I am a avid novice writer who loves to rp on almost all the MMORPGs I play because I enjoy it and for no other reason. Sadly, I am 100% new to the Star Trek Universe and have no idea what 99% of the stuff is. Do I need to understand every detail of the trek universe in order to RP in this game or are there just certain things I should know? If they are, what are they? If I have to know everything then I will just go a month or two without rping....not looking forward to it....
My previous experience is from World of Warcraft, Aion, Warhammer, and Lord of the Rings. So this space/Sci-fi scenario is very foreign to me. If anyone has some advice to this noob I would love to hear it. Like I said, I am a total noob in many ways to STO, if there is a person who would take a student under there wing that would be much appreciated as well. Thanks for the time and I hope I posted this in the right spot.....
I assumed this is the RP forum...I hope I wasn't wrong...if I was please try to keep the trolling to the minimum and let this noob just quietly dig his grave.

Also don't let my join date fool you, bought the game when it came out and found WoW....been collecting cyber dust till now, this is my first official week in STO.
Comments
What do you mean TRIBBLE with Canon? Are there TRIBBLE Undead walking around with a Orc's baby here too? If there is I might shoot myself. Please explain what you mean by that. You don't know thy enemy by someone telling you there is evil a foot, they normally tell you what kind of evil, if not that then where he last ate
By then, you will know everything canon to the movies.
Don't waste your time with the newest version of Star trek, it's TRIBBLE and goes against any of the previously mentioned shows. That movie completely erased all those shows and movies. Some trek Fans do not even consider that movie Star Trek, and do not even consider it canon.
It's just a Space movie with a Star Trek skin (if that) and ruined the Star Trek Franchise in many Star Trek Fan's opinions.
I don't mind watching it over time but if it is required to RP, well then. I don't quite know how I will do it.
No, if you're willing to roleplay I'm sure people won't mind.
ok this is a common misconception. the new movie did not erase anything. the events caused an alternate timeline that runs parallel alongside the original timeline (the one the game is set in).
its no different to the mirror universe or the thousands of timeline seen in the tng episode parallels. did any of them ruin star trek? no.
its just another take on star trek, it does not replace what is already there.
if you dont like the film, that is fair enough but dislike it for the right reasons.
no you dont but remember star trek has hundreds of hours of tv so there is a lot of 'backstory' it would help knowing the difference between a vulcan and a klingon.
as for your question about canon, the game is considered soft canon. it uses whjat has already been laid down but it creates its own story and does things the tv show would never do. if your not massively into star trek to begin with you wont notice, so dont worry about that.
No, but that'd give you a very encompassing view of all things Star Trek (as he basically said watch all the shows and movies, however that's ten pre-2009 films and 28 seasons of television).
*Warning: Numerous spoilers below*
To get a general feel of things, familiarize yourself on Memory Alpha with the main factions: the Federation (with its military and exploration arm, Starfleet), the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Union, Dominon, and the Borg. There's some other players involved (the Breen, Species 8472 aka the Undine in STO, Terran Empire). Extremely briefly: humans made first contact with aliens (the pointy-eared "Live Long and Prosper"-speaking Vulcans) in 2063 and this helped to unify humanity, as well as progress beyond war, disease, famine, or the need for money. Over the years, a United Earth would form an alliance with the Vulcans and other nearby races to create a United Federation of Planets in 2161 -- by the 25th century (the game takes place in 2409), this consists of hundreds of member worlds and is a major player in the galaxy. The Klingons are a proud warrior race, and are off-and-on at war with the Federation. The Romulans are a Vulcan offshoot that are a secretive and duplicitous people, still reeling from the destruction of their homeworld a few decades ago. The Cardassians were once a peaceful people, but ran low on resources and were taken over by a cut-throat militaristic group called the Obsidian Order that would expand its territorial control until a devastating war along with their Dominion allies forced them to rebuild and look to democracy again. The Dominion are from a far part of the galaxy, called the Gamma Quadrant (the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians are members of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant) which is accessible from a wormhole, and are led by changelings that are believed to be gods by their genetically-engineered warrior race, the Jem'Hadar. The Borg ("Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.") are from another far corner of the galaxy, the Delta Quadrant, and operate with a single consciousness in a Hive Mind, led by a Queen. The Borg use nanotechnology to assimilate other aliens and use their technology to get closer to their view of perfection, always adapting and expanding.
Some of the major technologies used are the universal translator (little discussed, but its the gimmick so everyone understands everyone else), transporter ("Beam me up, Scotty!") for rapid movement between ship-to-ship or ship-to-planet, warp engines (warps space-time to allow faster than light travel), impulse engines (sublight travel by conventional means), stardates (a gimmick to deal with the physical effects of high travel as it relates to relativity of time).
The major weapons used are phasers (or by some factions, disruptors), an energy-based weapon, and torpedos (common varieties: photon and quantum). Some other marvels include the hypospray (a painless way to distribute medicine), tricorder (scans, analyzes, etc.), and communicator (the badge worn on Starfleet personnel's uniforms).
That should give you a very brief introduction to the world of Star Trek, which I would say is larger and has more pieces than some of the other mythos like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
You should be so lucky.
