History Main / FreeSamplePlotCoupon

* VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening gives you 3 out of 6, when you find out you need them. The coupons are the Fire Emblem itself and the five jewels that attach to it. The character who explains why you need them gives you a gem, and Chrom has had the Fire Emblem and the first gem since the first half of the game. The emblem (with first gem already attached) was important in the first half of the story, but its exact use wasn't established until the second half.

* In ''Lockout'' Snow recieves the lighter and briefcase from the dying Colonel and promptly stashes the briefcase (which turns out to be a Mock Guffin) and -- unknowingly -- keeps the lighter which is the ACTUAL item he seeking.

* After being revived in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke helps Kuwabara get rid of a bully who was threatening him. It turns out that said bully was possessed by a little demon, so when Yusuke grabs it, Botan tells him about it and its crimes, and takes the opportunity to tell him that Koenma hired him to work as a Detective Spirit, making that little demon the first supernatural criminal he captures. Of course, the subsequent ones are a ''lot'' harder to defeat.

* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' has its whole premise centered around Misho and co. searching for the Keys of Creation. Fortunately, Misho already possesses Eternal Dawn, the Key of the Sun.

* Cruelly averted in ''JetForceGemini'': When Mizar escapes from his palace after Lupus easily defeats him, he threatens the characters to redirect an asteroid to blow up planet Earth. Aware of this, King Jeff tells the protagonists that there is a huge mothership that will help them intercept the asteroid and find a way to stop it, but it's missing twelve pieces. Eleven of these pieces are scattered through the galaxy, so the three characters have to do a FetchQuest to retrieve them. The 12th piece, technically the first, is in Jeff's hands, but [[NoHeroDiscount he won't give it away until all 282 missing tribals in the game are rescued]]. He doesn't even care if the aforementioned asteroid manages to hit Earth in the meantime.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'', for the most part, revolves around looking for the Dragon Balls. Fortunately, Son Goku already has one at the start of the series, and Bulma meets him having ''two'', making the quest much easier already.
** Of course, there is the fact that the Dragon Balls scatter across the world after granting a wish, making finding them again harder.

* ''FutariWaPrettyCure'' revealed that the heroines needed to obtain all seven Prism Stones...which meant they needed to get five back from the bad guys, to go with the two they already had.

* ''BanjoKazooie'' has Jigsaw Pieces as Mac Guffins. They are required to complete magical pictures that open the levels they portray. Who tells the title characters about this? ''[[LiveItem The first Jigsaw Piece]]'', of course.

* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' has its whole premise centered around Misho and co. searching for the Keys of Creation. Fortunately, Misho already possesses Eternal Dawn, the Key of the Sun... which is totally not a [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts Keyblade]], by the way.

* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' has its whole premise centered around Misho and co. searching for the Keys of Creation. Fortunately, Misho already possesses Eternal Dawn, the Key of the Sun...which is totally not a [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts Keyblade]], by the way.

* In the second book in ''TheDarkIsRising'' series, Will Stanton is given the first Sign, the Sign of Iron, before he even learns that he is an Old One and starts his quest for the other five Signs.

Something bad happens. Or the main character wants to achieve something, or reach somewhere. Either way, there may be an objective to fulfill in the near future. This objective may be the motivation to start an adventure. Not too long afterward, the character is told about how the objective can be achieved, and it may have to do with the collection of important objects, or the search for characters. This would be the start of a very long and difficult quest, enough to make the quest for the first object or character very difficult on its own.

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Literature]]

* In the second book in ''TheDarkIsRising'' series, Will Stanton is given the first Sign, the Sign of Iron, before he even learns that he is an Old One and starts his quest for the other five Signs.

[[AC: Live Action TV]]

[[AC: Video Games]]

* Mario's goal in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' is to retrieve the Grand Stars that fuel the Comet Observatory built by Rosalina. Luckily for him, the first of these Stars is the only one that isn't guarded by any of the bosses, in fact its power hasn't been fully used yet. Also a case of BackFromTheBrink.

* In ''VideoGame/MacGuffinsCurse'', the main character gets the desired quest object at the end of the tutorial level. Then the real story begins.
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* In ''VideoGame/MacGuffin'sCurse'', the main character gets the desired quest object at the end of the tutorial level. Then the real story begins.

* In ''KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' the entire reason why Connor is the hero is because he picked up a piece of the Mask (one of five plot-necessary Mac Guffins) before the spell that turned everyone else to stone could hit. Everyone acts as though he's the destined hero, but if that's true then Destiny must've aimed that mask piece directly at him.
* In ''SuperPaperMario'', Mario gets the first Pure Heart handed to him before the player even officially has control of him. Hilariously, you can avert ButThouMust by refusing multiple times to accept the first PlotCoupon, eventually leading to the giver just giving up and a NonStandardGameOver before the game even begins.

