On 19 January 2018 at 05:26, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

All of my adventures have been neither of these examples.

Actually, they've all been campaigns where there might be some salvage opportunities but usually it's all about adventuring & dungeon crawls don't really appeal to me anuway.

Don't recall that astronomy has ever been a major component other than figuring out where to jump to next.

Yes, I'm with Phil on this in that I've been no where either of those examples.  Let's see, quick run through what I've run at TravCon (which until a couple of years ago and persuading work colleagues to play, was all my refereeing experience):

(there are more details on them in the relevant After Action Reports in Freelance Traveller)

2012 - Into the Unknown - ok this is closest to your astronomy example as the PCs were all scouts in an unknown system and a brown dwarf was threatening danger, but the actual adventure revolves the lost colony they found on a planet in the system [hope that's not a spoiler for anyone who's not bought it from Mongoose or on DriveThru yet!]

2013 - The Second Scions' Society - dilettante nobles meeting up for their biennial weekend, stories and fun ensue

2014 - Ashfall - 6 Darrian scientists studying a volcano encounter a disaster and have to escape across the planet's surface

2014 - Three Blind Mice - 3 stowaways and 3 crew of free trader encounter each other, deliver some cattle and rescue a precog psion [this is free online at 13Mann's site and also free on DriveThru]

2015 - Generation X - three generations of folk on a generation starship and their experiences, the last lot regressed and encountering:

2015 - Rendezvous with Karma - mixed crew venturing out to track down mysterious object which turns out to be ship of Generation X - I had a second referee running this until the two groups of PCs 'met')

2016 - Ashfall II - 6 Darrian scientists arrive at safety and investigate shenanigans amongst the group of miners on world

2016 - Ashfall III - 6 Darrian scientists go after a miner who claims to have discovered a pre-Maghiz thing... - this is probably closest to your first example although not on a spaceship.  not quite a dungeon crawl but it was underground!

2017 - See How They Run - 6 Zhodani nobles venturing into District 268 for trade and 'spying' opportunities [this is on DriveThru now too]

with work colleagues:

A Troubled Case - chasing down a case full of anagathics first in a desert and then in a city

(and also Second Scions as above and The Traveller Adventure) (The latter has had Two Days on Carsten as a sideshow)

So, plenty of variety IMO but nothing very 'typical'.  In fact, I'd probably try and subvert the thing if I did try and run something 'typical'!  One of the inspirations/purposes of See How They Run was because I thought it was time I did a 'standard' free trader crew but then thought that was a bit cliched so I wondered what it would be like if they were all psionic.  And that was also kind of the point of the second half of Two Days on Carsten which had a visit to a mine in it.  What with maps and a fully realized NPC showing the characters round the place (Piotr for those who've been kind enough to buy it), the PCs were convinced that the mine was where the adventure was...  not a chance...  :-)    A lot of the fun in that one for me as ref was running the tour as written and watching the players constantly assessing the map and where trouble points might lie, what might happen, and how they'd escape.