Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-04-2016, 10:39 AM   #11
Landwalker
 
Landwalker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
The other way around, actually. The nature of a MacGuffin is irrelevant and interchangeable. It's just a motivator for early action in a film, and often enough is forgotten by the end. The Maltese Falcon, for example, doesn't solve any problems, or figure into the plot other than for the fact that everyone wants it. It could just as well have been the Hope Diamond or the Holy Grail.

Stories could have objects that everyone wants, but that also are unique and do take part in the plot. (Maybe call those "plot devices", though that's a pretty broad term.) The notable thing about MacGuffins is their very irrelevance to the actual story, despite the apparent central importance they supposedly have due to the way everyone is acting at first. You could swap out a MacGuffin for any other valuable object without changing the story. So, a proper MacGuffin can't solve problems in the story.
Indeed. What I always think of when I think of a MacGuffin is the briefcase from Pulp Fiction, which exists for the sole purpose of moving along the Vincent/Jules plot (and, later, the Ringo/Yolanda scene).
Landwalker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 10:56 AM   #12
Daigoro
 
Daigoro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

I'd say "How to define a MacGuffin" is itself a MacGuffin, in that it drives the argument of many threads.

Personally, I'd go with "an object used to drive the plot" and leave it at that, regardless of how interchangeable, usable or useless it might be. A +5 Vorpal Sword found in a random treasure horde is a nice piece of equipment, but the +5 Sword of Snicker-Snacking the king has sent you to find is a MacGuffin.

However, as there are a range of interpretations on the Wikipedia article, including anything that drives the plot- such as victory, money, love or Luke Skywalker in SW7- the best interpretation would be the one the OP intended, which seems to be "a unique, somewhat interesting object the PCs might be sent after".
__________________
Collaborative Settings:
Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation
Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse
And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting!
Daigoro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 11:18 AM   #13
Edges
 
Edges's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: GMT-5
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by mlangsdorf View Post
The macguffin in my After the End game is going to be the body of a pre-Fall astronaut preserved in nanostasis (UT p 200-201) that literally drops out of the sky (on a parachute) at the beginning of the game. If the PCs are interested, a large part of the plot is going to be trying to find the resources required to revive this astronaut and then exploit her knowledge of the world before the Fall.
Awesome...
Edges is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 01:39 PM   #14
Humabout
 
Humabout's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomerang View Post
What problem is your McGuffin destined to solve?
For reference (from wikipedia):

"In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place, or person; other, more abstract types include money, victory, glory, survival, power, love, or some unexplained driving force."

Quote:
Originally Posted by mlangsdorf View Post
The macguffin in my After the End game is going to be the body of a pre-Fall astronaut preserved in nanostasis (UT p 200-201) that literally drops out of the sky (on a parachute) at the beginning of the game. If the PCs are interested, a large part of the plot is going to be trying to find the resources required to revive this astronaut and then exploit her knowledge of the world before the Fall.
That's awesome!


So we have three MacGuffins so far. What other nothings have you used as plot-fuel people?
__________________
Buy My Stuff!

Free Stuff:
Dungeon Action!
Totem Spirits

My Blog: Above the Flatline.
Humabout is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 02:38 PM   #15
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
So, a proper MacGuffin can't solve problems in the story.
When I use a 'MacGuffin' it is initially meant to solve the problem, however somewhere along the way The Problem shifts making solving it that way a Bad Idea, thus making the MacGuffin useless, or at least redundant.

For example, MacGuffins I've used:

The Water Chip in a Fallout game. Yes the PC was after a water chip, the initial plot was lifted almost verbatim from Fallout, however... what happened once he left the Vault was rather different and he ended up realizing fixing the water reclamators would doom the Vault (geologic instability and a super volcano*), so he had to find a way to convince everyone to leave the Vault. The Vault was distressed when he lead a group of Raiders back to overthrow the Overseer...