* The manga version of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' has Link getting the first pendant from Sahasrahla.
* ''FutariWaPrettyCure'' revealed that the heroines needed to obtain all seven Prism Stones... which meant they needed to get five back from the bad guys, to go with the two they already had.

* Largely averted in ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games, where Link has to traverse through a dungeon and other places before gaining the first of the PlotCoupon items. However, there are a few exceptions:

* The quest for the Horcruxes in ''HarryPotter'' is a DoubleSubversion. The first Horcrux destroyed was Riddle's Diary, four years before Harry even knew it was such. And it took the plot of an entire book (''Chamber of Secrets'') to destroy it, so it wouldn't fit the trope. However, in ''Half Blood Prince'', when Dumbledore tells Harry about Horcruxes and the importance of destroying them, he tells him that not only the diary is already out of the concerns, so is Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, which he and Snape had already found and gotten rid of prior to the events of ''Half Blood Prince''.

* In ''KingsQuestMaskOfEternity the entire reason why Connor is the hero is because he picked up a piece of the Mask (one of five plot-necessary Mac Guffins) before the spell that turned everyone else to stone could hit. Everyone acts as though he's the destined hero, but if that's true then Destiny must've aimed that mask piece directly at him.

* Cruelly inverted in ''JetForceGemini'': When Mizar escapes from his palace after Lupus easily defeats him, he threatens the characters to redirect an asteroid to blow up planet Earth. Aware of this, King Jeff tells the protagonists that there is a huge mothership that will help them intercept the asteroid and find a way to stop it, but it's missing twelve pieces. Eleven of these pieces are scattered through the galaxy, so the three characters have to do a FetchQuest to retrieve them. The 12th piece, technically the first, is in Jeff's hands, but [[NoHeroDiscount he won't give it away until all 282 missing tribals in the game are rescued]]. He doesn't even care if the aforementioned asteroid manages to hit Earth in the meantime.

Something bad happens. Or the main character wants to archieve something, or reach somewhere. Either way, there may be an objective to fulfill in the near future. This objective may be the motivation to start an adventure. Not too long afterwards, the character is told about how the objective can be archieved, and it may have to do with the collection of important objects, or the search for characters. This would be the start of a very long and difficult quest, enough to make the quest for the first object or character very difficult on its own.

This first encounter is the '''Free Sample Plot Coupon'''. It serves as a good motivation to look forward to the remaining objects or characters, which (or who) are genuinely more difficult to find. Now, ''how'' the first MacGuffin appears may depend on the plot or the place:

* It may be located right next to the main character. Not too shabby.
* The QuestGiver already has it, and gives it to the protagonist.

* Or, by some fortunate coincidence, the character may already have had it all along. Or '''is''' the Mac Guffin.

* Cruelly inverted in ''JetForceGemini'': When Mizar escapes from his palace after Lupus easily defeats him, he threatens the characters to redirect an asteroid to blow up planet Earth. Aware of this, King Jeff tells the protagonists that there is a huge mothership that will help them intercept the asteroid and find a way to stop it, but it's missing twelve pieces. Eleven of these pieces are scattered through the galaxy, so the three characters have to do a FetchQuest to retrieve them. The 12th piece, technically the first, is in Jeff's hands, but [[NoHeroDiscount he won't give it away until all 282 missing tribals in the game are rescued]]. He doesn't even care if the aforementioned asteroid manages to hit Earth in the meantime.

* ''FutariWaPrettyCure'' took this to the absolute limit revealed that the heroines needed to obtain all seven Prism Stones... which meant they needed to get five back from the bad guys, to go with the two they already had.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', Shepard accidentally finds a Prothean beacon in the end of the tutorial level. It proves to be the first in line of MacGuffins you have to collect before you can beat the Big Bad, namely, [[spoiler:the Prothean Cipher that allows to decode the beacon's message, the MacGuffinGirl Liara who does the actual decoding, and the coordinates of the PointOfNoReturn kept by the Rachni Queen]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' has a sidequest-based example: In Shinshu field, a pirest asks Amaterasu to hunt down five criminal demons, each marked with a sacred arrow. As soon as the titular wolf exits the priest's house to start the search, night falls and the first criminal demon challenges her to a fight.

* If it's an object, whoever holds it will appear instantly.
* If it's a character, he or she may appear instantly.