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'?'
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'?'