The players in my game are due for a suprise next game. They've just had a grim, serious episode fighting a Klingon raider during the Klingon/Federation conflict. I've been dropping lots of hints and foreshadowing that their next episode is going to be in the Dominion war and it's going to be my usual tightly-plotted, serious political adventure with long-standing repercussions. They're expecting serious and deadly action on an epic scale.
They're wrong.
It's going to be a farce a la TOS's "Shore Leave." Not to worry, the serious epic Dominion War action will happen the next gaming session after that. This is a rare change of pace. The characters - now low-ranking Starfleet officers (relatively fresh from the acadamy) are being transferred to their new deep space assignment, flying by runabout. They're carrying some odds and ends of cargo as a favor to an NPC quartermaster. Just a few bits and pieces that the QM on their new Starship requested be sent by first available transport.
The runabout is forced off of it's course by a strange astrophysics phenomenon which forces them to crashland on a new planet - one that has been discovered, but left alone because of Prime Directive reasons. There's a humanoid culture of 1930's era technology. As the PCs recover from the crash, they're surrounded by HUNDREDS of natives. It seems inevitable that the natives will explore the runabout and learn things they shouldn't. Just when it seems the prime directive will be in shreds, they get help from a native. "Just let me handle things, guv... wonderful Origin, by the way."
The fast-talking native tells the PCs that there's a social class of heroes on this planet which have the right not to be examined, searched, and studied - as long as they follow certain codes. All they have to do is dress in flamboyant costumes, adopt a catchphrase, and fight crime. But they can't use guns or kill bystanders. If they do, they're commonfolk and the planetary government will strip thier spacecraft and study them just like you'd expect. But if they follow the Heroe's code, their home base (the runabout wreck) can only be entered by other heroes or villains.
Superpowers are a plus in this endeavor. Fortunately, the cargo they are carrying has 1 of every piece of civilian equipment that happens to have a write-up in the Price of Freedom and the Player's Guide. This, plus their ingenuety and alien natures (psi powers, for example) will give them the edge they need. for example, if there is the flight Vest, ["you need a catchphrase. How about 'Up up, and I'm outa here'?" Player rolls a culture (human) test. How about "Up up and away!"] and the red "invisibility" suit used by cultural surveyors on primitive planets (and in St:Insurrection). [ "You can be 'the no longer visible person'!" "I'd rather be known as 'the invisible man." "Ohh, good idea."]
Assuming the PCs go along (and they'll have the freedom not to, but if I know these players, it's going to be their cup of tea), they'll have a low-level encounter thwarting a bank robbery. They'll get to know local heroes, like Captain Clever and others who are exceptional but not superpowered (like the Watchmen). They learn the planet is being threatened by "The Dominion Gang" - whose superpowers give them an edge the locals just can't beat. For example, "Alpha Decay" (a Jem Hadar leader) is very tough, doesn't need to eat or sleep, and can go invisible until he suprises his enemies. They are led by the Chamelion, an insidious mastermind who can shapeshift! And others...
The Dominion Gang was originally the crew of a Dominion starship which were delivering a Shapeshifter to someplace he could infeltrate Federation space. But the same astrophysical phenomenon crashed THEM on this planet and they've been forced to use the same code for the same reasons the players have. Desperate to get off of the planet without becoming prisoners of the Federation, the Dominion Gang has a horrific plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!
My question to you is this: I would like additional ideas for the Dominion Gang or other similarly-stranded Star Trek aliens. This has to be existing, cannon ST aliens who given the right amount of esperation and ingenuety could set themselves up as quasi-superheroes. This should have the mood of both "Who Watches the Watchmen" and "Mystery Men." Remember, this is NOT ST aliens who planned and trained to use their powers like superheroes/villains (no fair crafting a Vulcan mindlord), but rather ordinary Star Trek characters who manage to seem like superheroes to the backward locals.
And of course some of the locals aren't so backwards... as the local heroes have been fighting a desperate and doomed struggle against the Dominion Gang. "Surplus, surplus, read all about it: Darned-nifty Man defeated by Dominion Gang!"
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