Ask Me Anything: MagnificentFly

-How did you get into RPGs and at what age?
-Having to choose one, live tabletop or pbp?

And I think I'll keep this as my trademark question:
Which is the B-movie that you just have a thing for and keep rewatching?

You didn't ask me that 😪

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Why a fly? And what makes flies magnificent?

So. Do you ever like gaming a Bard? and/or writing small poem/chants and such to go with it?

Besides Uzbekis, what does Uzbekistan abound in that a visitor might not expect?

-I looked into TTRPGs mainly due to my frustration with video games. I know there are limitations, it is impossible to account for every possible decision a player may make and the story and mechanics of the game are hard coded, which leaves no room for improvisation.

I learned about the existence of TTRPGs after playing Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines as the game had a different and unique feel to it in comparison to the games I played before. It was the year 2005 or 2006, don't remember. Fast forward a few years I played Shadowrun Returns and learned that it is also based on TTRPG. However, there was no way for me to obtain any of the books (mainly due to them not being translated) and there was no one I could play with. Jump to 2016, I discovered Roll20 and got my hands on several pdfs, I already knew English by then, so was curious enough about the hobby to start playing online with complete strangers.

Naturally, D&D being the most popular I started playing it, however, I had more success with text-based games (not PbP yet) than voice-based ones. Add to that my shifting time zone as I was studying overseas (but still in Asia) and majority of players are US and EU based. A few years later due to my failure to find games other than D&D I looked into other sources besides Roll20 and discovered PbP. Come 2019, I was looking for any WoD game or at least a place where they occasionally happen and found GP. Funny enough, the first game I played here was D&D as well (I am fairly certain it was the same game that was first game on GP for bowlofspinach).
-While both have their pros and cons, I would probably go with PbP as it is much easier to find a game in PbP than finding people and arranging schedules for a live one.
Deep Blue Sea or maybe Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot? I am not sure what constitutes for a B-movie. Most of the movies I like to rewatch and would probably be considered bad today are pre-2000 movies we had on VHS at home. Most of them were probably considered A-movies (?) back in the day, the likes of The Professional with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Luc Besson's Taxi and such. Would Yamakasi and District 13 count as B-movies? Hm... moving away from French movies ... how about Indonesian Raid?

I do not know how this gradation works and last time I went to a Cinema theater was in 2018. Not an avid movie goer I am, but do watch movies online when I have the time.

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Flies are annoying but I am Magnificent, which is why there is a 'the' in short name and it is always capitalized. This is my final (latest?) form. I started as a Mighty Mosquito, then turned into a Ferocious Cockroach, then I became a Vicious Moth and now I am the one and only Magnificent Fly. There is a pattern in my madness but I don't remember how it all started.

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I never gotten to actually play a Bard, though I made a few bard characters for games that never gotten to lift off. I cannot write poems but would appropriate a song to suit my needs if the opportunity presents itself. I had a BardBarian for whom the last part of Manowar's song Sons of Odin would fit very well (didn't get to play him unfortunately).

And great cuisine. I don't have pictures of that as I prefer eating the food rather than looking at it.

I didnt get asked that either :(

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Are there any games you really loved, but then fell out of love with over time? Or a game you didn't really like at first but then grew on you?

Have you ever played the boardgame Samarkand, in the real Uzbek city of Samarkand?!?

Checkers for the former and Chess for the latter.
Never heard of this game until now. I did play chess and some card games in Samarkand during my visits there. To my knowledge, the most popular boardgames here are Chess, Checkers and Long Nardy, most popular card games are probably Durak and Preferans (DO NOT play any these games on the streets and bet money on it, you will lose no matter how good a player you are!). However, my knowledge of what boardgames people play here are very limited as there are a lot more games accessible to people than when I was growing up.

The big city game wasn't my first on here, but one of my first. Might have been my third.

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What's your favorite easy to make dish to eat?

Now those are two things we have in common, plus I was excited you mentioned Bloodlines and especially the Shadowrun: Returns games!
It's a Malkavian thing, people either just get it or they never will.

I ... uh ... don't know. I am not a gourmet, I take whatever I have in the fridge peel it, cut it and then throw it on the frying pan, add salt, pepper and other spices and that's it. Or porridge.

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I am sure there are more things we have in common, like, for example, we both know how to spell and pronounce Ιάσωνας as well as a preference for cats.
Now that you mentioned it, I actually never played a Malkavian before ... although after mentioning the Bloodlines I felt obligated to boot it again and actually do a Malk playthrough. Hm ...

I just gotta ask... Why do you know how to spell that in greek?

Allow me to recommend the revolutionary frozen pizza. No peeling, not cutting and generally better than anything I can make ;)

I asked DarK_RaideR during his AMA. I also was interested in Greek Mythology when I was a kid and tale of Ιάσωνας and his Argonauts was among my favorites, and was very surprised to see that he is known as Jason in English (granted in German it would sound similar to original but modern English moved away from its Germanic roots in this case). In Russian the name is spelled Ясон (though there are versions where it spelled Иасон) and pronounced closer to the original, though the letters ας in the end are dropped.

I don't think we have those on the market, but I do order pizzas from time to time. Also, I prefer to use fresh ingredients, had a lot of food poisoning of varying degrees during my school years and my digestive track is pretty messed up now.

I can guarantee you'll have a great time. Malk playthrough is best playthrough.

What is your favorite and least favorite smell and sound?

And I think I'll keep this as my 'Trademark Question' ©Antiproduct:
What do movies and television get wrong about your culture, and about your job/career?

I don't usually go around sniffing things, so don't really have a favorite smell but to entertain the idea and answer the question, my favorite smell would probably be that of a fresh air right after the rain.

As for sound, this is where I can't even think of any separate sound that I would want to hear. I listen to music almost all the time but that is not a single sound but a combination of great many sounds at different intervals and volumes.
Oof... that's a question. So, I am ethnically Russian but was born and raised in Uzbekistan, while Russian culture is closer to me I would consider Uzbek culture my own as well (to some extent, there are things I don't do but understand why its done and accept it when it involves me).

I haven't seen much of Uzbek culture shown in movies and television outside of local and Soviet media. However, a few old documentaries that I've seen depicted us living like in Dark Ages. Granted, part of the reason for that was our not exactly open borders (it was very difficult for foreigners to get in, besides post-Soviet countries).

As for wrong depiction of Russian culture ... well, that's the can of worms that best remain closed for now.

Job/Career ... well, before Covid hit I was a Project Coordinator in a Travel Company and ran a small business on the side, and currently I am Freelance Tester (I know GP needs people like me but I don't have the time and energy to do it properly) and private English tutor for now. Can't say these jobs are often depicted in the media.