%% Last Updated: - [[2021-02-17]] %% Putting a gun on the table means throwing in an element of potential danger to an otherwise mundane event. It comes from [[Matt Collville]]'s idea of spicing up a boring conversation between two characters by having one of them pull out a gun. Why did they do that? What do they intend to do with it? How will the other character react? We don't know-- but even if the gun doesn't change the story significantly, it will still have racheted up the tension on the situation. Find ways to "put a gun on the table". Put guards ostentatiously patrolling around a building the characters might otherwise not have noticed. Have them pass a criminal in handcuffs that shouts out something obscure at them before they go.