CH 1.1-a: OOC Charitable Charlatan's

Squeeks, post any OOC pertaining to your private thread here.

I have a few questions. For one, am I able to get an idea of where to go to get to where the shots came from? Two, did the thugs and man react in any way to the shots that may give me an opening. Essentially, I'm probably going to take a risk and try to get my hands on one of the thugs blasters to at least fire off a shot, preferably into one of them but if I can even just fire a shot off it may be enough to draw some attention

It seems very close, perhaps coming from the other side of Charitable Charlatan's.
No, they seem business as usual.
That's up to you. Given your ideas, I'll give better specifics of your situation below.

It will require an Athletics check to overcome them to do so (Difficulty: 1 red, 2 purple, and a setback), as each of your arms is being held by a thug to your left and right, their arm hooked inside and around yours (basically they're holding you in a way where even if you stopped walking and dragged your feet, they could hold you upright under the armpits and drag you along ). The Man is in front of you at the door, using the keypad. There's a thug at each of your sides, holding an arm, and one behind you, weapon drawn at the ready.

Eh, not the type of setting I would see her taking an unnecessary risk. If they wanted her dead they would have just killed her. I will think on it and post in the morning

So, hopefully you don't feel like I set you up! I mean, who would have thought you would go alone, and everyone else would go to the pawn shop!?

I try to make my villains believable, with intent/mind/purpose/agenda etc, and The Man is just taking advantage of a golden opportunity, you showing up alone. I'm sure we both didn't expect a 4/1 split of the party (I figured Hawke and one more would go pawn shop, and 3 would go to the meeting at Charitable Charlatan's, or all of you stay together and visit both places in turn). I remember back when you said that Lissewa would probably realize at some point that she was in 'over her head', this might be that moment. I'm also guessing she's a quick learner though.

Anyway, I did not expect things to go this way as part of your group's efforts! Abducting you was not in the plan. However, this is one of the great things about giving the players freedom of choice, instead of putting you 'on tracks': the story can take unexpected turns, to be sure (and things have gotten interesting, indeed!). I'm surprised by the situation myself, but The Man will be able to adjust :)

All the NPC's have their own agendas and move through the world as you do. More specifically, I create timelines for them as to what they're doing and where they are, their goals, etc. So, even if the entire party of character chose to hang out in their ship at the spaceport, events would still take place that would affect your character's ambitions and the environment in general.

I am all for this type of situation but I am worried that things are going to continue down this road. I try whenever possible to play a character how I think they would actually handle things and she is a generally a very careful and patient person. She was careless this time going alone, at least without a weapon, a mistake she will not likely make again but she's not reckless enough to attempt to escape from a situation like this with force. She just doesn't have the skills necessary to do so. And unfortunately, I think this guys threats should be taken seriously which means the weapon she does have is not available to her, making her essentially powerless to affect her situation. I'm grasping at straws with what to do to find some way out of this mess.

Well, I do try to make my RPG worlds realistic within the setting of the game, and you're right: currently, Lissewa is fairly powerless to do much to help herself, much like any person would be.

No worries. Just a reminder really to help you remember that you get the option to request how the Triumph is spent, per the home brew rules in the Library. In the case that you do request Triumph effects (Despair present or not), I suggest a couple of requests, in case your primary choice is too outrageous or simply too much.

For the most part, if you forget to specify, I'll cancel them out, unless I'm feeling creative. At the same time, I'm open to suggestions on Triumph use, and I like to give players more agency in the game whenever plausible and sensible. In the situation you were in, cancelling them was probably the best choice, as I would choose the Despair effects, and it didn't seem a good situation to gamble.

We're going to do a little time warping here, and assume they were other tidbits of conversation besides what's written, as a means of bringing the group back together. Respond as you like to Nash in this thread, then feel free to contact the rest of the group via comlink, requesting that they meet you at the ship. Monday we'll bring the group together.