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Role-playing fleet and fan fiction community proposal. (OOC discussion thread.)
pocketstory
Member Posts: 33 Arc User
Hi!
Pocket Story here. Though most of you probably dont know me and have never heard of me. Ive been playing STO off and on for a few years on various characters and have been role-playing even longer on a variety of games and forums under a wide assortment of names. Over time Ive come to discover that the hardest part about running or even participating in a RP group is scheduling. Its hard to pick a time when everyone who wants to participate can attend. With this in mind Ive been thinking of running a somewhat slow paced hybrid RP fleet in the game. Right now Im making this post to see if anyone is interested and to gather ideas to help make this a successful and enjoyable RP experience.
Phase one: Starfleet Academy.
I am going to be playing a Federation Character for this RP (probably an Andorian) so I am organizing it around Starfleet. If there is enough interest in doing so I would be thrilled if the creation of sister fleets in the Klingon and Romulan factions came into existence on the forums and in the game to serve as adversaries or even reluctant allies at times in this RP. But for now and for the sake of simplicity I will plan this around a Federation campaign. Any changes that might have to be made to this plan to start a RP for those factions can be discussed here or in their own threads if it makes sense to create additional threads.
This RP will start like any RP with character creation. Only this RP will have a little twist. In addition to a basic character profile (that can be submitted to this thread or a created character submission thread if there is enough interest to warrant the creation of a thread just for character submissions) each player should also submit an IC Application to Starfleet. The format of the application can be worked on here, I want this to be a group effort and I am eager to have outside opinions.
During the character creation progress I would like everyone who is interested to also make a new character in game. IC interaction in this RP both in game and out of game will be based around the appearance and statistics of in game characters. Right now the plan is not to play on these characters in game yet but to RP going though Starfleet Academy together on the forums. Though if players want to play the opening missions so that they can get to Space Dock and start customizing their Bridge Crew that could help. This way you can introduce a customized Bridge Crew into the RP as NPCs at the Academy. You can control your future Bridge Crew NPCs yourself or you can even have friends who want to RP as a member of your crew on the forums instead of as a captain of their own ship take control IC of a Bridge Crew NPC turning it into a PC of sorts even though they wont be able to control the character in game.
Players who do not want to create a new character, or who do not want to wait to lvl their new character can still participate in the Academy phase of the RP as teachers and instructors. Players who wish to RP as teachers need to (in addition to a character profile) submit a Class Description regarding what class they will be teaching. Not all students have to take every class offered by players RPing teachers, Players should have their characters and/or bridge crew NPCs sign up for offered classes. If you sign up for a class but do not participate in the RPs run by instructor PCs it goes without saying that this will reflect poorly on your character IC. This is not to say that players playing teachers will be running this PR, just their classes. I want this to be a group run RP as much as possible. In Character rank will be determined by the in game rank of characters but OOC I hope decisions will be made based on what is best for the RP.
I am not sure how long the Academy part of the RP will run or even when it will start. But once we get through the Academy part of the RP the RP will start to move onto the game. It is at this point that I would like to write or rather participate in writing a group fan fiction based on an altered version of the tutorial missions that will allow for a small fleet of students to be taking their first flight together. Based on Academy RP and the recommendations of players playing teachers and an OOC community discussion and Vote one player playing a academy graduate will write an IC commencement speech to be posted on the forums and incorporated into the fan fiction. While the goal is to give all players equal importance in the fan fiction it is this players character whose perspective the fan fiction will be written from. The fan fiction will be a group project with each player deciding what their character will say and do etc. But unlike a forum RP this group fan fiction can be changed and worked on until the story is finished and posted. This can be done in private messages, e-mails or even an OOC work in progress thread. The graduate who gives the commencement speech does not necessarily have to be the player who does the majority of writing on the fan fiction they will just be the character the group will place the camera over the shoulder of while the story of the entire class is told. Depending on the size of the class it might be tricky to create a reasonable story explaining how so many captains are lost and so many first officers are promoted to acting captain, but I believe it can be done through a combination of varying details and having the captains lost at different times in the story. I would also like each player to be in charge of creating a back story for the captain they will be replacing maybe even have them as an NPC during the academy mentoring their character so that their loss will have more impact. These NPCs can even double as academy teachers if needed.
