[Space] Of Freefall and Vacuum: adventures set away from planets?

[tshiggins]

I think the movie, Gravity, had a fun scenario -- albeit rather simplified, for the purposes of making it an action flick and not a lesson in orbital mechanics.

Basically, the PCs are stuck in a habitat that has a problem, and they have to use what's available to get to a second habitat that has what they need. Unfortunately, the means they have are limited, and while it will get them close to their final destination, it can't make it all the way. That means they have to leave the vessel and cross some distance in just space-suits.

Essentially, that's what happened in Gravity. The addition of a Kessler Cascade made for a fine initial event, awesome SFX and dramatic intensity throughout. However, the key thing was watching Dr. Stone use her intellect and the resources available to move through free-fall from the wrecked shuttle to the ISS to the Chinese station.

Now, in an RPG setting, you could add in the need to deal with different orbital altitudes and angles of inclination for the habitats, which the movie couldn't do without killing the dramatic pace.