Chain of Deals: Difference between revisions

Line 28:

* There're two stories from [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]], both about a boy named Hans; in one, he trades all the way up to marrying a Princess (if memory serves correctly); in the other, he trades all the way down to nothing (but is still happy, because the last thing he traded for was a freaking huge millstone that did nothing but weigh him down).

* ''[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/oldwomanandherpig.html The Old Woman and the Pig]'', wherein the old woman implores a whole sequence to do something to the person before them to get the pig to jump over the stile. The last one does so, and the whole cascade ensues.

{{quote| '''Old Woman:''' Cat, kill rat! Rat won't gnaw rope, rope won't hang butcher, butcher won't kill ox, ox won't drink water, water won't put out fire, fire won't burn stick, stick won't beat dog, dog won't bite pig, pig won't jump over the stile, and I shan't get home tonight!}}

{{quote|'''Old Woman:''' Cat, kill rat! Rat won't gnaw rope, rope won't hang butcher, butcher won't kill ox, ox won't drink water, water won't put out fire, fire won't burn stick, stick won't beat dog, dog won't bite pig, pig won't jump over the stile, and I shan't get home tonight!}}

* In a Russian fairy tale a rooster choked on a bean. His hen hurried to the housewife asking for some butter to lube rooster's throat, but the woman needed some milk from the cow, who needed the farmer to cut some grass for her, but the farmer needed a scythe from the blacksmith, so the hen ran to the smith, got a scythe and unwound the sequence. Naturally, cynical Russians spoofed the story, so when the hen reaches the blacksmith...

{{quote| '''Hen:''' "Oh, good blackmith, please give me a scythe. Our farmer will cut some grass for the cow, who will give milk, which the housewife shall churn into butter that I will lube rooster's throat with for he choked on a bean."~~<br />~~

{{quote|'''Hen:''' "Oh, good blackmith, please give me a scythe. Our farmer will cut some grass for the cow, who will give milk, which the housewife shall churn into butter that I will lube rooster's throat with for he choked on a bean."

'''Blacksmith:''' "Why sure, I can give you a scythe, but wouldn't it be easier if you just ask me for some butter?" ~~<br />~~

'''Blacksmith:''' "Why sure, I can give you a scythe, but wouldn't it be easier if you just ask me for some butter?"

'''Hen:''' "Yeah? And fuck up a cool quest?!" }}

Line 61:

** By contrast, the episode "The Long John Flap" features a ''series'' of separate exchanges involving a pair of Long Johns, but there's no chain to be unwound.

* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', this is the B-plots of the second-season episode "Progress," notable for containing the first mention of [[Running Gag|self-sealing stem bolts]], and the fifth-season episode "In The Cards". In the seventh-season episode "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River", we learn that such chains are a tenet of Ferengi philosophy - the "[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Great_Material_Continuum Great Material Continuum]".

{{quote| '''Nog''': ''There are millions upon millions of worlds in the universe, each one filled with too much of one thing, and not enough of another. And the Great Continuum flows through them all like a mighty river, from "have" to "want" and back again! And if we navigate the Continuum with skill and grace, our ship will be filled with everything our hearts desire!''}}

{{quote|'''Nog''': ''There are millions upon millions of worlds in the universe, each one filled with too much of one thing, and not enough of another. And the Great Continuum flows through them all like a mighty river, from "have" to "want" and back again! And if we navigate the Continuum with skill and grace, our ship will be filled with everything our hearts desire!''}}

** Okay... The Ferengi have always insisted they are the best businessmen in the galaxy - this proves it. Nog, [[You Fail Economics Forever|You Win Economics Forever!]]

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' had one of these in the episode "The Ties that Bind"... which also featured Daniel Jackson as the [[Butt Monkey]].

Line 119:

** Similar side-quests also happen in the first two games, both of them involving the aforementioned "secret DVD" (originally a tape). [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|My, what lazy censors.]]

* Browser-based MMORPG ''[[Travians]]'' includes several of these, and finally throws in a [[Lampshade Hanging]]:

{{quote| '''Tombo:''' Oh, you're up to your strange swapping deals again?}}

{{quote|'''Tombo:''' Oh, you're up to your strange swapping deals again?}}

* The old game ''[[Hacker]]'' required you to send a robot around the world trading items to obtain pieces of a secret document, while figuring out how to avoid the security checks on the system you were "connected to".

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'': You want information on {{spoiler|Ravel?}} OK, you just need to talk to {{spoiler|Ecco}}, except she won't talk to to you at all, so maybe you should talk to {{spoiler|Dolores}} who doesn't want to talk to you unless you get something from {{spoiler|Merriman}}, who wants to forget, so you need to get a {{spoiler|Stygian shard}}, which you can't pick up without a {{spoiler|very special cup}} that you can get by {{spoiler|curing a wizard-reject's alcoholism}}. Oh, yeah. You have to figure out half of these on your own too.