Phase Two: The adventure begins. Once the first fan fiction is complete and posted players playing Academy Teachers can decide if they want to keep teaching at the Academy or accept a commission to captain their own ship in lieu of the need for more ships out doing what they do. At this point I would like everyone to start keeping an IC log on the forums. It might actually help if a log is started back during the academy phase but it isnt necessary. Also at this time I would like to create an in game fleet for player participating in this RP. Fleet Name and Leadership/creator will be voted on OOC.
After the Fanfiction is posted players who created a new character for this RP can start playing them and lvling them. The purpose of the Captains Log is to keep track of what players are doing In Game on the forums. This will help with organizing In Game meet ups and RP sessions, it will also help organize on forum RP sessions. As RP progresses and ideas occur events mentioned in logs and occurring in in game and forum RPs can be used as a basis for additional Fanfictions as players want to write them. The only real requirement for Fanfictions is that if you intend to use another players character in your stories get their permission and input.
The goal of this Fleet is to create a series of stories in the form of RPs and Fanfictions that can be posted on the STO forums and or on other WebPages such as fan fiction.net. I also want this to be a place where players can RP and write stories together and have fun regardless of whether they have time to play the game every day or only once a week or even only once a month. I do recommend that players who do play a lot do this RP on a second character that they dont play as often in order to keep the pacing among members as even as possible.
Well thats my idea. I look forward to creating a universe of stories with the friends I will make here. If you are interested please reply below. If you have ideas that you think will make this idea work better I would love to hear them even if you arent currently interested in joining. If you are interested in doing this but creating a character from a different faction please let me know and we can discuss how to do that as well. If we have a large enough interest in other factions we might even be able to tie events that happen in the first fanfic for each faction together. I dont believe we can create just one story if it involves two or three factions but that is something that can be discussed later if it needs to be.
Look forward to hearing from people
Pocket Story
Pocket Story here. Though most of you probably dont know me and have never heard of me. Ive been playing STO off and on for a few years on various characters and have been role-playing even longer on a variety of games and forums under a wide assortment of names. Over time Ive come to discover that the hardest part about running or even participating in a RP group is scheduling. Its hard to pick a time when everyone who wants to participate can attend. With this in mind Ive been thinking of running a somewhat slow paced hybrid RP fleet in the game. Right now Im making this post to see if anyone is interested and to gather ideas to help make this a successful and enjoyable RP experience.
Phase one: Starfleet Academy.
I am going to be playing a Federation Character for this RP (probably an Andorian) so I am organizing it around Starfleet. If there is enough interest in doing so I would be thrilled if the creation of sister fleets in the Klingon and Romulan factions came into existence on the forums and in the game to serve as adversaries or even reluctant allies at times in this RP. But for now and for the sake of simplicity I will plan this around a Federation campaign. Any changes that might have to be made to this plan to start a RP for those factions can be discussed here or in their own threads if it makes sense to create additional threads.
This RP will start like any RP with character creation. Only this RP will have a little twist. In addition to a basic character profile (that can be submitted to this thread or a created character submission thread if there is enough interest to warrant the creation of a thread just for character submissions) each player should also submit an IC Application to Starfleet. The format of the application can be worked on here, I want this to be a group effort and I am eager to have outside opinions.
During the character creation progress I would like everyone who is interested to also make a new character in game. IC interaction in this RP both in game and out of game will be based around the appearance and statistics of in game characters. Right now the plan is not to play on these characters in game yet but to RP going though Starfleet Academy together on the forums. Though if players want to play the opening missions so that they can get to Space Dock and start customizing their Bridge Crew that could help. This way you can introduce a customized Bridge Crew into the RP as NPCs at the Academy. You can control your future Bridge Crew NPCs yourself or you can even have friends who want to RP as a member of your crew on the forums instead of as a captain of their own ship take control IC of a Bridge Crew NPC turning it into a PC of sorts even though they wont be able to control the character in game.
