"Favorite Spaceship for Adventuring?" Topic

Well, we shall soon see the judgement of my peers, but I think there's an identifiable sweet spot--a type, if not a ship. Small enough to be operated by a small crew, but needing a crew, transporting both passengers and freight, no set route, and no official backing. The list runs at least from the Venture to Serenity.

Although it goes against my love of TOS I voted for the Tardis. Smallest one, but with lots of room. No transit times. And it time travels. What is not to love?

Tough choice. Had to go with the Type S from Traveller. Though it's rather obvious the Serenity is a Free Trader, it's not really got any sort of hyperspace/warp/jump ability, and the ‘Verse is actually a multi-sun stellar system traversed by conventional means (more or less— there's a lot of "magic tech" going on with the spacecraft in the show).
So a Jump drive is a necessity for real exploring/adventuring.
Tight race with the grand old Millennium Falcon, of course. But in a way, it and the S-type are close cousins (Han doesn't seem to handle much in the way of cargo or crew— "small but profitable" seems to be his motto— and that fits the Scout as well.

Everything else I'm either not familiar with, or imply far too many crewmen. (I love the Enterprise as much as the next Star Trek fan, but 400+ people along for the trip ain't my idea of "adventuring."

And yeah, I got my start in Traveller with a Scout. (I stole it.) So fond memories come into play as well.

Oh, Parz--if you've not run into Witches of Karres, Merchanter's Luck and Poul Anderson's "Trader Team" stories, you have a lot of good SF still ahead of you. But yes, pretty much the same place. Le Cygne (Merchanter's) can be run badly by a single person, and operated well by four with mixed passengers and freight. The Profitable Venture (Witches) is meant for one, works better with two, and again carries mixed passengers and freight. Muddlin' Through (Trader Team) has a crew of three--four, if you count Middlehead, the ship's computer--and is an exploration vessel for Solar Spice and Liquors, seeking out new life and new civilization the competition doesn't know about. All three FTL capable.

These are classics. You need to read them before your SF license requires a written exam.

Enterprise is a grand ship for adventuring if you're the command crew. Alas, not so much for the other hundreds of crew aboard who must dread getting tapped for a landing party like they were part of Odysseus' crew!