Well, I'm hardly an expert on chemical gases OR spacesuits. I just know that oxygen is a concern for fire/explosions in my hospital dramas, and that many firearms have a muzzle flair or possibly a spark from the hammer that could ignite combustible substances (see the first episode of HBO's Spawn, for an example of this happening).
Again, not an expert on the matter (at all). Just a good old plain televised education. :)
However, since many of the things we see in roleplaying games (and games in general) are based on "cinematic reality" rather than "real reality," it still kind of begs the question, don't'cha think?
The 100% Oxygen environment of the Apollo 1 capsule was the direct cause of the fire that took the lives of three astronauts.
That much being said, there's no requirement that spacesuits in Firefly work the same as spacesuits now. Current spacesuits use a pure oxygen mix because the pressure of putting a normal atmosphere inside a spacesuit makes the limbs "balloon" out and it becomes impossible for you to move your limbs. The lower pressure of a 100% oxygen environment avoids that. But this is something that could be solved through a hypothetical improvement in materials technology that allowed spacesuits to be made of a material that is flexible yet not elastic.
As far as guns in space otherwise... guns can fire perfectly well in space normally. The problem is that ordinary guns require air around the barrel to cool the gun after firing. A gun fired in space has no way to disperse the heat and the barrel will warp much more quickly than during normal planetside use. A firearm designed to work routinely in space would need to have some kind of radiator assembly to take away waste heat.
This may be the logic behind the "gun in the spacesuit" in Firefly.
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To break from vacuum physics discussion for a moment ;)
What are folks thoughts at low level between Tactical Doshko and Flame Doshko. Even if you assume EAC is around 2 lower than KAC (seems to float around 1-2 difference at low levels) Tactical still has better average damage. You can't Full Attack, but Full Attack seems like it's needed less at low levels (melee can often down something in a swing, and most characters won't have high enough bonus to hit that makes Full Attack make more sense consistently)
Curious about thoughts and experiences.