Roleplaying on the forums lately got some hits, and I hope this basic guide could help out!
It will have some steps and basic tips, to have a faction wich will feel unique and brings something new in the forum roleplaying, and has its own realism.
Step 1, establishing a baisc concept and lore.
The first thing you have to have is a basic idea of what your faction will be about. What is its cause, where did they came from and what do they want to accomplish? Are they good, or evil? Do they have a secret they want to hide, or do they want to help others in need? This is all important, write all the basics down.
Step 2, create key characters of your story.
Your story will, if needed, have key characters. Like a captain of your army, or a member of your small trading group. You need to make sure they are fleshed out, and realistic. Make sure they are concistent in what they do, and have some behaviour repeat.
As an example, a character named Annie, she always forgets things. And make the behaviour repeat, like when in need to escape, she forgot where she put her keys, and a different character eventually finds them.
Also, what I like to do, is put down what they think and feel in certain important moments. Like:
Annie was shocked when she couldnt remember where she put her keys.
Perhaps, also have some backstory on them, where they came from. and tangle it in with your lore to make it tie up nicely. Make sure they dont fall out of character, then it will seem strange when Annie suddenly remembers everything.
Step 3, design ships.
Something also important. Since it is Cosmoteer we are talking about, and ships are important, if needed.
Make your ships have concistent designs and paint, to make them match nicely. Make them unique, so when someone sees the ship, they will immediatly know who they are dealing with.
Also, put down how many they have of each ship, and make the ships and fleets act realisticly. So when in war, dont pull out 1.000.000 of those, wich you might not have located around there, or dont even have. Then wars will be more realistic and concistent.
Step 4, make the main thread.
When done with that, you can start on the main thread, and put all the lore down in a nice story, and dont make walls of text, sometimes
press enter 2 times, to create gaps, because walls of text might scare people off. And if your story is long, make a thrilling and ingaging start, so people want to read further.
Put everything in nicely, and before posting it, read it a time to make sure there are no mistakes in story or spelling.
And most importantly, have an unique faction name.
Tips.
Be concistent in your faction, dont do strange things your faction or character doesnt do at all.
Do not pull out millions of ships all of the sudden if it fits your needs.
Accept to take a loss, if you loose, it happends....
Do not kill off key characters of other factions if the creator doesnt plan for it, if you plan to do it, dont do it in one post, let them know the character is in a dangerous situation, if the other factions accepts the character to die, they will post it, or make the key character escape if they hold value to it.
If your faction or character is extemely powerful, do it realisticly, check out this thread on how: https://forum.cosmoteer.net/d/3526-how-to-divine-entity-updated/133
This was guide on roleplaying. I hope it was helpful.
Did I mis anything? Please comment down below. I want this guide to improve over time.