There are a fair number of stories out there which use the "Groundhog Day" time-loop idea; some of them are reasonably famous, and some of them are quite good indeed.
Most such stories assume that the loop will either repeat endlessly, or terminate when some particular conditions are fulfilled, but not before. That allows for considerable exploitation by whoever is trapped in the loop, but also limits the scope of character and plot progression to some considerable degree.
Some time ago, in a Xander-fic context, I came up with something which on closer examination is a variant of this same idea, but with different looping conditions. (It could be used with just about any character from just about any source, or even serve as the core of an original story.)
Basically, rather than looping endlessly, the focal character finds himself (using male pronouns for convenience, given the limitations of English) living each day three times in a row - no more, and no less.
If things go well on the first day, he can try to do the same things on the next time through in hopes of producing the same outcome, though there's no guarantee he'll be able to imitate himself that well; if things go badly, he can change things up, to try to get a better outcome.
But regardless of how well things may go on the first or the second time through each day, that all gets lost when the day resets - and regardless of how badly things may go on the third time through, that version of the day is the one that sticks.
It's still possible to exploit this to some considerable degree, but you'd have to go about it very differently from how someone in a traditional "endless time loop" story manages it, and the upper bounds are much more limited. There's also considerably more potential for messing up in ways that matter - especially in the early loops, when the focal character hasn't yet figured out the patterns.
(It's easy to envision some characters going through the second iteration of a day, figuring out that the day was a repeat of the first, waking up on the morning of the third iteration, concluding they're in a more traditional Groundhog Day-syle endless time loop, and throwing caution to the wind since there'll be no consequences anyway - and then wake up the next morning on the first iteration of the next day, with consequences after all. This could be played for either good or bad results.)
Technical details: The day ends (triggering a reset) as soon as the focal character is asleep after midnight of the currently-active day, or when the focal character dies, whichever comes first; it begins, for purposes of when to loop back to, when the focal character wakes up. (Or at the previous day's end-point, if the character is asleep for more than a day.) This does mean that it's possible to include multiple days in a single loop iteration, if the focal character can manage to stay awake long enough. And yes, if the character dies on the third pass through a day, that's permanent too.
Most such stories assume that the loop will either repeat endlessly, or terminate when some particular conditions are fulfilled, but not before. That allows for considerable exploitation by whoever is trapped in the loop, but also limits the scope of character and plot progression to some considerable degree.
Some time ago, in a Xander-fic context, I came up with something which on closer examination is a variant of this same idea, but with different looping conditions. (It could be used with just about any character from just about any source, or even serve as the core of an original story.)
Basically, rather than looping endlessly, the focal character finds himself (using male pronouns for convenience, given the limitations of English) living each day three times in a row - no more, and no less.
If things go well on the first day, he can try to do the same things on the next time through in hopes of producing the same outcome, though there's no guarantee he'll be able to imitate himself that well; if things go badly, he can change things up, to try to get a better outcome.
But regardless of how well things may go on the first or the second time through each day, that all gets lost when the day resets - and regardless of how badly things may go on the third time through, that version of the day is the one that sticks.
It's still possible to exploit this to some considerable degree, but you'd have to go about it very differently from how someone in a traditional "endless time loop" story manages it, and the upper bounds are much more limited. There's also considerably more potential for messing up in ways that matter - especially in the early loops, when the focal character hasn't yet figured out the patterns.
(It's easy to envision some characters going through the second iteration of a day, figuring out that the day was a repeat of the first, waking up on the morning of the third iteration, concluding they're in a more traditional Groundhog Day-syle endless time loop, and throwing caution to the wind since there'll be no consequences anyway - and then wake up the next morning on the first iteration of the next day, with consequences after all. This could be played for either good or bad results.)
Technical details: The day ends (triggering a reset) as soon as the focal character is asleep after midnight of the currently-active day, or when the focal character dies, whichever comes first; it begins, for purposes of when to loop back to, when the focal character wakes up. (Or at the previous day's end-point, if the character is asleep for more than a day.) This does mean that it's possible to include multiple days in a single loop iteration, if the focal character can manage to stay awake long enough. And yes, if the character dies on the third pass through a day, that's permanent too.