Hard Vac and Decompression

[Dredwulf60]

Hey; I just finished a game session.

The PCs were aboard a piece of junk freighter (Gymsnor-3...on its last legs).

The pirates attached a boarding capsule to the top of the hull and cut their way into the cargo hold.

The boarding party rushed aboard and were fairly quickly and brutally repelled by the PCs.

The 2 that were still mobile enough to retreat went to retreat back to the boarding capsule.

One of the PCs went after them, with intent to get aboard the capsule before it could detach as they knew it would leave a gaping hole in the hold.

Well...he didn't get there in time. They killed the retreating pirates, which prompted the ones left on the capsule to seal and detach.

So. Sudden decompression in the hold.


Anyone got a system to handle that?

The piece of crap freighter had a significant delay to sealing off the compartment...due to its general wear and crappiness...

[Zarn]

Sure. Protect your eyes if you can, exhale slowly (don't try to hold it in), and you're fine and functional for up to a minute or so. If you lose consciousness, you're dead.

There'll be a strong (but not gale-force) wind as the hold quickly empties of air. Unless the artificial gravity's gone, not enough to rip anyone off their feet and shove 'em through the hole. (The bigger the hole, the lesser the wind.)

Smaller hole means that you'll have a rapid decompression rather than an explosive one - less chance of lung damage. I suspect a hole about 1.5m in diameter - that seems to match what I'd expect from an emergency hatch in a submarine, but is in essence a number I arrived at through the judicious use of WAG (wild @$$ guess).

If you're a fan of players digging holes for their player characters, ask them to describe their actions and penalize anyone that tries to hold their breath with real damage. Personally, I find that unfair - but I might allow a First Aid roll to know what to do. Anyone that have described (and played) their character as a consummate spacer, will have drilled this situation endlessly and would know how to minimize the effects of decompression and the dangers of hypoxia.

So... Stamina checks to stay conscious and functional. Probably cumulative difficulty. Unless you're a Givvin or something. Kel Dor also seem to be able to handle hard vacuum for a time, if Clone Wars is something to go by.

If breath masks are close by, they may suffice to keep you functional for a few minutes. A breath mask in the style of a Steinke hood or something won't help - you'll need something that can cover your entire body.

Funny enough, a plastic bag (provided it is strong and big enough, and obviously could be sealed) coupled with a breath mask would keep you safe for quite some time - you're not in immediate danger of becoming an icicle - vacuum being quite good at not transferring heat. I imagine emergency space suits would essentially be something like that - an independent oxygen supply for, say, 30 minutes or so for a man-sized (near)human, and essentially a vaguely Outbreak-style suit.

If there's various sheet metal or semi-rigid detritus in the hold, you might find something that you can throw over the hole to slow the leak or semi-patch it for a little while.

There's likely a disposable collar left around the hole, as the pirates may not have wanted to decompress the hull of the vessel when they bored through (and using a plasma torch, you should have plenty of heat to fuse some sort of collar or gasket to the edges of the hole to ensure a somewhat good seal. That collar can be a godsend if you're trying to just patch it up for a little while, as it can help you keep your seal.

In this case, the pressure differential is working for you, as internal pressure will shove whatever bits you're using outwards. If you have someone on the flight engineer station, you may even decide to lose some more man-days of life support to overpressurize the hold to keep whatever you're using as a plug stuck until an astromech droid or skilled sapient can weld something over the hole.

If you've got standard cargo modules in the hold, I feel that it should be possible to open them or flatten them, and thus plug the hole. In a pinch, it might be possible to jettison an escape pod and place it to take the place of the boarding capsule, provided your Gymsnor-3 has it. Heck, you might even be able to cut away at the deck plating to get something to stick in the hole - for instance using part of the retractable loading ramp that's right there in the hold, if I'm reading the deck plans for a Gymsnor-3 right.

Further reading:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690004637.pdf

[CRMcNeill]

I touched on the idea of Hull breaches here.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[garhkal]

I would also mix up the stamina check to remain conscious with Survival checks to figure out what to do.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dredwulf60]

Great responses.

Zarn, you had some pretty awesome specifics.

I was looking for game mechanics-wise. What do you do as a GM to simulate the effects?

It was one of those situations you get as a GM where you are faced with something that isn't covered by the rules set and you have never really planned ahead.

So my response to the situation was not well thought-out, but I only missed a couple beats before acting. The show must go on!

I first had to figure out if either of the PCs that were in the hold were going to get sucked out.

I assumed it'd be one super-gale force suction initially...tapering off very rapidly as the atmosphere was removed. (Thanks to what is usually depicted on TV and movies. Thanks Zarn for pointing out the 'reality'. )

I had the characters make an opposed strength roll to grab hold of the cargo; the 'strength' of the decompression was 8D at first, dropping immediately to 4D...by then I would start rolling randomly each round to see if the ship would close off the compartment.

The one PC had a jet pack on and he used it to fight the suction successfully. The other 'fell' across the floor of the cargo bay and struck a tied-down landspeeder that was part of the cargo and wedged himself.

The bulkhead closed a moment later, and no one was killed.

I think both characters were cleaning little hershey's kisses out of their space underwear. I thought there was a very good chance they were going to die there. My players know that I fudge very little for their benefit, so they know survival in a situation like that is really something to be happy about.

And I was happy too.

[Whill]

Yes, thanks Zarn!

[garhkal]

Sounds like even with making it up on the fly, your players were engrossed in what you did..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Dredwulf60]