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Coatleque · **10-07-2015, 04:31 PM**

I treat this as I would in real-life. When I meet someone new, I'm not going to give them a resume or list of all her past accomplishments. Coatleque is going to act as she acts at this point in time based on her experience and mood, and if the person likes her perhaps they'll find out more about her as time progresses.

Aya · **10-07-2015, 04:35 PM**

(10-07-2015, 04:24 PM)SicketySix Wrote: Ummm, what is this FATE thing y'all keep talking about?

The Fate 14 system is a version of a system (I believe it is called Roll-20?) that Verad introduced to Balmung for the running of organized events Smile

I am with C ("Setoh"), the topic deserves its own thread, and I agree with the idea that the Fate-14 characters should not gain power over time.

Zelmanov · **10-07-2015, 04:37 PM**

yes please. let's rerail this thread, I care more about how each player goes about showing off their experience/resume in RP.

Aya · **10-07-2015, 04:39 PM**

(10-07-2015, 04:37 PM)Zelmanov Wrote: yes please. let's rerail this thread, I care more about how each player goes about showing off their experience/resume in RP.

I don't "show" it in any particular way.Â It informs the characters psychology and dialogue, and that is really it.Â I don't place much weight on capability (it should be plausible and fit the needs of the story).

(I suppose it does effect plausibility quite a bit! But I try not to think of things comparably because without a settled intermediating system that sort of fleshes it out, there's really little grounding for it beyond what I mentioned above.)

Warren Castille · **10-07-2015, 04:43 PM**

I'm not sure there's a way to "show it off" really. There's demonstration, which will always have the risk of looking like making shit up, and there's showing off which will always look like waving your dick around.

Roleplay events affect people differently; Some characters might gradually open up as they become more confident, while others might slowly close themselves off in the face of the constant trials and tribulations that comes from being an adventurer. I suppose that's my answer then: You show off experience when you look at someone's growth arc over a period of time and see how they changed with the events that took place.

This is impossible with randoms.

Aya · **10-07-2015, 04:47 PM**

(10-07-2015, 04:43 PM)Warren Castille Wrote: I'm not sure there's a way to "show it off" really. There's demonstration, which will always have the risk of looking like making shit up, and there's showing off which will always look like waving your dick around.

Roleplay events affect people differently; Some characters might gradually open up as they become more confident, while others might slowly close themselves off in the face of the constant trials and tribulations that comes from being an adventurer. I suppose that's my answer then: You show off experience when you look at someone's growth arc over a period of time and see how they changed with the events that took place.

This is impossible with randoms.

Well said Warren.Â Showing the effects of experience is very easy with people you interact with frequently, since the effect can be directly observed.

There is also story-telling, I suppose, but that can fall into either of the above categories Smile

McBeefâ„¢ · **10-07-2015, 04:50 PM**

I base the capabilities of my characters on a sliding scale based on what the scene is about.
Â
I tend to bow out to disputes, if someone claims to be a master Alchemist, I don't try to imply Evangeline is better, I just try to have her learn something.

I am cool with characters being more powerful than mine, trying to gain knowledge is always a good plot hook. On the other hand I'm just as on board with being knowledgeable on a subject.

One characters master is another's apprentice.Â

That was all a bit rambling, but I would argue that everything is relative and try to see what seems appropriate for a scene.

Caspar · **10-07-2015, 11:11 PM**

It's a tricky question for me, because Virara has lots of theoretical knowledge, being trained to an absurd degree, yet very little practical experience.

So if it's something she's trained to deal with, I play her as being calm, relaxed, and doing things almost as if they were unconscious. The same rote movements and training can just come out of her as if they were engraved within her from birth, whether it's fighting or menial labor like field work and lifting heavy objects. It's unusual for me to play a character who is so pointedly *not* mental about how she does things, but Virara is also one of the more extremely specialized characters I've played. I play her as subtly curious and almost childlike when dealing with things she doesn't understand, and very professional and mature when her training and experience should show through. So far it's done a decent job of demonstrating my character's strong areas and weak areas to other players; nobody is every really confused about what Virara's good at, and she tends to get respect from others easily due to my extra research and a few in-character achievements. But most importantly, it's the result of playing with people willing to work with my character concept and who felt they could have fun playing up Virara as competent and effective at what she does, not so much at things she doesn't regularly do.

