History Main / NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught

* ''{{Paranoia}}'' officially prohibits players from even ''knowing'' the rules. It then acknowledges that the players will read them anyway. To provide a "don't get caught" aspect, ''summary execution'' of a character is recommended if the player tries to {{Metagame}} (although with five backup clones, this is more a warning than a [[RocksFallEveryoneDies bolt of purple lightning]]).

* Drow from ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Their entire ''legal system'' is based around this trope. As an example, in the city of Menzoberranzan if a Drow Noble House wants to eliminate another Noble House they must do it in a way that leaves no member of the eliminated house alive, since only the attacked house has the right of accusation against the attacking house, and are the only ones allowed to witness. Anyone else who happens to see the attack are merely "spectators." If even one member of the attacked house is alive to accuse the attackers, the attacking family will, according to the law, be eradicated. If no one is left alive to witness, everyone will act as if the now deceased house never existed in the first place, except for vaguely praising the attackers for a succesful raid.
** In ''DrowTales'', one of the rules in the SchoolOfMagic is "If you attack another student, you must kill and dispose of the body."

* The entire premise of the card game known varyingly as Cheat, BS, or I Doubt It. A good tactic is to entirely remove several sets of numbers from the deck and then play them, and call others who try, at your leisure.
** Another good tactic: Hiding all the cards that would technically be unable to play, and then winning without ever being in danger of being caught. Cheating only in the ways the other players expect you to isn't really cheating at all.
* The entire basis of the game Cheat. You put down a certain number of cards in a group (such as two aces or three kings) into a pile while everyone else would watch you and either leave you be or call you out for cheating. The idea is to get rid of all your cards in your hand before anyone else does, and it is possible to cheat by dropping down cards you didn't call (such as saying you dropped two aces when they were really a 6 and a 9). If you are called out while you cheat, you have to pick up the whole pile for cheating, but if you ''weren't'' cheating when they called you out, ''they'' have to pick the pile up. It is very much possible to cheat without anyone calling you out on it so long as you don't make it painfully obvious (such as dropping 5 queens).

-->[[TheBible The Eleventh Commandment:]] Thou shalt not get caught.

-->"Statement: I have no idea, master. Cheating seems to be a relevant term only when one is caught in the act. Otherwise it is viewed as intelligence, no?"
-->--'''HK-47,''' ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''

* The entire basis of the game Cheat. You put down a certain number of cards in a group (such as two aces or three kings) into a pile while everyone else would watch you and either leave you be or call you out for cheating. The idea is to get rid of all your cards in your hand before anyone else does, and it is possible to cheat by dropping down cards you didn't call (such as saying you dropped two aces when they were really a 6 and a 9). If you are called out while you cheat, you have to pick up the whole pile for cheating, but if you ''weren't'' cheating when they called you out, ''they'' have to pick the pile up. It is very much possible to cheat without anyone calling you out on it so long as you don't make it painfully obvious (such as dropping 5 queens).

* The entire basis of {{Neopet}}'s mini-game Cheat. You put down a certain number of cards in a group (such as two aces or three kings) into a pile while everyone else would watch you to either leave you be or call you out for cheating. The idea is to get rid of all your cards in your hand before anyone else does, and it is possible to cheat by dropping down cards you didn't call (such as saying you dropped two aces when they were really a 6 and a 9). If you are called out while you cheat, you have to pick up the whole pile for cheating, but if you ''weren't'' cheating when they called you out, ''they'' have to pick the pile up. It is very much possible to cheat without anyone calling you out on it so long as you don't make it painfully obvious (such as dropping 5 queens).

* In ''BreathOfFire III'', there's a minigame where you have to train a scrawny man's skills so he can beat a musclehead in a duel. You get disqualified only if anyone ''sees'' you interfere with the fight itself.
** Of course, the other side of that is that the musclehead will only get distracted after landing a critical blow. So you can't cheat your way to victory without the mandatory (and incredibly boring) training, since the scrawny man will get murdered by a critical hit otherwise.

* Apparently no one in ''YuGiOh'' has noticed the blatant disregard for rules in the show, such as drawing multiple monsters in a turn (which is the ''least'' egregious cheat). Since no one's said anything except the hardcore fans, it doesn't count.

* This is, literally, the first rule of satirical card game ''{{Munchkin}}''. It's only cheating if they catch you at it.

* Virtually half of the way the whole show works, especially with the manager or tag team partner getting in a few shots while the [[EasilyDistractedReferee ref's back is turned]]. Mostly done by {{heel}}s, but sometimes by {{face}}s against a heel who's really gone out of his way to deserve to be HoistByHisOwnPetard.

** Eddie Guerrero lampshaded it ("I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal"), and later in his career took to inverting it (e.g. by hitting ''the mat'' with a steel chair, tossing it to his opponent, then playing dead and winning by DQ).

**** Note that other anthropologists theorize that with Sparta's soldier-class chronically absent due to Sparta's many foreign adventures, wives were so desperate that they had sex with helots. SoYeah.