
HammerJack |

I believe tat there is not a "rules questions" answer to this, as rules for homing in on a personal comm unit do not exist anywhere that I've seen.
As a general discussion type answer, I'd say that if you are thrown into orbit around a planer that has a network of satellites to use for positioning, and those satellites are able to pick up comm units in orbit, rather than only responding to signals in their designated directional cone down toward the surface, you should be able to get positional data to your comm unit to send to your friends.
If there are no satellites, I would probably resolve this from the science officer making checks to try to locate the source of your cries for help, with a difficulty based on what sensors you have in your ship.
In order for their to be any tension with the situation, I would probably run it with the check representing a longer period of searching, not 6 seconds at the computer terminal. Because "I spend 2 minutes scanning and take 20" is an incredibly boring way for what could be a dramatic situation to be resolved.

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I haven't seen any rules either. I'm perfectly comfortable writing rules of course.
That said, I've got a "no satellite" situation, but I should have been more clear. The airlock is on an orbital space station. And I would assume any station has sensors for detecting debris as well as to aid S&R ops.
So much incredible material in the APs it would be easy to miss something, though, right?
If... something... prevents the party from using that equipment there's always the old "triangulation" approach adding a Z-axis for 3 dimensions, I suppose.
Do you think I can convince Syrinscape to record the 24 hour panicked slow death of a companion lost in orbit who goes through all 5 stages of grief and finally suffocates with a Wilhelm scream as their air runs out? As a GM I could play that as the soundtrack for multiple sessions in the background to motivate the rest of the party to find their lost companion. *cackles evilly*
Wait. Is this thing on? Did I say that out loud?
Thanks for the input, and yes, no doubt Hammerjack, taking 20 for 2 minutes of scanning is clearly a recipe for boredom!
I don't know Garretmander, maybe. Space is vast, right? I'm thinking it becomes a question of pointing the starship sensors at the right hex. It's a little fudgey because hexes don't represent a specific distance, except to say they can fit a starship and a starship is bigger than a person in a suit. So if I point the sensors at a couple of hexes and guess correctly I'd detect the floating person. If my floating airlock victim can see the station from which they were shoved, the verbal communication could help the folks in the starship narrow it down.
But I don't see anything in the rules that state armor comes equipped with homing beacons the way it says they all come equipped with environmental protections.
*makes notes for equipment section of new book*

Wingblaze |

Agreed generally - there's no explicit rule.
If you are in a *stable* orbit, and your friends are in the ship, they can retrieve you. At worst there'd be a scanner (science) check just to see how quick it is.
If your orbit is deteriorating and speed is important, then a few rolls might add some tension to the situation.
If they weren't in the immediate area, then I'd see how long your armor/air would last. (24 hrs per battery is it? I forget)
But locating you itself is not a biggy given a ship and no interference.

Metaphysician |
I would add that, if you *don't* have functioning comms on your suit? That makes the situation much grimmer. Your friends had better get a solid sensor lock on you quite quickly, at least enough to get a read on your exact vector. Otherwise, if your much beyond the immediate vicinity? Those sensor checks are going to be against a pretty nasty DC, since a medium humanoid is small and space is very very big.

Ixal |
When you are just pushed out of an airlock of an orbiting station then locating you would be incredibly easy, assuming the others know to look for you and know which station it was.
Unless the pushing out was done by strapping you to a jetpack and fire you off you would not drift all that far from the station in the time you still have air, so your friends would just have to look for any warm object a mile or so around the station.
And detecting warm objects in space is very easy. That might not even require any check.

Bootsie |

Not a rules point, but just a note on orbits: Unless it's a very small planetary object, you'd have to get pushed really really hard to fall out of orbit. As an example, if you were in low earth orbit, (let's say 160km over the surface) and you wanted to decelerate your "friend" to the Karman line (where reentry happens, around 100km), you'd need to decrease their orbital velocity about 375m/s. So you'd have to push them hard enough that they'd accelerate to about 835 miles per hour in about an armslength of distance. They'd be more worried about the whole liquification thing than their eventual crispification on reentry. ;)
For the record, my math may be a bit off. I'm calculating the delta V it'd take to switch orbital altitudes and dividing by 2, assuming that the poor friend won't be circularizing at 100km. KSP, don't fail me now!

Wingblaze |

Agreed. Anyone familiar with KSP (Kerbal Space Program) has realized that being "in orbit" isn't about being high up - it's about moving really really fast. You are falling towards the planet and missing because you're going so fast. To go out of orbit, you have to "slow down" quite a lot so gravity can do its thing without you missing the planet. So If the ship is in orbit and you throw a PC out, you'll all just putter around in orbit. Of course the ship can leave, but the PC won't automatically fall out of orbit.