As an example, one event that helped me build her reputation as being knowledgeable about at the very least the theory behind fighting was a time when Virara explained the Japanese martial arts concept of sen (Initiative, sort of) to some other characters. I used the difference in tone and her vocabulary, her body language and demeanor to show that she was in her comfort zone, and the details of the actual researched discussion material to help lend weight to her experience.

Oli! · **10-07-2015, 11:28 PM**

Just be insightful. If people are stuck, offer advice that they don't have. If someone is having a problem, help talk them through it.

I don't even play up Ada as being experienced, and people believe her to be more experienced or older than she is ICly, because of her insight and demeanor.

Masaki Moui · **10-08-2015, 01:48 AM**

That one line from writing stands out here for me: Show don't tell. So how do you show experience without showing off?

To demonstrate a level of mastery, you could turn to a principle found in developmental psychology which studied how older people do things with economy of energy or movement compared to younger or greener individuals. You know that funny slogan that runs like, 'Youth and energy are no match for age and treachery?' That's a cheeky version of what I'm talking about. A veteran at something will accomplish a task with more economy of motion or energy than the inexperienced person alongside him. The older or more experienced person has, well, experience in a discipline and that experience translates into knowing how to cut the right corners for efficiency, or save on expenditures, or get to point A faster and by using less resources etc etc.

Simple real world example here: The way I grocery shop (in real life) now is so much more efficient than I did when I was twenty. I really know now, after 20 years of experience with the amount of foodstuffs, with cooking, or prices, how much I can afford to put into a single shopping trip and make a buck really last.

Or if you've been in the construction trade for 20 years, one glance at a wall and you'd know 1) how it was put together and 2) how well it was put together and 3) how you'd probably have done it differently but maybe not necessarily better.

So that's my secret I guess and it's what I try to apply to a character in game, but in relation to their own progress bar, not in response to anyone else's. My character may look back 2 years into the game and realize he can sew a talisman with less thread or other materials far easier than he once could. He may compare old work to new work, perhaps things take less time, but his consideration of these factors turns inward, not outward, unless ...

The character's with a group that has come alongside them in common adventures. How I portray Masaki to random strangers and how I portray him to the other characters in my weekly game group are quite different because of this. So it's different though with different crowds of people.

If it's my gaming group, when I feel Masaki's "leveled-up" I spend time in OOC dialog talking about it with the group and coming to a shared consensus. Otherwise you've got a reality bubble clash between what they expect and what you expect. I realize that this doesn't quite fall into the subject header of "how do you wear your experience" but it is vital to being allowed to wear it freely and comfortably so I kinda want to add it here. It helps to talk to your people if you have them and get on the same page. And sometimes you don't even need to do this but it never hurts to engage in that process anyway.

With walk-ups, I don't know actually. It's so rare that I engage in walk-up roleplay and I treat walk-up roleplay these days really differently than I once did, precisely because it is freeform roleplay and I can't do much about another person's preconceptions or projections and so on. So what I do in these situations is what I mentioned above - I keep the display of progress always internally measured so that it doesn't feel as if I'm showing off. Masaki, for example, may notice that his talismans are using less thread compared to ones he made at 18 and honestly if anyone takes that as bragging, that's a real stretch. I purposefully make it a minor (or highly relative) observation so that it can't become a pissing contest even if I'm only using my own internal gauge.

So yeah, for me it's 'how does the character realize that they've finally embraced that cheeky 'age and treachery' which has bested their previous 'youth and energy'?'

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How do you guys go about wearing your experience?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes