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Topic: Plot device

Related Topics

Plot dump

Plot

Deathtrap (plot device)

Cliffhanger

Literary technique

Stock character

Melodrama

Zeigarnik effect

Dramatic structure

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

Magic (paranormal)

Flashback

A Confederacy of Dunces

Graphics

Theater

	NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Plot device
		Plot dump or exposition is a term used by the movie and television industries to describe a plot device by which critical elements of the plot, often involving the back-story, are not depicted directly but are instead elaborated in dialogue by one of the characters or by a narrator.
		The spinning-around-like-a-tornado plot device switches direction, rotating 360 degrees on its axis, to deposit the main character precisely where he or she was at the beginning of this circular story.
		This plot device works well with the non-linear plots that are said to be typical of stories of, by, or relating to female characters or to the real-life lives of real-life women.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Plot-device (1333 words)

	The Well-Tempered Plot Device: Nick Lowe
		The most famous plot device in recent SF is the Babel fish, the joke about which is that it's such an obvious plot device that it implies the existence of an author.
		The Babel fish is an instance of the plot device at its simplest: a little bit of technology or whatever introduced into the story's world for the sole point of overcoming a little technical difficulty like the fact the characters can't speak to one another.
		A Plot Voucher is one of those useful items that is presented to the hero at the start of his adventure with a purpose totally unspecified, that turns out at an arbitrary point later in the story to be exactly what's needed to get him out of a sticky and otherwise unresolvable situation.
	www.ansible.co.uk /Ansible/plotdev.html (5399 words)

	Plot device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot.
		A poorly-written story, on the other hand, may have such awkward or contrived plot devices that the reader has serious trouble maintaining suspension of disbelief; indeed, the devices may even leave plot holes.
		In humor-themed forms of entertainment, particularly those that break the fourth wall in pursuit of comedy, plot devices or the concept itself may be deliberately pointed out to the audience for a joke.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Plot_device (179 words)

	Deathtrap (plot device) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		A deathtrap is a literary and dramatic plot device in which a villain, who has captured the hero or another sympathetic character, attempts to use an elaborate and usually sadistic method of murdering him/her.
		It may also be a means to show the hero's resourcefulness in escaping, or the writer's ingenuity at devising a last-minute rescue or deus ex machina.
		It is a common criticism that it is unbelievable in story plots to have villains try to kill the heroes in such elaborate ways when they could use simple methods like shooting them.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Deathtrap_(plot_device) (2115 words)

	BROWSE Graphics
		Once a plot device has been defined in this way, it will be used for the current and subsequent sessions.
		If a default plot device has not been defined, the user will be asked to provide one each time a graphics routine is called.
		The default BROWSE plot device is unaffected by this command.
	heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov /docs/xray/lx_user_guide/node8.html (706 words)

	Help text on device (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		DEVICE does not try to open the device in question, and thus you will only find out whether it is possible to do so when you plot.
		This prevents the creation of small plot files and the clearing of the screen until a plot is made.
		Some routines use this to create independent plots where it would not be appropriate to overplot on the current device.
	lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov /users/still/molly/device.html (196 words)

	Plot device - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
		Perhaps the most important use of the plot device is as a means of taking a character from one location to another in time for the next scene.
		Similarly, 24 would not be the taut action thriller it is if three consecutive episodes consisted entirely of Jack Bauer riding a Segway between CTU and one of the many significant locations that are about 10 minutes helicopter ride away.
		However, especially in fantasy novels, a story may also be cast like a stone, the behavior of this primitive missile determining the direction and the nature of the resulting story.
	www.uncyclopedia.org /wiki/Plot_device (624 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Plot device
		A plot device is an element introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot.
		Plot generator — a character or device which creates plots and allows virtually unlimited stories to be created
		Plot devices are useful in creating an effective plot, which is one of the five elements of fiction, along with character, setting, theme, and style.
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Plot_device (778 words)

	plot@Everything2.com
		A plot can be simple, like "the queen wants to hire your party to go retrieve a family heirloom that was stolen by a rival nation," or they can be hideously complex, and nothing is as it seems; each new piece of information leads to yet another plot line (see Tom Clancy and Robert Jordan).
		The plot is the responsibility of the game master, in who's hands, plot devices are putty to be sculpted.
		The plot is the sequence of related events in a story.
	www.everything2.com /index.pl?node=plot (616 words)

	BiometApp Help Page
		After we add devices to the project, the project with all the information about the devices can be saved into a single binary file.
		After this, a dialog shows up where we can type the name of the device, set whether higher scores are better or lower scores are better, and select the genuine and the imposter score files with a click on the appropriate "Browse" button.
		The devices are listed and for each of them, besides the name, their line-style and color are shown.
	www.csee.wvu.edu /~cukic/MUBI (1493 words)

	Plot Device - By Eric Umansky - Slate Magazine
		As happened when Bush made more general reference to the plot last fall, a few counter-terrorism officials were quick to cough and mutter, "bullsh*t."
		But the WP says there's "deep disagreement within the intelligence community" over whether the plot was "ever much more than talk." The LAT takes an even dimmer view of the picture the president drew.
		Speaking about the purported plot, a U.S. counterterrorism "official" told the paper, "It didn't go.
	www.slate.com /id/2135952 (1121 words)

	plot.html
		It is suitable for exchange of plots between different installations, as well as for archiving of plots.
		Once the plot file has been constructed, it must be copied to magnetic tape in a special format.
		On some devices, such as the UUCC CalComp plotter, the METAFILE device, and the Printronix 300 line printer, it may be IMPERATIVE to use SYSDEC, in order to have the plot file created with the correct format.
	www.math.utah.edu /software/plot79/plot.html (854 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		Layout A plot consists of a title along the lower x-axis and left y-axis, a space for labels containing positions in physical coordinates, a grid margin to reserve space for plotting positions in pixels, the plot itself and an area where important information about the plot is displayed.
		An entry is Y or N. The first four values indicate the plotting of ticks and the second four indicate the plotting of labels.
		Plot information Information about plot characteristics is placed in the log file and some is also placed in the plot.
	www.atnf.csiro.au /computing/software/gipsy/tsk/cplot.c (4941 words)

	Subroutine Descriptions
		PLOT (input) : the address (name) of a subroutine supplied by the user, which will be called by PGCONX to do the actual plotting.
		On devices that can change the color representations of previously plotted graphics, PGCTAB will also change the colors of existing graphics that were plotted with the marked color indexes.
		If the device is opened successfully, it becomes the selected device to which graphics output is directed until another device is selected with PGSLCT or the device is closed with PGCLOS.
	star-www.rl.ac.uk /star/docs/sun15.htx/node14.html (16927 words)

	RXTE Cook Book: Plotting with PLT
		This is the case whether you run the general plotting ftool fplot or the data analysis programs xspec and xronos.
		When plotting in panels, the default is to use the first vector as the x-axis and to place the second vector in the top panel, the third vector in the next-to-top panel, and so on.
		Whenever you type "plot data resids", for example, PLT is instructed to create two windows, one with the current model and data, the other with the residuals.
	heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov /docs/xte/recipes/plotting.html (3223 words)

	[No title]
		Plots can be constructed either via a PLOT FILE, which is saved and converted into print or screen output later, or plotted interactively and sent direct to the VT640 screen.
		The plot file is normally scaled to fit the size of the paper, and with a dot raster of 100 dots per inch.
		The device sizes used by PLOT84 are (1) Undefined 3276.6 by 3276.6 mm (2) Paper 335.0 by 2032.0 mm (3) VT640 165.0 by 139.5 mm The image on the drawing board is mapped onto device space before being converted into plot raster coordinates.
	saturn.med.nyu.edu /~stokes/doc/plot84.txt (9770 words)

	pen - VPLOT graphics output filters for all devices
		Those options for which the default is device- or host-dependent are marked with an `X', since the default varies from machine to machine or device to device.
		This is an amount to translate the plot, in inches, in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively.
		Devices that do their own dithering may not support all of these methods.
	www.seismo.unr.edu /ftp/pub/louie/class/706/SEP/html/graphics/pen.html (2904 words)

	EN World - Morrus' D&D / d20 News & Reviews Site - Low magic vs. magic as a plot device (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		However, it may not really be very possible to have magic that works like it does in novels, because magic is often merely a plot device that is either inconsistent, or too poorly detailed to tell if it's consistent or not.
		However, I don't use them to drive the plot, because I don't believe in determining "the plot" as a GM, and prefer PC driven "plots." But they certainly make for turning points in the plot, and the cost makes sure that they are character driving moments as well.
		Magic in Barsoom is neither a plot device (that is, it IS bounded by consistent rules) nor a PC tool (that is, its use is not without consequences).
	www.enworld.org /showthread.php?t=87926 (7036 words)

	cpd: set current plotting device
		In the initial release of XSPEC12, as in previous versions, the plot device options are those allowed by the PGPLOT library.
		If the second argument does not start with a ‘/’ character, which indicates that the string represents a PGPLOT device, it is taken to be a filename for Postscript output, and the default postscript driver will be used.
		Note, in contrast, that the hardcopy command will print only the plot that is currently in a graphics frame.
	starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov /xanadu/xspec/manual/XScpd.html (218 words)

	Terror Plot Device - By Melonyce McAfee - Slate Magazine
		Terror plot device: President Bush has revealed details about a thwarted plot hatched by al-Qaida to fly a hijacked airplane into Los Angeles' US Bank Tower.
		The reality is that this foiled plot was likely foiled due to existing intelligence structures, and not because of the domestic spying program." Georgia 10 calls the president's tactics "fear mongering."
		Drew McKissick at Conservative Outpost thinks Bush used the 2002 plot to his advantage, but in a good way.
	www.slate.com /id/2135945 (884 words)

	Plot Device: Techlandia - HERO GAMES Discussion Boards
		As to why the valley is the way it is, well it's only a plot device.
		I like the plot but I'd probably have an UNTIL officer, who secretly works for Dr. Destroyer, approach the players about the valley.
		For example, if the Scarlet Archer has not been the central character of a story in a while, you can say that his bow and arrows are non-tech enough that they still work, though maybe not the trick arrows.
	www.herogames.com /forums/showthread.php?t=23402 (1123 words)

	[Exalted] Plot Device Artifacts - RPGnet Forums
		OK, the first plot device artifact is nothing more than a way of explaining the extended absence of one of the players (he is away for six to twelve months).
		Basically, what I want to do is a device that turns a manse and its immediate environs in a sort of time capsule - a spherical area is surrounded by an inpenetrable barrier and taken out of the normal time stream.
		This could easily be one of the original devices that was being considered to use against the Solars back in the first age.
	forum.rpg.net /showthread.php?t=290554 (2067 words)

	EN World - Morrus' D&D / d20 News & Reviews Site - The Well-Tempered Plot Device
		The judgement that he hangs on it that using plot devices is necessarily hackwork is just good old fashioned cynical elitism rearing it's head.
		Aristotle suggests that the plot should unfold naturally from the characters' actions and desires; if a plot seems overly constructed, then it's a poor plot that can't achieve its end purpose (which Aristotle calls catharsis, at least with regard to tragedy).
		If there's a plot device that's a little too obviously a plot device, then whoever's playing the PC that gets the device will pantomime being Link when he gets a section of the heart: they'll face upward, lift their hands as if they're raising something above their heads, and hum three rising notes.
	www.enworld.org /showthread.php?t=7794 (2480 words)

	Plot device in season 4 (spoilers for Farscape newbies) - SF-Fandom
		Plot device in season 4 (spoilers for Farscape newbies)
		Most of the sci-fi tv shows we've watch in the genre have used pregancy as plot device for a season or longer.
		Xena had it for a bit then had to advance Eve's age cause you couldn't have a baby being towed around.
	www.sf-fandom.com /vbulletin/showthread.php?t=4396 (272 words)

	Magic as plot device
		Basically, the more impact upon the plot that magic has, the more difficult or costly it is to use it.
		A Plot Point can be spent through a Descriptor to do anything which that Descriptor would reasonably allow, and which has a real affect on the game.
		So, either they're always using their magic to forward the plot in terms of saving someone who needs it ("innocents"), or they're sucumbing to some plot-forwarding temptation to use their magic for sefish purposes.
	www.indie-rpgs.com /forum/index.php?t=5733 (1269 words)

	[No title]
		To get hardcopy plots, we need to open a disk file, REISSUE the same graphics commands that gave us the plot on the X window, and then explicity close the.ps file.
		These commands are going to the PS device, so you will see NOTHING whatsoever in the graphics screen.
		One could go to the middle screen in IDLDE and capture the series of graphics commands and put them into emacs, edit appropriately so that they are valid IDL commands, and save the file as, e.g., graphics.cmds Then at step (3.) simply run this as a batch file and the commands will be inserted appropriately.
	www.bu.edu /iar/research/dapsdr/DOCS/PRINTING (699 words)

	Plot (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		In modernist literature, plot is secondary to philosophical introspection, and the prose can be winding and hard to follow.
		Taking this to the extreme, we come to the anti novel of the mid twentieth century.
		The plot is like the chalk outline that guides the painter's brush.
	www.jahsonic.com /Plot.html (408 words)

	ABAQUS/Plot (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12)
		The ABAQUS/Plot which is an interactive program can be used to either view the plots on the screen or to create a plotfile suitable for sending to a hardcopy device.
		There appears to be a problem in viewing the plots on HP 9000/700 series computers when running the window manager fvwm.
		After the first plot is drawn press the RETURN key for the next plot to be drawn (this is assuming that there are more than one plot stored in the neutral plot file).
	www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk /help/amb/programs/fe/prepost/abaplot.html (327 words)

	U.S. Presidential Line of Succession Plot Device \| Ask MetaFilter
		But if the patsy is about to accept, and then it comes out that he's ineligible in some was that was undetected before, or is murdered right before he accepts or before it comes to him or something the presidency would fall on the next in line after him.
		The people in line for succession have been nominated and are acting in their roles, but due to bad blood in the senate (the opposition party has just taken control in the aforementioned election?) they haven't been confirmed yet.
		Big Plot Event happens, a new president is needed, but very few people have been confirmed, you move through the list very quickly.
	ask.metafilter.com /mefi/48274 (1862 words)

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