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* Happens in ''RadicalDreamers'' the so-called "prototype" to ''ChronoCross''. Depending on which room you entered first and what you did; Magil is either a ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot time-traveling guitar playing rockstar detective from Mars who plays with hand-puppets]]'', the forgotten lover to Ridell, or a demon from hell. Likewise Kid is sometimes else raised by a nunnery that Lynx killed off, raised by Lynx's daughter Shea, or a ''gigantic berserk magic-wielding sunflower''. Lynx himself is a nobleman, a ghost, a HumongousMecha, or a ''giant space octopus''.
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* Happens in ''RadicalDreamers'' ''VideoGame/RadicalDreamers'' the so-called "prototype" to ''ChronoCross''.''VideoGame/ChronoCross''. Depending on which room you entered first and what you did; Magil is either a ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot time-traveling guitar playing rockstar detective from Mars who plays with hand-puppets]]'', the forgotten lover to Ridell, or a demon from hell. Likewise Kid is sometimes else raised by a nunnery that Lynx killed off, raised by Lynx's daughter Shea, or a ''gigantic berserk magic-wielding sunflower''. Lynx himself is a nobleman, a ghost, a HumongousMecha, or a ''giant space octopus''.
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* In GrandTheftAutoViceCity, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians go downd.
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* In GrandTheftAutoViceCity, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians go downd.
down.
* A minor one appears in the SNES game ''Brain Lord''. In the first town, there's a small sidequest you can do involving rescuing a pair of kids who wander down into a cave below the city. However, they only get lost in the cave if you actually talk to them - ignoring them or simply not talking to them will mean you don't need to rescue them.
* A minor one appears in the SNES game ''Brain Lord''. In the first town, there's a small sidequest you can do involving rescuing a pair of kids who wander down into a cave below the city. However, they only get lost in the cave if you actually talk to them - ignoring them or simply not talking to them will mean you don't need to rescue them.
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* Reportedly, General [[DwightEisenhower Eisenhower]] late in 1944 found a note in his jacket pocket which was the speech he had written regarding the failure of Operation Overlord (i.e. the Normandy Invasion).
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[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' - As said by Virgilia two theories can exist at the same time but neither is more right than the other, until one is proven real.
* In {{Tsubasa}} this is justified as a plot point, as the angelic heroine's talent is luck. She sacrifices this to Yuuko in exchange for the independence to stop being a NeutralFemale.
* ''Bleach'' - Long time series antagonist Aizen acts as almost a sort of proxy for the author to reach out to the readers and quite blatantly say that what they believe about the series at any given time, is merely what he wants them to believe at said time.
** (To Ichigo Kurosaki) "I suppose it is only to be expected. You have my pity. There is no such thing as 'truth' or 'lies' in this world; there never has been. There is only plain, hard facts. And yet, all beings who exist in this world take only those 'facts' that are convenient to them, and take them to the be 'truth'. They do so because they know no other way to live. However, for those powerless beings that make up the majority of this world it is those 'facts' that are inconvenient for their own self-affirmation that make up the real 'truth'."
** "You refuse to believe what I tell you now, but how do you know if that what I have imparted onto you before is not a lie?"[Roughly quoted]
[[/folder]]
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' - As said by Virgilia two theories can exist at the same time but neither is more right than the other, until one is proven real.
* In {{Tsubasa}} this is justified as a plot point, as the angelic heroine's talent is luck. She sacrifices this to Yuuko in exchange for the independence to stop being a NeutralFemale.
* ''Bleach'' - Long time series antagonist Aizen acts as almost a sort of proxy for the author to reach out to the readers and quite blatantly say that what they believe about the series at any given time, is merely what he wants them to believe at said time.
** (To Ichigo Kurosaki) "I suppose it is only to be expected. You have my pity. There is no such thing as 'truth' or 'lies' in this world; there never has been. There is only plain, hard facts. And yet, all beings who exist in this world take only those 'facts' that are convenient to them, and take them to the be 'truth'. They do so because they know no other way to live. However, for those powerless beings that make up the majority of this world it is those 'facts' that are inconvenient for their own self-affirmation that make up the real 'truth'."
** "You refuse to believe what I tell you now, but how do you know if that what I have imparted onto you before is not a lie?"[Roughly quoted]
[[/folder]]
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[[folder: Theater]]
* A musical based on ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' stops the action at the point where {{Charles Dickens}}' death left the novel unfinished and then uses audience votes to determine the villain, lovers and true identity of Dick Datchery.
[[/folder]]
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** Not entirely. One half of the code is found on a wadded up piece of paper, and if you pay attention, a blob of chewing gum is covering the left side of the paper. (and therefore, the first half of the code) It should thusly follow that the second half of the code you find (later in the game) is the first half.