No it's not all like that, but as always there are the people that just use it as an excuse for weirdness.
You can watch the original series for free at http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/
You can catch Enterprise at http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek_enterprise/video/ , though it was the last of the TV serieses it is set in the timeline before the original series.
I have been thinking of going through most of the videos sometime soon myself... this is the order I am planning to do it: (remember though, you don't need to see everything, really you can pick on series and just rp that if you want)
Star Trek: The Cage (Unaired Pilot, located on last disc of Star Trek S3)
Star Trek (S1-3)
The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)
TNG 6.01-6.11 (Chain of Command Pt 2)
DS9 1.01-04
TNG 6.12
DS9 1.05
TNG 6.13
DS9 1.06
TNG 6.14
DS9 1.07
TNG 6.15
DS9 1.08-09
TNG 6.16-17
DS9 1.10-11
TNG 6.18-19
DS9 1.12
TNG 6.20
DS9 1.13
TNG 6.21
DS9 1.14
TNG 6.22
DS9 1.15
TNG 6.23
DS9 1.16
TNG 6.24
DS9 1.17-18
TNG 6.25
DS9 1.19
TNG 6.26
DS9 1.20
TNG 7.01-02
DS9 2.01
TNG 7.03
DS9 2.02
TNG 7.04
DS9 2.03
TNG 7.05
DS9 2.04
TNG 7.06
DS9 2.05
TNG 7.07
DS9 2.06
TNG 7.08
DS9 2.07
TNG 7.09
DS9 2.08
TNG 7.10
DS9 2.09
TNG 7.11
DS9 2.10-11
TNG 7.12
DS9 2.12
TNG 7.13-14
DS9 2.13
TNG 7.15
DS9 2.14
TNG 7.16
DS9 2.15
TNG 7.17
DS9 2.16
TNG 7.18
DS9 2.17
TNG 7.19
DS9 2.18
TNG 7.20
DS9 2.19
TNG 7.21
DS9 2.20
TNG 7.22
DS9 2.21
TNG 7.23
DS9 2.22
TNG 7.24
DS9 2.23-24
TNG 7.25-26
DS9 2.25-26
DS9 3.01-14
Star Trek: Generations
DS9 3.15-26
DS9 season 4
DS9 5.01-22
Star Trek: First Contact
DS9 5.22-26
DS9 season 6
DS9 7.01-08
Star Trek: Insurrection
DS9 7.09-26
Voyager
Nemesis
Enterprise
Star Trek Chronological Viewing Order:
Core Star Trek Series & Films:
Star Trek: The Cage Unaired Pilot
(Located on last disc in Original Series Season 3)
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (Episode)
Star Trek (Seasons 1-2)
Star Trek (Season 3 episodes 1-9) (Season 3: Episode 9: Tholian Web)
Star Trek: Enterprise: (Mirror Universe) (Season 4: Episodes "In A Mirror Darkly 1 & 2)
Star Trek (Season 3 episodes 10-24)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 1-5)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 1)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 6)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 2)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 7)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3)
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 1)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 4)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 2)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 5)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 3)
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 6)
Star Trek: Voyager (Season 4)
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 7)
Star Trek: Voyager (Seasons 5-7)
Star Trek: Nemesis
Anyhow, best of luck in your rp
Hmm... I am not a RPer myself, but I can see where the current set up would be a pain for RPing. Since we are all in the same world, they can't make a RPing realm. What they should do though, is make a
RPing flag. Then try to group people with this flag into the same instances as much as possible to make them more likely to find each other.
fixed for ya.
Wow...it's actually kinda...hard to figure out how to introduce someone to Trek. You just watch the show and play with the universe for years, and it just doesn't occur to you that people have no idea what you're talking about. Weird...
Why not RP as te fresh-faced, eager but bumblin ensign just out of the academy who matures under the tutelige of experianced Captain's to one day save the galaxy and become a hero (catch breath here) then have a big champagne party perhaps with inspirational 80's theme tunes and a monataaaaaaaaage.
Sorry, I do that now and then but I think I had a point up to about a third of the way in.
What I do recommend, as others have said, spend some time on the Wiki, Memory Alpha. . . not to be confused with the in-game location. . . and do a little reading on the major factions/races of the universe.
Specificly. . .
The United Federation of Planets & Starfleet
Klingons
Romulans
Cardassians
The Dominion
The Borg
Species 8472 (aka Undine in game, but as far as I know they have never official been given that name in canon.)
Plus read up on any species you may be wanting to RP in the game.
To get up to date on what's going on in the game universe also read through The Path to 2409, which is a basic timeline that covers what's happened in recent history.
Keep in mind that everything you may be reading up on in my above selections will contain spoilers for the various series and movies if you are going to watch them, which honestly you should anyhow.
You will also be learning things along the way as you play through the game if you actually read everything.
That should actually be enough to RP without messing up anything major in the eyes of the more versed Trek fans. Even if you do mess something up only the most Elitist of the Trek fans would put you down for it and quite honestly you probably wouldn't want to RP with those types anyways.