I'm considering a new campaign premise and I'm looking for some advice. I want to run a 5e campaign inspired by Star Trek, but maintaining the general fantasy trappings of D&D. So, no space travel and everything sci-fi works by magic instead of by tech. The various alien cultures can mix and match up fairly well with existing D&D races. Elves and Vulcans are both aloof, long-lived people with pointy ears who had a mostly evil splinter group split off and form its own culture. Ferengi and Kobolds are both short and greedy, especially if you play up the desire to be like dragons and build a hoard of gold(-pressed latinum). How else would you mix and match D&D and Star Trek lore?
(I'm aware that there's a perfectly good Star Trek Adventures RPG, but I don't want to play Star Trek, I want to play in a fantasy setting based on Star Trek.)
What are the key aspects that would make this feel like Star Trek without the sci-fi? These are the ones I've identified so far.
Techno-utopianism. Or here I suppose it would be Arcano-utopianism. But the idea that there is a society where people can set aside their differences and live together in harmony. The crew represents that society in conflicts with the wider world.
Post-capitalism. The crew isn't doing their work to get paid, but because they agree with the ideals of the Federation and have an important job to do.
There is always a nonviolent solution. This is the ideal that gets pushed to the side from time to time. The goal is always to find a peaceful solution, but in practice that doesn't always work out.
The crew are the good guys. Even when they do morally grey things, that weighs heavily on them. There's self-reflection on whether each crew person is being the best person they can be.
What other pros or cons do you see with this plan? I'm going to be upfront with the players about what I'm doing, and I'm going to tell them all this before we even get to Session Zero. That should ensure that I get good players who are interested in this concept and presumably who have seen enough Star Trek for this shortcut to save me time on exposition. And this is just for my home game, so I'm not concerned with copyright status on anything.
