05-04-2016, 10:39 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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05-04-2016, 10:56 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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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".
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05-04-2016, 11:18 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: GMT-5
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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05-04-2016, 01:39 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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:
So we have three MacGuffins so far. What other nothings have you used as plot-fuel people?
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05-04-2016, 02:38 PM | #15 |
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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. |
05-04-2016, 03:51 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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What do you call a McGuffin that turns out to be useful? |
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05-04-2016, 04:50 PM | #17 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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.
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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 |
05-04-2016, 04:56 PM | #18 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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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.
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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. |
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05-04-2016, 05:27 PM | #19 |
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Re: List Your MacGuffins!
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05-04-2016, 05:35 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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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. |
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