Favorite T2k MacGuffin

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Technically, I probably didn't use the term MacGuffin correctly in the OP/Poll, but there's definitely a difference between "an object or device in a movie or a book that serves merely as a trigger for the plot" and a mission like "gather stuff", or a patron that sends the character on missions, like "the collector". A MacGuffin is almost always one really important thing. How and/or why it's important usually doesn't matter to the character charged with finding/retrieving/destroying the thing, but it still manages to drive the main plot line.

That's why I posted my two examples. In the first one, the PC's needed to retrieve the Blood Diamonds to develop an "in" with a local warlord to insure their client's safe passage through his area.

In the second one, they needed equipment to take a job and the only way to get that equipment with a STRONG UN arm's ban was to do a job for the UN Commander to get the equipment.

[Legbreaker]

Three definitions from different sources, all basically the same.
Make of it what you will.

Definition of MacGuffin:
an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MacGuffin

MacGuffin
Also: McGuffin
an object, event, or character in a story that lacks intrinsic importance but serves to set and keep the plot in motion

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/MacGuffin

MacGuffin
something in a film that moves the plot (= story) forward but is not important itself

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...lish/macguffin

[pmulcahy11b]

The Tac Nuke in the Challenge Magazine's "Shell Game" mini-module.

[Mahatatain]

The Last Submarine to set up a different kind of campaign to nromal where the PCs are still members of a functioning military and act as the ops team aboard, going ashore on missions. Handled right it can work well, providing a command structure to guide the PCs without restricting their ability to make their own decisions on how they resolve the missions they are asked to undertake, potentially even refusing them.

[ToughOmbres]

The SRS/Strategic Reserve Stockpile in Allegheny Uprising just barely edges out Pirates of the Vistula, Going Home and Airlords of the Ozarks.
It was too hard to beat a cache of documents, fuel and five (5) Bradley fighting vehicles plus other essentials needed to get some semblance of civilization back.
The Last Submarine definitely deserves honorable mention and is a good plot hook/twist IMHO.