Players who do not want to create a new character, or who do not want to wait to lvl their new character can still participate in the Academy phase of the RP as teachers and instructors. Players who wish to RP as teachers need to (in addition to a character profile) submit a Class Description regarding what class they will be teaching. Not all students have to take every class offered by players RPing teachers, Players should have their characters and/or bridge crew NPCs sign up for offered classes. If you sign up for a class but do not participate in the RPs run by instructor PCs it goes without saying that this will reflect poorly on your character IC. This is not to say that players playing teachers will be running this PR, just their classes. I want this to be a group run RP as much as possible. In Character rank will be determined by the in game rank of characters but OOC I hope decisions will be made based on what is best for the RP.
I am not sure how long the Academy part of the RP will run or even when it will start. But once we get through the Academy part of the RP the RP will start to move onto the game. It is at this point that I would like to write or rather participate in writing a group fan fiction based on an altered version of the tutorial missions that will allow for a small fleet of students to be taking their first flight together. Based on Academy RP and the recommendations of players playing teachers and an OOC community discussion and Vote one player playing a academy graduate will write an IC commencement speech to be posted on the forums and incorporated into the fan fiction. While the goal is to give all players equal importance in the fan fiction it is this players character whose perspective the fan fiction will be written from. The fan fiction will be a group project with each player deciding what their character will say and do etc. But unlike a forum RP this group fan fiction can be changed and worked on until the story is finished and posted. This can be done in private messages, e-mails or even an OOC work in progress thread. The graduate who gives the commencement speech does not necessarily have to be the player who does the majority of writing on the fan fiction they will just be the character the group will place the camera over the shoulder of while the story of the entire class is told. Depending on the size of the class it might be tricky to create a reasonable story explaining how so many captains are lost and so many first officers are promoted to acting captain, but I believe it can be done through a combination of varying details and having the captains lost at different times in the story. I would also like each player to be in charge of creating a back story for the captain they will be replacing maybe even have them as an NPC during the academy mentoring their character so that their loss will have more impact. These NPCs can even double as academy teachers if needed.
Phase Two: The adventure begins. Once the first fan fiction is complete and posted players playing Academy Teachers can decide if they want to keep teaching at the Academy or accept a commission to captain their own ship in lieu of the need for more ships out doing what they do. At this point I would like everyone to start keeping an IC log on the forums. It might actually help if a log is started back during the academy phase but it isnt necessary. Also at this time I would like to create an in game fleet for player participating in this RP. Fleet Name and Leadership/creator will be voted on OOC.
After the Fanfiction is posted players who created a new character for this RP can start playing them and lvling them. The purpose of the Captains Log is to keep track of what players are doing In Game on the forums. This will help with organizing In Game meet ups and RP sessions, it will also help organize on forum RP sessions. As RP progresses and ideas occur events mentioned in logs and occurring in in game and forum RPs can be used as a basis for additional Fanfictions as players want to write them. The only real requirement for Fanfictions is that if you intend to use another players character in your stories get their permission and input.
The goal of this Fleet is to create a series of stories in the form of RPs and Fanfictions that can be posted on the STO forums and or on other WebPages such as fan fiction.net. I also want this to be a place where players can RP and write stories together and have fun regardless of whether they have time to play the game every day or only once a week or even only once a month. I do recommend that players who do play a lot do this RP on a second character that they dont play as often in order to keep the pacing among members as even as possible.
Well thats my idea. I look forward to creating a universe of stories with the friends I will make here. If you are interested please reply below. If you have ideas that you think will make this idea work better I would love to hear them even if you arent currently interested in joining. If you are interested in doing this but creating a character from a different faction please let me know and we can discuss how to do that as well. If we have a large enough interest in other factions we might even be able to tie events that happen in the first fanfic for each faction together. I dont believe we can create just one story if it involves two or three factions but that is something that can be discussed later if it needs to be.
