Advice on a Disaster Scenario

[kristof65]

I'm going back and forth on this. The thing with vacuum is, what are the odds on a slow leak? If all the air rushes out, nobody will have time to wear put on a vacc suit anyway, so there's not much sense from a safety standpoint. But then again, maybe you're right that regulations would require something for an emergency evacuation.

The thing I would point to to help you make your decision - why do all airliners have life preservers?

I'm not entirely happy with "damaged in an explosion" unless they weren't supposed to be accessible from the passenger compartment anyway. I suppose I'll have to think on this one.

There are other solutions as well. You previously mentioned negligence - that's a possibility, although that's probably going to lead to the PCs and/or the NPCs suing the company responsible. You don't have to damage all of the rescue balls, merely make them relatively inaccessible. If the explosion warps the structure enough, the locker they're stored in may be difficult to open, and then removing them through the small gap the PCs manage to open up might result in some of them being ripped.

Or even if they're all accessible and working - with only 4 vac suits, and 9 passengers overall, even if all 4 vacc-suited people carry one rescue bubble at a time, someone still get's left behind.

If any of the PCs have the Vacc Suit skill, they may question this. Have an answer for them.

They all have Vacc suit skill. Hmmph.

Okay, some possible reasons

- if you go with the negligence thing for the rescue bubbles, the same negligence could mean the sensors are all out of calibration.

- the vacc suits were bought cheap because it was a manufacturing defect in the sensors. The sensors are still accurate, IF you know that the readings are always being reported at x number higher than they really are. For the maintenance people used to using these, it's a known factor, however, the PCs will have no way of knowing that. (That happens all the time in real life, BTW).

- the same psi-echoes that are messing with that NPC are having some sort of effect either on the vacc suit computer itself, or more likely, making the PCs panic and misinterpret things. This could even be more interesting if the PCs are being affected at different levels, and can't even agree that the readings they're getting mean the same thing.

 

[lurker]

Given the vacuum environment, it would make sense for local safety regulations to require some sort of vacuum protection for each passenger and crew on board. Obviously, that's counter to what you're looking for in the scenario, but you should have an answer as to why there aren't any rescue bubbles. My suggestion would be to have them damaged in the explosion.

I'm going back and forth on this. The thing with vacuum is, what are the odds on a slow leak? If all the air rushes out, nobody will have time to wear put on a vacc suit anyway, so there's not much sense from a safety standpoint. But then again, maybe you're right that regulations would require something for an emergency evacuation.

Airlines do explain that the seat cushion can be used as a flotation device. This could be a reason to say that there would be emergency gear for each passenger. Airlines don't have parachutes for all the passengers. Now where is that safety gear everyone is supposed to have?

Cost, probability, and training all come into play.

With that in mind, I think it is plausible that the # of Vacc Suits/rescue bubbles is quite low.

The 'train in a vacuum' would probably take care of minor leaks by simply moving passengers to a 'car' without a leak. If there is a leak fast enough that you can't get to the next car, you probably won't have time to get into a Vacc Suit either - especially if you are untrained.

Possibilities:
For the 'not enough vacc suits scenario' Some people on a high tech vacuum world might go around with tailored vacc suits that are worn as ordinary clothing and they just need to carry a flexible hood and face mask. There are also a few vacc suits for the crew in case emergency repairs are needed outside or a key part of the train (engineer car) has a leak.

Since some of the areas at the tourist spot require the use of a vacc suit, everyone has one and has been given rudimentary training. Will rescue arrive before air runs out?. (perhaps they were already at the site and half the air is gone) How long do the passengers sit around and wait?

 

[dayriff]

Update: I ran the scenario tonight, and I think it worked great. I was really able to ratchet up the tension with one thing happening after another. Lasted about 2 and 1/2 hours, which is about how long we can usually manage to play.

The PCs decided to act like heroes and took it upon themselves to take charge and solve the problem. One of them ended up pocketing an Ancient artifact out of the deal, and they publicly get credit as heroes and will have the chance to sue the tour company for a tidy sum. I think it was a nice introduction to Mongoose Traveller.

 

[AndrewW]

Update: I ran the scenario tonight, and I think it worked great. I was really able to ratchet up the tension with one thing happening after another. Lasted about 2 and 1/2 hours, which is about how long we can usually manage to play.

The PCs decided to act like heroes and took it upon themselves to take charge and solve the problem. One of them ended up pocketing an Ancient artifact out of the deal, and they publicly get credit as heroes and will have the chance to sue the tour company for a tidy sum. I think it was a nice introduction to Mongoose Traveller.

Sounds like some fun there. Glad it worked out for you and they enjoyed it.