According to Oxford:
Mc·Guf·fin
/məˈɡəfin/
noun
nounMacGuffin
an object or device in a movie or a book that serves merely as a trigger for the plot.
  1. “the McGuffin in this intriguing comedy is an unpublished novel by a young writer killed in the war”

 

Probably the most famous MacGuffin in recent memory is the Ring of Power from Lord of the Rings.  But a MacGuffin doesn’t just need to be a thing, like a ring, infinity stone, maltese falcon, or holy grail.  It can also be a person, like Doug in The Hangover, or Ryan in Saving Private Ryan.  A MacGuffin can be something intangible, such as power, love, or redemption.  There are a million articles you can google that delve deep into MacGuffins – I shall leave this exercise up to the reader.

Within the context of a D&D campaign, a MacGuffin is something that propels the story forward.  It could be the focus of a quest or a BBEG they need to defeat.  Regardless, it should be something that the characters, and hopefully players, are particularly interested in.  But more importantly, it should serve as a vehicle or even catalyst for characters to experience their own heroic journeys and story arcs throughout a campaign.  I suppose you could technically have a campaign without a MacGuffin in a sandbox-type setting (Westmarch?). But I feel campaigns like this would be rather directionless and players could get stuck wondering what they should do next, or worse, just lose interest and get bored.

Midjourney MacGuffin

But according to Midjourney, a MacGuffin is a strange cat-like creature with a beard and big, intense orange eyes.  Also it’s wearing a kilt of some kind that looks like samurai armor?

I think I’ll go with Midjourney’s definition.

And I might just have to change my logo…

 

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