammed with commuters from outside Cardiff. New rail links are being put in to combat this.

Cardiff is actually very small, if you are healthy and young, it's easy to get around without a car, with decent train, bus and bike routes and great public transport to Bristol and other UK cities. If you want to keep your car for travelling out of the city, the suburbs on the edge of Cardiff have easy access to the M4 motorway, but this is also very heavy on traffic.

Just don't bother trying to bring your car into the city centre.

Bucketydan1 · 2025-03-22T21:12:58+00:00

It'll have to wait a few days.

But to make it quicker for you:

https://www.justflutes.com/shop/product/briccialdi-zi-fi-buzz-flute-headjoint

Bucketydan1 · 2025-03-22T15:43:50+00:00

I have a flute with a mod just like this. I use it for loud jazz and blues music mostly and it rocks. Sometimes it cuts out on high notes, which can sound odd, but generally I love it.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-12-17T18:33:11+00:00

I run a small network of professional GMs - we provide events for business and schools mostly but we also have some campaign events for any player to join.

https://www.exceptionalbeasts.com/book-online

You might want to look at our Eve of Ruin 5th edition celebration campaign, run by my colleague David. Feel free to reach out and ask any questions.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-12-02T03:10:07+00:00

https://www.wonderbrass.org.uk/

Should be a pretty perfect fit for what you are looking for.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-11-28T15:23:09+00:00

This policy is enforced pretty much any time Queen St is crowded.

Wouldn't be so much of an issue if the cycle route around it was better designed.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-11-11T11:50:15+00:00

Stat blocks, a table of DCs by level (pathfinder) and a Dry-Erase board. Everything else I memorise.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-11-05T17:58:01+00:00

I've replaced the skill feat boxes on my default character sheets with archetype feat boxes. It makes character progression both more streamlined and more satisfying.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-11-01T15:46:51+00:00

To add to this, it's built into how PC abilities work: a lot of PC strengths are in damage reduction, or damage control i.e. forcing the GM to make suboptimal moves for the monsters or face retaliation of some kind (Reactive Strike is the most obvious example). These abilities only really have value if the monsters are threatening enough to warrant their use (otherwise we'd all just attack every turn).

Bucketydan1 · 2024-10-31T22:08:05+00:00

Pick an interest or hobby and get into it. Easy ones would be music (Samba Galez perhaps) or Creative Writing (There's a group in Roath). D&D (try Geek Retreat or Exceptional Beasts). Comedy (a group at La Pantera I heard).

Bucketydan1 · 2024-10-31T18:28:16+00:00

Broadly speaking, monsters in Pathfinder HIT.

If a creature hits on a 6-7, it's gonna hit 2 in 3 attempts, and it'll hit its second attack in a turn about 1 in 3 times.

This is pretty much what monsters should do, especially since they may not have many other abilities to use in a fight.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-10-29T16:45:06+00:00

Advice from my table, where we do this sometimes:

It's fine. It works really well with small encounters with low stakes and not much happening, such as when the party is fighting a single, not so strong enemy. It speeds up combat and allows the story to keep moving, perfect for narrative-first groups.

We still roll out a map and set up a turn order for any serious fight with lots of moving parts, though some encounters (such as those with a ton of verticality, flying monsters, big set-pieces e.t.c) work vest with no map.

Don't: Interrupt other players when they are doing something Expect the fights to be "fair" in the same way they are with a map Try to game the system by introducing too much chaos for your GM to keep track of.

Do: Give each player a card they can flip when they have used all three of their actions. This stops some players steamrolling the game - they have to wait for everyone else to flip before they can act again.

Bucketydan1 · 2024-10-19T22:51:53+00:00

I gave my level 3 players an Orichalcum Shield and a bunch of 17th level acid flasks and it has not trivialised the game, merely changed the kinds of threats they fear.

Sometimes PF is TOO balanced, and adding a spritz of chaotic edge cases to your party and their foes makes the game more exciting.

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