Look forward to hearing from people
Pocket Story
Post edited by pocketstory on
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Pocket Story
I have sent you an in-game mail so let me know if you received it. Your idea is great and I would like to see it realized.
Damix
Just read the mail you sent. I hope you don't mid that I'm answering here because I believe the concern you raised might be shared by others and answering it here might encourage interest from more people.
The idea of joining an existing fleet instead of making a new one is actually a good idea. I don't want to commit to joining an existing fleet at the moment with my RP character but I will consider it. The goal of creating a fleet for this RP was to make it easier for people doing this RP to meet up in game. But if people are already in a fleet and would rather stay there this RP can easily find other ways to cross over from events that happen on the forums and events that happen in the game.
The first part of this RP is designed to happen on the forums so any actual interaction in the game itself is secondary for the moment. In the long run this might be the easiest choice. My idea was to have the RP geared around newly created characters, but if players are more interested in developing existing characters it might be best to open the idea up more. For example if someone has a character who is already an Admiral in the game but they still want to join the RP with that character as a cadet at the academy there really isn't any reason not to do that. It removes the link between RP progress and in game stats from my idea but when in doubt the K.I.S.S. rule applies.
I personally wanted to create a new character for this RP but not everyone has to do that. I'm still working on writing up a character profile/back story for my character. I don't plan on making or joining a fleet with my RP character until after I have a good idea how many people are interested.
Once the RP starts I'll make a decision based on simple logic (lol I should have made a Vulcan character) Once the RP starts I will look at the numbers. If most of the people involved in the RP do not have a fleet and want to make a fleet for this RP I will make a fleet or join a fleet another member of the RP will make for it. If most members of the RP are already part of another fleet I will join it if I am invited. And, If the people involved in this RP are all from a large number of different fleets I will join a fleet based off of how my character has gotten to know other characters In Character.
Actually that last bit will trump all other options. If my character becomes close to another character In Character and they are already a member of an existing fleet there will be a good chance that my character will join that fleet unless there is a good reason for her not to.
In short I appreciate you invitation and will consider it. Having members of this RP be part of several different in game fleets could benefit the RP much more than having all RP members in the same fleet. If anyone has read this idea and was interested but didn't post a reply because they didn't want to join a new fleet or make a new character please go ahead and post. This is a planning thread and like I said I want as much input as I can get before the RP starts.
Pocket Story
P.S. If there are any good threads for posting character profiles or finding blank character profiles to fill out please feel free to post a link. I plan on posting my profile here when it is finished but if there is a general profile thread I would like to post there maybe even put a link to this thread in my profile to help get it some more exposure. I've seen a couple post your back-story threads that I'm thinking about posting in but if anyone has a favorite feel free to post a link.
As I don't have any more free slots for new characters and created ones are "fleet bound" I could think about some alternatives (additional slots,account etc.). But if first part is made on forums outside of STO, it can be resolved later. As you said, fleet is there to support the idea so anything that is good for its progress should be considered. Don't have experience here so can't point at something and say what is the best way to go. I guess this is the moment when those numbers would do its things and show us the directions.
Some bio for my character is already written, I have covered some big events of his life before joining the academy but I'll go more into detail soon. I like when characters have some unresolved things from his past so it opens some possibilities in future plot that would either make impact on his later decisions or events around him, etc.
I'll be looking forward to some more suggestions about Pocket's idea in this thread.
I'm thinking that each person participating in this RP would make their own forum thread that would serve as a captain log. This webpage can be used to assign Stardates to logs converting the real world time they were written into STO Stardate http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/stardate.php this should help the RP maintain a kind of chronological order and this converter can be used to add stardates to more than just the log posts if it would be helpful. A quick thank you to whoever made that.
Speaking of that if anyone is interested in making a webpage for this RP group that could be fun if the group ever grows large enough to merit a webpage. Though at the moment it probably isn't necessary or even practical especially since I'm hoping to keep this running at a pace that works for people who don't always have a lot of time. Also I know nothing about making webpages so I won't be any help making one at least not without doing some reading on the subject and even then I'm not sure what all is involved.
