This is an idea that came out of a freudian slip I made while running a game. The crew was getting creamed quite badly by the Cardassians, and I accidently called them the U.S.S. Defenseless.
In the tradition of Star Wreck and other such spoofs, I'm thinking of running a brief redshirt pickup. I'm not sure how to go about this. My concept is beaming down an away team with a bunch of hapless redshirts who for some inexplicable reason can't remember their names. An ion storm in the atmosphere prevents them from getting back in touch with the ship. They have to find a way to get back to the ship somehow, while dealing with the threat on the planet.
I'm having problems deciding who to pit them against. I want them to have a chance of success, so I'm a little leery of pitching them against Romulans, Cardassians, Breen or any other major Threat race. I was thinking about some Ferenghi who were engaing in some illegal activity on the planet, or a base of raiders/pirates.
Another problem is what to do with the commanding officer, unless there's a good reason for one not to be sent. Maybe he can get injuried early on? I'm not sure.
I like this idea, and I think it might work well. Can I get some feedback from you all?
Well, it's not parody-oriented, but my straighlaced advice for redshirt gaming can be found in the "To Serve and Protect" piece on the Untaken Treks: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/untaken.htm
Is this supposed to be a campaign or just a one-game spoof?
Why don't you use some of those all-powerful entities who enjoy testing the crew so much? They could throw whatever you like at the redshirts without having to wipe them out.
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"As long as you can laugh, you are not
defeated."