Still playing, and improving.
I installed a few mods to look at Delta-V and TWR numbers. And, I looked at pictures of various rockets (as well as watching Apollo 13 and For All Mankind) and I've gotten better at rocket designs.
Here's my current rocket:
And here's the Delta-V for it:
Stage 11 and 10 are for getting into orbit. Stage 8 corrects it (and leaves me with half a tank full, roughly). Stage 4 is upside-down and is my lander, and stage 2 is my planet orbiter/returner. I leave stage 2 in orbit while stage 4 undocks, lands, and redocks.
So, with this rocket, I can get to Mun, Minmus, and Duna very easily. I get to orbit, and escape using only states 11,10, and 8. Stage 4 lands with PLENTY of fuel while stage 2 sits in orbit. I then dock, transfer crew and fuel, and return home with fuel to spare. I've done this a few times and worry little (assuming I'm launching at appropriate times using online map calculators). Heck, with Duna, I'm landing without using any fuel from the lander, so it has almost 2.5 times needed. And even once in an emergency (I packed 1 too many Kerbals on my flight) I was able to land on Kerbin with the lander using no fuel and no heat shield. I'm happy with my orbiter and lander!
The thing is, I can't seem to land on any other planets. I run out of fuel getting home from Dres after landing, and I once tried Eeloo, but I didn't have enough fuel to get into an orbit with that planet (I could probably have made it just doing a flyby, but eh). Haven't tried any of the other planet like Eve.
Am I just wasting too much fuel getting to Dres/Eeloo? Should I theoretically be able to get there and land and back? Stage 8 uses a Rhino engine, but I see no real DV gains when switching engines (plus the burns take too long to do with smaller engines).
Even with a full tank (I hacked this to do it quickly, but I could easily do this via a small refueling station and docking) I still can't do it with stages 8, 2, and 4 all full. That would be roughly 6000 Delta V in Kerbin orbit. Still not enough?
(I'm probably carrying 4 times as much monopropellant as needed, but I'm still not the best at docking, and I'd rather be safe than sorry)