Pocket Story
Stardate 92347.39
In addition to working on that I'm trying to come up with a format for the Starfleet applications that will be used in this RP. I'm looking at examples found online but it might take some time to get the forms posted. Besides I'm wanting to give people more time to post ideas.
Pocket Story
P.S. Just on a side note this will be a 100% text based RP. Even if I wanted to use voice chat I can't because I don't have a microphone, also I've found that when it comes to RP, voice chat works more towards hurting immersion than helping it. Given that most of this RP will take place on the forums this shouldn't be an issue but I felt that it was worth mentioning. I know the game supports voice chat but I can't use it right now.
Looking back I think some changes need to be made to the idea. I realize now that asking for people to make new characters for this RP was a mistake. I still plan on making a new RP focused character for this RP when and if it happens but if people are interested in doing this RP with existing characters and haven't posted because of the request for new characters please feel free to post here if you are interested or have ideas.
To simplify the first post here the idea is to RP as Starfleet Cadets here on the forums. (Other locations for RP can be discussed if people would rather RP this in the game itself or using another location such as a chat room or IM program. But using the forums is the easiest way to allow for RPers that are active at different times to interact though it will result in a much slower pace for the RP) While I don't have a timeline for how long this part of the RP will go IRL I'm hoping to RP a fairly lengthy stay at the academy where the cadets can bond and form friendships or rivalries and explore a variety of interesting plots that can continue past the Academy RP into the game proper as each cadet gets their own ship and heads out into the universe.
After each cadet graduates and gets their own ship the RP can keep going with the help of Captain's Logs posted IC on the forums by the participating players. This mixed with in game RP will hopefully set the stage for some interesting world building and character development.
As for making a fleet I'm begging to think that anyone interested in joining this RP probably already is part of an existing fleet. Hopefully this can be used as a means to establish some inter-fleet cooperation for RPing. My RP character doesn't have a fleet yet and I'll probably join a fleet with her or a new character I'll be making depending on what events occur during RP.
As for my character I have a lvl 7 Andorian that I've barely touched and haven't even done any missions on that I have a backstory for that's mostly ready to post, But I'm also considering making a Vulcan character to RP as. I'm waiting to see who if anyone is interesting in doing this RP before I make a final decision on who to RP as since the two characters will be different and I'll want to RP as the one most likely to provide for interesting storytelling when matched up against other players characters.
Okay I've gotten to the point again where I'm just rambling. So I'm going to cut this short. I just wanted to say that I'd still like to do this RP idea and would appreciate it if people let me know if they are now or are still interested in the idea. Also while I have RPed in other online games I haven't run a RP in years and would appreciate any ideas or advice anyone might have.
Pocket Story
P.S. I've been away from STO for a long while now and because I'm going to be using a bran new or almost new character in this RP I'm going to be very behind in the universe lore etc. I'd like to learn about everything OOC while my character learns about it IC but if there is anything important that you think I should know or if after I post a character profile anyone sees any glaring mistakes please feel free to let me know about it. I won;t be upset if someone lets me know I'm getting something wrong.
P.P.S. I'd really like to get the Academy part of this RP started sometime in late October or early November at the latest. That gives from now about a month for people to replay if they're interested and for people to post or provide links to character profiles. I'd like to have a group of around 10 people at the start of the RP as a mix of Cadets and Instructors. (I forgot to mention that if people want to RP as an academy instructor that can. And after graduation or even before that can be called back into active service as a ship captain to deal with whatever it is at the time that needs to be dealt with in game.) More than 10 RPers is perfectly fine and as we get more people we can work on organizing the RP structure. If however we don't have at least 5 people (including myself) interested in the RP by November I'm probably going to postpone starting it again. Anywho I'm off to re-watch Deep Space Nine on netflix. I hope people are still interested or get interested or have some ideas *hugs*
I realize that this is a little late compared to your deadline, but I was away fro sto for a while. I think that this is an excellent idea and would love to see it come to be. Though I am inexperienced in role playing I already have a character design and background in mind and could create/level it at will. If you still have room for a rookie I'd be happy to join.