A Power Crystal in a Fallout/Morrowind/Fantasy mashup. It was needed to keep a demon imprisoned, which was being used to fuel the Vault and keep them protected from the world... again, after getting the power crystal the PCs figured out that fixing the prison would only doom the Vault... in this case they engineered a break out for the demon using a different crystal (and then drove the demon off once the Vault was 'made safe').

I often use the old "Introduce one problem which if solved will only make things worse, so solve a different problem" plotlines.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 03:51 PM   #16
Boomerang
 
Boomerang's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
That's the exact opposite of a MacGuffin.

Quoting from https://allthetropes.org/wiki/MacGuffin (warning: Tropes site):

"To determine if a thing is a MacGuffin, check to see if it is interchangeable."

"A common MacGuffin story setup can be summarized as "Quickly! We must find X before they do!"."

"If it's more than just a something to keep the plot moving, it's probably a Chekhov's Gun. (Though that only counts if it's initially introduced as being unimportant.)"
I stand corrected.

What do you call a McGuffin that turns out to be useful?
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 04:50 PM   #17
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomerang View Post
I stand corrected.

What do you call a McGuffin that turns out to be useful?
If it's something the characters know is going to be useful when they get it, I call it a tool or a weapon. If it seemed to be something unimportant to begin with, it's a Chekhov's Gun.
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.

Last edited by robkelk; 05-04-2016 at 06:32 PM. Reason: fixed as per evileeyore's post
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 04:56 PM   #18
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Humabout View Post
...
So we have three MacGuffins so far. What other nothings have you used as plot-fuel people?
Oh, yes - actual MacGuffins.

In a high-tech setting, The Access Code. In a fantasy setting, the Magic Phrase.

"The Access Code for what?" They don't know, and they can't get at it even if they did know. But all of those groups chasing after the PCs can get at whatever-it-is. Adjust the threat level to suit.
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 05:27 PM   #19
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
If it's something the characters know is going to be useful when they get it, I call it a tool or a weapon. If it seemed to be something unimportant to begin with, it's a Chekhov's Gun.
Fixed It For You.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-04-2016, 05:35 PM   #20
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: List Your MacGuffins!

The Awesenomicon

This has previously shown up in my games as a McGuffin, but I like to make my McGuffin's actually useful bits in any of themselves, if somewhat problematic to possess for long periods. Much as this is 'useful', it is far more desired by people who would like to hole up and vanish from society in a giant blast of hedonism and vice.

The Awesenomicon:
+10 Planar Summons (Greater create crossroads, lesser move body)
+10 Planar Ward (lesser control body- lets you create a ward that summoned planar entities cannot cross)
+10 Summon Castle (Greater create matter, bonus to skill +10 architecture [one roll only, single skill])
+5 create feast (greater create matter, only for food, only if it is a massive feast)
+5 Furnish castle (greater create matter, bonus of +5 to applicable craft skill [one roll only, single skill])

The remaining 80 pages contain a detailed and always up to date index of planar entities, their physical measurements, particular talents that they have, and a few notes about how to break/dominate them and/or notes like 'will happily perform <task/act> in exchange for being allowed to be free'.

Possessing the book grants one level of magery, unaging, and the perks 'limitless glottony' and 'limitless hedonism' which allows the possessor of the book to eat as much as they like without ever getting full and indulge whatever pleasure they want without over getting overstimulated (other side effects apply normally).

Touching the book after the previous owner has died (bare skin on book contact, gloves can protect against this effect) causes the person who has touched it to 'possess' it. It will provide no bonuses as a grimore or otherwise to someone who is not the possessor, but the book is readable to all and they can see what it WOULD provide were the current owner to expire. It has a notably bloody history as a result.

The book obviously has a sordid and bloody history- no one knows who originally wrote it; if they wrote it for themselves and its sheer power started it down its path of constantly changing hands, or if it was written with nefarious intent in mind; perhaps as a secret weapon to take out a king/leader/upstart.

Last edited by starslayer; 05-04-2016 at 05:43 PM.
starslayer is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.