Craft Glossary · term

MacGuffin (McGuffin)

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Plain English: An object everyone in the story chases that's really just an excuse to drive the plot — its specific nature doesn't matter (the briefcase, the microfilm).

In this project: Deliberately avoided as a trap. The gold is not a MacGuffin — it's a functional resonance key that actually does something (tunes the ancient machines). The distinction is a design rule.

See: books/relic/canon/GOLD.md · books/relic/canon/SEED_STORY.md ("gold is not a MacGuffin") · DECISIONS.md

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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