If not then that's perfectly fine! No mater what i want to encourage you to do your best. This feels like it could be a really fun and enjoyable experience for anyone involved.
Well the original plan for this was to spend several months RPing the Starfleet Academy part on the forums before even moving into ingame RP. I don't know how many people are still interested in this idea. We would need at least one person wanting to RP as an instructor to RP any classes, though the Academy RP could be based entirely during downtime between and after classes. If done this way the RP could be based around a small group though I think the ideal size would be between 4 to 8 cadets (enough cadets for some variety in characters without the RP becoming overwhelming with too much to keep track of.)
I just recently was able to replace the graphics card in my PC so I've actually been away from all PC games for several months. So to answer your question you're not too late to join in at the beginning of this RP if it ends up happening. I think right now what is needed is a roll call of who is still interested and then if there are enough people interested we can move onto posting character profiles and planning out how to start the RP. Probably will start by writing out an opening ceremony of some-kind, this would best be done by someone RPing as an instructor, but it can be done as an OOC scene setting post before people start posting IC if no one is going to be RPing an instructor.
I'll try to start checking back here more often in case I actually get some replies after waiting so long to get the ball rolling.
I personally don't want to play as being in a classroom. We can create NPC instructors as needed, or do a fake roster of teachers for whatever class/course, and people can use them as needed. The forum part should be used to develop the interaction and relationship of our characters. Like you said, we focus on lieasure time between and after classes.
The live part of our roleplay is by way of ingame mechanics — everyone is given the same assignment, we team up and do the game quests to level our characters. When we do ground missions, we are the away team, and only use NPC if we need them. There are many things we can do in game to RP at any time, it won't always be just questing, we'll vacation at Ryza, we'll visit DS9 and go clubing, RP aboard the interior of one of our ships, etc... We need to figure out time to play (I think this will be the hardest thing to figure out).
One more thing, we don't level our characters on our own. So, this one character is used only for teaming with members of our roleplay. This way we can try and stay near same levels for when we team-up. And there are other little details that I think need to be worked out as well. We need rules, not restrictions, but rules need to be in place in order to balance the whole idea.
This sounds pretty close to my original idea if I'm reading this right. The plan was to make new characters and not even do the tutorial mission until after we get to the end of the academy part of the RP since the tutorial covers the end of academy training moving into the first assignment as XO then Captain. Of course having everyone go through the same scenario of becoming Captain might seem a bit contrived so this would be a good place to wrap up the academy RP with a short group fanfic / log post where each member of the RP can create their own unique story of how they become Captain.
I do not know if people could play the tutorial together by partying up at the academy in game or not. Even if we can't do the tutorial mission together it could be fun to get on our characters in game and just chat and RP in the academy without letting our characters advance to the part of the tutorial where we get our first ship until the academy part of the RP is over and we move on to the carrier RP.
Of course if we want to get into the game sooner we can always do something like play the tutorial and RP it as an academy simulation. We could even keep RPing in game content as academy simulations until we actually get the in game rank of Captain and then RP graduating from the academy and getting out own ships. Personally I would rather go with the first plan of not passing the in game tutorial until the academy RP is over, but I'm throwing out ideas just to be brainstorming.
And you're right the hardest part will be scheduling and setting up the basic RP structure needed to give the RP a sense of direction. This is another reason why i wanted to start with forum RP, a forum RP can be started while the in game RP is still being planned. Also new members can join the RP on the forums without being behind, but once the in game part of the RP starts no new members can be added if we want to keep the leveling synced up.
