{"id":27899,"date":"2025-07-10T14:37:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/?p=27899"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:37:41","slug":"task-8-exemplar-macgyver-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/task-8-exemplar-macgyver-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Task 8: Exemplary submission (MacGyver Rule)"},"content":{"rendered":"
[students’ names withheld]<\/em><\/h5>\n

Featured Clich\u00e9: MacGyver Rule<\/h2>\n

In RPGs that use the MacGyver Rule, the protagonist can make a powerful weapon out of objects that the average person wouldn\u2019t normally associate with weapons. They can lay waste to hordes of monsters or defeat a powerful boss by throwing poker cards at them, or battering them with a heavy textbook. A protagonist can pick up these weapons made from mundane objects throughout their adventure, or they can buy them from in-game shops. The weapons are usually strong, despite their components seeming relatively harmless.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0TV Tropes: Console RPG Cliches<\/a><\/p>\n

Breaking the clich\u00e9<\/h2>\n

Instead of having a weapon made of everyday objects be one of the strongest weapons available, an RPG protagonist could build a MacGyver-style weapon expecting it to be powerful, only for the item to fail them spectacularly.<\/p>\n

Storyboard<\/h2>\n
\n
The character could be in a fight with a terrifyingly strong final boss, with a much greater power level and range of attacks than the protagonist no matter how much the player has upgraded them.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
To add extra tension, the main character\u2019s inventory could be stripped of their strongest swords or axes, leaving only two seemingly innocuous items they collected earlier in the game – like a stick and a rock. When punching the enemy proves ineffective, the protagonist would slap together a weapon with the two items, fully believing that with enough hope and focus, they can defeat the villain with the makeshift item. The finished item is a huge sword glowing with energy; it looks like it could slice through steel beams like butter.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
Then the protagonist takes a swing at the foe, only for it to bounce off their armor, dealing a staggering 2 hit points from a health bar of thousands of them. The villain doesn\u2019t even flinch. The protagonist stares on, utterly shocked, cueing to the player that the boss fight will be a lot more difficult than they may have initially expected.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Credits<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Student A: Editing, HTML Formatting<\/p>\n

Student B: Storyboard Panels 1 and 2, picked out the trope<\/p>\n

Student C: Storyboard Panel 3, wrote the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[students’ names withheld] Featured Clich\u00e9: MacGyver Rule In RPGs that use the MacGyver Rule, the protagonist can make a powerful weapon out of objects that the average person wouldn\u2019t normally associate with weapons. They can lay waste to hordes of monsters or defeat a powerful boss by throwing poker cards at them, or battering them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,41],"tags":[38,36,37,39],"class_list":["post-27899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exemplars","category-task-8","tag-benjamin","tag-gavin","tag-jazzmyne","tag-robert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27938,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions\/27938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}