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

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

Despite spending two years in a campaign that was largely space-based (THS), I'm still not all that clear on all the specifics for running regular adventures set in space. And by that I mean adventures set in space (with freefall and vacuum always around), not ground adventures with a nominal space flavour.

Specifically, things that I consider either dodges, ThemeParkVersions, or otherwise off-topic:

• Gravity generators of the form that makes freefall a non-issue. This usually means TL^ ones, as rotary ones tend to be only a partial solution, neither always available nor fully Terra-equivalent.
• Adventures largely set with virtual reality, diplomatic halls and financial boardrooms: these things mostly stay the same as on the ground, so don't require any special treatment. In short, while I've found cerebral campaigns to be interesting, this isn't about the cerebral part of GMing.
• Cases where all races have Vacuum Support and Doesn't Breath - settings like that generally remove the mindfulness of decompression dangers.
• Likewise, settings with perfect selective air-only force fields that never ever fail are not what I'm looking at, as they largely remove one of the major aspects of space from the plot.

So, what I'm looking for is answers about how (action-containing, but not necessarily action-only) adventures are best done in space like that? I think so far I've seen only partial examples: Dead Space has areas with no gravity generators, and tends to play up exposure to vacuum from time to time; THS has no TL^ gravity generators, has vacuum as a serious concern, but is so information-oriented that 95% of the adventure is about tracing packets and making backroom deals, while the matters of cold weightless void are left in the real world; I don't remember if Eclipse Phase has ubiquitous artificial gravity, but either way I haven't played it; Space Engineers gets the feel 100% right, but is not a roleplaying setting in the slightest (you basically can't turn it into a tabletop RPG, as it is a totally incompatible genre).

Note that I'm not saying the campaign needs to be 100% Hard-Sci. In fact, I started thinking about these issues in the context of a largely magical/TL^ setting idea I have.

So, what is your experience and opinions about playing up these two aspects of space, or making them the default assumption and premise in a campaign?

Thanks in advance!