That's another thing that will need to be decided. How big a group is needed for the RP, what is too small and what is too big? If everyone is making a new character and we can only play in game when everyone in the group can be on how often will the group play in game, and for how long each session. There are several more things that need to be decided but that's a place to start. I personally think we need at least 3 people for the RP (preferably one each of Tactical, Engineering, Science) I think 6 (2 of each) would be the max size for the RP and a group of 5 would probably be ideal falling into the Five-Man Band trope. Though anywhere between 3 and 6 people should work I think. Any more than 6 will be far to hard to schedule and any less than 3 will provide too little diversity of character.
I think I'll stop here for now and see what anyone else has to say before I ramble on more about plans that might or might not be used.
One option is that we can play as academy students right up to captain rank. That will put us at lvl 30 (I believe). All the missions before then can be consider simulations, and special assignments that we all happen to be involved.
We should work on listing the rules we hink are important to make this work. Then work on the charater sheet. Finally opening the IC and its introduction. We'll start in the forum and see who else joins in. What say you?
I agree we should setup the rules before we create characters. I also think character creation should be a group activity so that we have some variety in the cast. Character creation can be done here in the OOC thread or using some kinda chat program. (This can be decided closer to when we make characters.)
I think RP should be kept to PG13 same rating as the recent movies at least anything that is publicly posted.
I also strongly recommend that each member of the RP keeps an IC Captain's Log once the RP starts. There are online webpages that convert the current date into a stardate we should pick one to use for logs to keep them in order with the RP. (Though some tweaking will have to be done to account for RP time flowing much much slower than real world time during forum RP and probably faster than real world time in ingame RP)
Of course basic RP rules should apply, Keep IC drama IC, be respectful OOC even if IC your character wouldn't be. If you have to miss a RP let it be known ahead of time if you can. Do not use OOC info IC, no god-modding.
It's probably best to do a no death RP... but events like having a ship destroyed in game should have some consequences in the RP. At least once it's full RP and not academy sim RP. Maybe something like every time your ship is destroyed you have to kill off a NPC crew member and RP that out though that might be a bit harsh and simply RPing out recovering in the med bay would be enough. (I haven't played the game for a while myself so I'm not sure how things should be setup in game but that can be adjusting over time as the RP goes on especially if we wait till lvl 30 to start implementing post academy rules.)
Follow show/game/book lore should be done as much as possible, though lore questions should be discussed calmly without anyone going lore nazzi on anyone. There are multiple interpretations on some things so I'm not sure how strict the universe canon is.
There are places where Star Trek tabletop rules can be found online, these might be useful for the forum RP though they would have to be adapted to also work moving into the game. That's something that can be explored later though.
I don't think we have to make many rules about character creation except trying to use something that at least resembles lore correct names if playing one of the default races, though if making an alien anything goes really. Again making character creation a group activity will allow for developing character rules at the same time.
I think I'll stop here for now, hopefully can start putting characters together after the first of the year. But I don't want to rush anything I really do hope for there to be at least 3 of us before we make the core group of characters. Or at least have 3 before making characters in game, I imagine that the first part of the academy RP can happen before choosing a career path, and even after they are chosen they can be changed pre character creation. Really I just want to keep as many options open for a 3rd player as I can if we make 2 characters and start the rp we'll be looking for something more specific in the 3rd character. It'll be best if there are 3 distinct personalities in the RP to play off each other; think Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Thou we don't have to go with those 3 archetypes it's just an example.
Also, I am experienced with chat client RP and can suggest clients for all the major OSes, if that's an option.
As for new characters I know I want to make a new character for this especially if I'm going to be using voice chat since none of my existing characters would match my voice, and it's been so long since I did anything with them that I't be good for me to start a new character just so I can relearn the game. I'm not going to ask everyone to make new charters but anyone who doesn't will probably be way ahead of me in the game which might make RPing a bit awkward at times... or it might have no effect on RP at all It's been so long since I played the game that I can't remember exactly how some things work... I do know that it'll be funny to see ships of vastly different sizes involved in RP.
Also I misread it when you said Chat Client I was thinking of voice chat but Discord also allows for Text Chat so that's an option too if we want to text RP off game and not in the forums and like I said I'm always open t suggestions.