Best way to see if you like it is to go to Galaxy Girl (the big statue near back alley brawler in galaxy)
They're a friendly bunch and if you send a /tell to one of them I'm sure they'll be only to happy to introduce you to it.
You might find This useful too
BTW - no you won't be expected to stay in character while on union - it's only an 'unofficial' Role Play server 
The Galaxy Girl meets are always the best place to start - You could always go there and just lurk to see what its like before you dip your toe in (so to speak)
Wouldn't say that the Galaxy Girl meets are the "best" place to start, because they're not for everybody. We are, however, the easiest group of roleplayers to find. Generally, you're IC whenever you want to be, using Local for IC chat, and anything OOC put in double brackets ((like this)). The /em command is what we use to show we're performing an action, so "/em sits down" comes up in the chat window as "<name> sits down". We have a Global Channel called GGOOC for OOC chat.
Some people act IC all the time, others, like myself, treat large portions of the game (most missions, the shops, respecs, etc) as OOC and aren't part of our characters' storylines.
Hi all,
I've had CoH long enough to have picked up the basics (though a few trial and errors etc), but haven't really started out leveling characters up. Before I started creating characters I will keep I've came to ask for some advice and ask a couple of questions.
So far I've played on the Defiant server and although I've played other MMORPGs I've never partaken in RPing. However, CoH has stirred up my creativity and i've already found myself creating backstory for my characters.
My question is, what is the RP community like on Union? With this being my first time at actual RPing I don't want to get to heavy into it to start off with. Will I be expected to stay in character all the time (e.g. when I'm in groups lvling up)?
Defiant is seemed quiet for RP and i would like to try my hand at it so basically i'm after reassurance that Union is the place to be.
Thanks.