Homebrew Star Wars D6 - Exposure to Vacuum Rules

[Celebrim]

So, perhaps not surprisingly, since Star Wars generally seems to occur in a universe where outer space has air and gravity, there has been very little mention of exposure to a vacuum in published Star Wars material. But I play a bit grittier of a Star Wars game than most, and while I've played like 70 sessions of the current campaign without having to worry particularly about the problem of being in a vacuum, that is going to change in the next adventure. A quick perusal of the internet and published materials doesn't find this most basic of space hazards covered.

So, now I need to cover it.

How would you handle exposure to a vacuum using the D6 rules?

In general, I have the following first instincts:

1) Damage from a vacuum should be resisted by Survival or Stamina.
2) Base difficulty of resisting damage should increase with length of exposure. So maybe 1 round is easy, the 2nd round is moderate, and so forth.
3) Damage should be linear. No "instant death" from vacuum exposure, you just slide down the wound track at a steady pace.
4) The worst possible result should be "mortally wounded". Vacuum exposure doesn't kill, but can put you in a dying state where you will die shortly and by that point you need major medical intervention like a Baatha Tank
5) You don't tank vacuum damage if you are protected from it fully (you have an enclosed environmental suit). You get a bonus to resist vacuum damage if you are partially protected from it such as wearing a compromised suit. The bonus goes down the worse the suit is compromised, down to zero.

I have the following problems:

1) Which is more reasonable, survival or stamina?
2) I don't like that the difficult is entirely independent. If I go with Stamina, is it entirely reasonable that a Wookie on average survives longer in a vacuum than a human? If I go with Survival, is it entirely reasonable that the smart guy survives longer in a vacuum than the dumb guy? I can't think of a better rule though.
5) How do we resolve whether a suit or armor is compromised by an attack? And to what degree? And how much bonus should a compromised suit provide. Remember that a bonus just on average increases the number of rounds before you succumb, because of #2 the difficulty will eventually always increase past your ability to endure even with a leaking suit. Of course, this may give you time to make an Armor Repair role to patch the damage, difficulty depending on how compromised the suit/armor is.

Any thoughts by anyone on the subject or any house rules that you've used in the past so I can compare approaches would be appreciated.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't really know enough about Star Wars d6 to give any specific rules advice. Are you required to decide which skill to use? Maybe the player simply uses the better one - the smart guy is doing stuff to help his body deal with the vacuum better, the Wookie just has better endurance?

Exposure on your outer body (skin):
Your skin and muscle tissue holds you together for a while, so your blood is in a closed system and not instantly boiling or anything, but gas and fluids still will slowly evaporate, leading to swellings, your skin (or eyes, if they are exposed) would become dry.
But if you're only exposed partially, it might really take some time before it can kill you, though affected limbs might become difficult to use.

Partial Exposure
I think that part is mostly Endurance, unless you do something to protect the exposed part, where the Survival skill might work better. So maybe you can spend actions to get an Survival skill check to improve your odds of success?
Less exposure to vacuum probably means you can last longer, so either the DC is lower or your need to check later and less often?

Lungs in Vacuum
Then, if you don't have a helmet protecting your head or something similar protecting your breathing apparatus, you naturally have a big problem breathing. The lack of outside pressure would cause air to rapidly expand and escape your body - don't hold your breath, it will rupture your lungs. Knowing that might perhaps give you some valuable extra seconds of conciousness. But eventually, you fall unconciousness (~15 seconds), and then it's really just a question of how long your body or brain can survive without oxygen, and that is probably a function of the Endurance skill (90-150 seconds?).
So Survival for managing the loss of breathable air and give you a bit of extra conciousness, and Endurance for time to death/dying.