As other have said it's the same as real life.
For instance, on the internet EVERYONE seems to be an expert in Martial Arts.
But unless someone actually speaks from experience you can usually tell when it's made up.
For Instance: Here we have 2 types of people both claiming to be in Martial Arts in some form or other.
Guy #1. First they start off by saying they are a blackbelt, and then that leads into how many fights they've been in, how many people's asses they've kicked and so on so forth. If it sounds like empty boasting, that's all it is.
Ask them to explain where their form came from, or to give you the Japanese/Chinese names of their techniques and you will most likely lose them instantly.
Guy #2. He can tell you that Aikido is a Japanese form of martial arts developed by Morihei Ueshiba (although I'm not exactly sure when.) which originally was deeply spiritual, translating to things like Unifying life energy.
Aikido is a lot of reflecting an opponents energy either away against him, or away from you. When asked about his form, he can then explain to you the roles of "uke" & "tori" and then explain to you that "kata-dori" is where you grab the shoulder. From there it can develop further into "kata-dori men-uchi" which basically means you grab the shoulder and strike to the face.
So when it's all said and done, which are you going to believe? Mister I can beat everyone up, or would you believe the guy that could go much deeper then I hit people?
So now lets apply that into RP purposes, which can be a lot more difficult.
In my opinion, the way to build up credibility is when these topics came up, put forth valuable pieces of info that show you was there for it. You led a platoon on Steps of Faith, don't expect people to think OMG he's so experienced, but rather let them taste the experience you saw. Mention details about the battle so on and so forth. I find that it builds a persona around your character a little better, and people will perceive you as such.
Sorry, this got really wordy.
TLDR: Portray your character is being there and having done those things, speak from experience about what happened and not just "Oh yeah I was there for that"
For instance, on the internet EVERYONE seems to be an expert in Martial Arts.
But unless someone actually speaks from experience you can usually tell when it's made up.
For Instance: Here we have 2 types of people both claiming to be in Martial Arts in some form or other.
Guy #1. First they start off by saying they are a blackbelt, and then that leads into how many fights they've been in, how many people's asses they've kicked and so on so forth. If it sounds like empty boasting, that's all it is.
Ask them to explain where their form came from, or to give you the Japanese/Chinese names of their techniques and you will most likely lose them instantly.
Guy #2. He can tell you that Aikido is a Japanese form of martial arts developed by Morihei Ueshiba (although I'm not exactly sure when.) which originally was deeply spiritual, translating to things like Unifying life energy.
Aikido is a lot of reflecting an opponents energy either away against him, or away from you. When asked about his form, he can then explain to you the roles of "uke" & "tori" and then explain to you that "kata-dori" is where you grab the shoulder. From there it can develop further into "kata-dori men-uchi" which basically means you grab the shoulder and strike to the face.
So when it's all said and done, which are you going to believe? Mister I can beat everyone up, or would you believe the guy that could go much deeper then I hit people?
So now lets apply that into RP purposes, which can be a lot more difficult.
In my opinion, the way to build up credibility is when these topics came up, put forth valuable pieces of info that show you was there for it. You led a platoon on Steps of Faith, don't expect people to think OMG he's so experienced, but rather let them taste the experience you saw. Mention details about the battle so on and so forth. I find that it builds a persona around your character a little better, and people will perceive you as such.
Sorry, this got really wordy.
TLDR: Portray your character is being there and having done those things, speak from experience about what happened and not just "Oh yeah I was there for that"
