So I've been working on a setting, and I've come across

>>51515426

I dunno, perpetual smoke and ash in the air? Means you have to walk around in breathing apparatus but it won't do nearly as much damage to your skin as say chlorine gas.

>>51515426
>metro 2033
>krieg
nuclear winter is the most popular excuse, you could also go with rampant pollution or chemical weapons gone mad like the ww1 version of hell

>>51515448
>>51515456
Well it's a sci fi setting, probably should have made that clearer.
But maybe some kind of chemical would work.
What's bad to inhale, safe to have on your skin, and can be recovered from with nothing but "fresh air"?

>>51515456
I mean that'd still kill you in real life through exposed skin.

I mean if we're going for toxicological plausibility you want spores, poisonous pollen, or similar for this one OP, but that's lame.

Minuscule bugs that lay eggs in human hosts?
You'd have to handwave the realism for gasmask dickheads, but imagine the body horror opportunity.

>>51515470
Make something up, it doesn't have to already exist

>>51515426
>>51515470
Sounds like you want some sort of fog that carries diseases that target soft lung flesh. Or look into 'bad air', like an overabundance of sulfur or sewer gas.

>>51515470

>What's bad to inhale, safe to have on your skin, and can be recovered from with nothing but "fresh air"?

Again, smoke and ash from most structure and wildland fires. Possibly petroleum smoke. Though recovery is pretty inconsistent and depends on a lot of different factors.

I don't think you quite grasp just how bad most chemical smoke is for you on all levels. If it's so intense and so densely concentrated people need to wear SCBAs everywhere they go then it's probably not something you can just brush off if you get exposed to it.

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>>51515498
Eh, that'd feel kinda cheap. I'd like for it to be something known.
>>51515481
>>51515487
I want it to be harmless to the aliens, fungus and parasites don't sound harmless.
>>51515508
Can the "bad air" be recovered from easily?
>>51515516
How would I justify it being everywhere in space though?

Magic toxin. It's got some weird property that makes absorbtion through skin impossible but breathing it in puts the stuff directly in your blood stream. It'll take a about an hour's exposure to kill a healthy adult male, but a few minutes exposure is treatable with a common medicine.

>>51515535

>How would I justify it being everywhere in space though?

As in outer space? What's the problem then? You don't have to worry about breathing in toxic gas in space.

>>51515470
What was Avatar's excuse? (Blue Spess Cats, not Airbender) Seems that was skin safe but not breathable.

>>51515553
I think it was the OVER abundance of carbon dioxide or Xenon that made the air toxic.

>>51515553

IIRC I think the atmosphere on Pandora had insufficient O2 composition but was otherewise made up of the same gasses as Earth's.

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>>51515553
Apparently high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. Might just copycat them.
>>51515551
You know how a lot of sci fi settings have that one race that can't handle the air?
That's what I'm wanting the humans to be.

>>51515616

>You know how a lot of sci fi settings have that one race that can't handle the air?
That's what I'm wanting the humans to be.

So IRL humans on every planet but Earth? Just have them wear space suits in alien ships/cities/planets. Make those suits have gas mask designs if you want.

>>51515470
Just tweak the oxygen saturation of the air. The air is thin, like when you're up incredibly high. You could struggle to breathe and basically never properly exert yourself, or you could put on a rebreather or whatever form you want them to have.

>>51515535
Bad air, or air pollution, is debilitating through prolonged inhalation over years. Small to moderate doses can be recovered from quickly with just the application of clran, fresh air.

>>51515426
Sulfur Dioxide. Colorless, certainly not odorless, irritates mucous membranes, and you can survive at 50-100 ppm for 30-60 minutes, although higher or longer exposure can prove deadly.

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mmg/mmg.asp?id=249&tid=46
Not only do you get wonderful gasmask people, but you get AWFUL STENCH in decontamination.

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>>51515663
>>51515668
>>51515723
I would just like to say that I am gratefu for your help.
I almost didn't bother posting here, because I expected to be forgotten under 50 million different iterations of the "X is terrible and basically, you are fucking stupid" threads. You guys are the real MVPs.

>>51515784
Just make sure to share what you design, and have fun.