What are the effects of spacing?
Just what are the effects of being escorted off ship into vacuum with no vacuum suit (aka spacing)? What happens when that bolt of energy from the pirate/navy ship (take your choice) chasing the PCs blows a gaping hole through the hull and into the bridge? Here is a description adapted from a number of answers posted to the list in September, 1996. Briefly, survival in vacuum is probably possible for a minute or so. Consciousness will go away much more rapidly, with the victim having about 10 seconds to react before losing consciousness. Upon losing consciousness, one would become paralysed, then go into generalized convulsions and then become paralysed once again. During this time, water vapor will form rapidly inside the body, causing it to swell to perhaps twice its normal volume unless it is restrained by a pressure suit. The victim, however, will not explode. Meanwhile, the heart rate may rise initially, but will fall rapidly thereafter. After a minute or so, the circulation of bl
