Planning a game and a review to date

For the games where I know we have so many sessions, I try & plan things out in broad arcs. The current game had 3 acts, each with multiple scenes that were somewhat optional depending on timing. I've started to try & plan for something exciting to happen once per session - be it combat, a tense conversation that could change everything, or something to keep the players interest. Combat tends to be the thing that mostly keeps players interested.

So in looking at the current game, and knowing I had 8 2 hour sessions or so to try & fill, my original idea was:

Act 1 - Meet, Greet and Get This Adventure Rolling

Scene 1 - Session 0, creating characters, figuring out how they knew each other, and bring about initial adventure parameters. If this were a continuing game, scene 2 would have been part of session 0 as well. This is the initial patron encounter and set up for the rest of the adventure.

Scene 2 - Session 1, shopping and planning. This is where they collect equipment, view whatever plans they have (ship plans of the King Richard in this case), and prepare what they can.

Act 2 - Action on board the King Richard and to Antiquity

Scene 1 - Session 3, getting on board, tour of the facilities, meet contacts on board the ship, the passing of rumors. This rolled into

Scene 2- Leaving orbit and planning based on observation.

Scene 3 - Session 3 continued, the heist. Actually getting the device, more rumors, contacts

Scene 4 - Session 4, arriving at Antiquity, setting up the contact from the Bureau

Scene 5  - Session 4, L7 bar fight and escape. Meet up with new bureau contact and see about continuing

Scene 6 -  Session 5, meet up with Jarred and the Freekin Awesome. 

Scene 7 - Session 5, at the port, paying off fines, loading cargo, and shootout in the corridors

Act 3 - Final Showdown

Scene 1 - Session 6 (coming up) - arrive at Ahngrim, get the lay of the land

Scene 2 - Session 6, retrieving the drop tank, a trek across the tundra

Scene 3  - Session 6 (hopefully) Old Port, meeting the citizens and accessing the drop tank

Scene 4 -  Session 6 (hopefully) back to the Downport, another trip across the freezing tundra

Scene 5 - loading the drop tank, prepping for launch, embargo released and weaponry off-loaded. But who gets the guns?

Scene 6 - loading drop tank with fuel - where? There is a small refueling station (hah, another deck plan!) they can refuel as they cannot fill the drop tank & actually take off from Ahngrim.

Scene 7 - Zandra returns! Firefight in the station? Warnings about the Big Wreck?

Scene 8 - end of Session 6 (hopefully) jump to the Big Wreck

Scene 9 - Session 7 (final session) - Welcome to the Big Wreck! Seen similarly to the Black Hole in terms of visual, though the ship is not that large.

Scene 10 - exploring the Big Wreck. Dungeon crawl in space!

Scene 11, Epilog - finish up, any survivors head back?

Some of the scenes could have been eliminated - last time I ran a game, we had several sessions where not everyone could make it. So there was excess filler to not let people miss some of the key moments, then I ran out of time. I'll probably compress some of the Act 3 scenes, as I figure the final session may end up being more of a dungeon crawl.Couple of years ago, I did fit in Death Station in time for Halloween for that campaign arc. 

It can be hard to plan for a larger set of sessions. There are plenty of campaigns and one shots to cover an indeterminate number of sessions to a single night. I tend to put published adventures in my sandboxes when I can. This last session I've not done that as I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go and believe it or not, 8 sessions would barely cover that. Part of that is there is not a lot of exploration or shopping in our games: the players are not as familiar with Traveller, having last played decades ago in some cases. If we get back to the same characters, there may be more world exploration if we make a more open-ended campaign. To do that, though, probably means running it outside the gaming club and I think everyone is pretty much over-subscribed to games as it is. But I can hope!