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* ''{{Nobilis}}'' has The Monarda Law, which states that the answer to a PC's question should almost never be a flat-out "no". Additionally, in that game, prophecies explicitly work by the GM throwing out a lot of [[IceCreamKoan meaningless]] [[FauxSymbolism symbolism]] -- when the [=PCs=] offer a plausible explanation, it is assumed to be true, and any action they take on it gains a bonus.
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* ''{{Nobilis}}'' ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' has The Monarda Law, which states that the answer to a PC's question should almost never be a flat-out "no". Additionally, in that game, prophecies explicitly work by the GM throwing out a lot of [[IceCreamKoan meaningless]] [[FauxSymbolism symbolism]] -- when the [=PCs=] offer a plausible explanation, it is assumed to be true, and any action they take on it gains a bonus.
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* the 1995 movie ''"Mr. Payback"'' had the audience vote at several points to determine how the movie proceeded.
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** Not quite true. This their original intent, but as time wound down, they found that storyboarding, writing, and animating both possibilities and have it play coherently was too much of a pain, so they said, "to hell with this," and animated the episode shown, [[spoiler: before Obama's victory speech was delivered. The plan was to include the victor's own speech, but the animation had to be made before they knew its content, so they came up with plausible filler text. Even they were surprised to find how closely their filler matched up with what was actually said.]]
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** Late in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', Link must revisit each of the previous areas in order to collect the parts of the Song of Heroes. These can be done in any order, but no matter when you choose to do Eldin Volcano you always arrive just as it erupts.
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* In ''CaveStory'', choosing to avoid speaking to an injured old man A) determines whether or not his injuries are fatal (they are only fatal if you talk to him) and also B) determines whether or not there is a vitally important rope among the junk on the floor of a room entered later, which appears to have been sealed for many years. (The rope is only there if you didn't talk to the old man.)
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* In ''CaveStory'', ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', choosing to avoid speaking to an injured old man A) determines whether or not his injuries are fatal (they are only fatal if you talk to him) and also B) determines whether or not there is a vitally important rope among the junk on the floor of a room entered later, which appears to have been sealed for many years. (The rope is only there if you didn't talk to the old man.)
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* The creators of SouthPark create each episode within six days in order to keep turnaround times for major events and trends quick and stay as current as possible. In fact, during the 2008 Presidential Election they were able to air an episode featuring [[spoiler: President Obama winning the election]] because they had actually prepared an episode for either eventuality.
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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
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** The same is true in ''Game/{{Toon}}'' -- Steve Jackson games loves this trope.
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** The same is true in ''Game/{{Toon}}'' ''TabletopGame/{{Toon}}'' -- Steve Jackson games loves this trope.
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I felt Bleach fell in this trope as well given the recent few years worth of development
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* ''Bleach'' - Long time series antagonist Aizen acts as almost a sort of proxy for the author to reach out to the readers and quite blatantly say that what they believe about the series at any given time, is merely what he wants them to believe at said time.
**(To Ichigo Kurosaki) "I suppose it is only to be expected. You have my pity. There is no such thing as 'truth' or 'lies' in this world; there never has been. There is only plain, hard facts. And yet, all beings who exist in this world take only those 'facts' that are convenient to them, and take them to the be 'truth'. They do so because they know no other way to live. However, for those powerless beings that make up the majority of this world it is those 'facts' that are inconvenient for their own self-affirmation that make up the real 'truth'."
**"You refuse to believe what I tell you now, but how do you know if that what I have imparted onto you before is not a lie?"[Roughly quoted]
**(To Ichigo Kurosaki) "I suppose it is only to be expected. You have my pity. There is no such thing as 'truth' or 'lies' in this world; there never has been. There is only plain, hard facts. And yet, all beings who exist in this world take only those 'facts' that are convenient to them, and take them to the be 'truth'. They do so because they know no other way to live. However, for those powerless beings that make up the majority of this world it is those 'facts' that are inconvenient for their own self-affirmation that make up the real 'truth'."
**"You refuse to believe what I tell you now, but how do you know if that what I have imparted onto you before is not a lie?"[Roughly quoted]
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* In Vice City, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians go downd.
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* In Vice City, GrandTheftAutoViceCity, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians go downd.
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* In Vice City, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect. Mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", ie NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians are killed.
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* In Vice City, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect. Mechanically protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", ie i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians are killed.
go downd.
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* In FearEffect, two of the player characters continuously are at odds over whether or not a girl they are helping is a legitimate damsel in distress or secretly the BigBad playing a ZanadosGambit. Right before the final battle the player must decide who is correct and that choice will determine the final scene of the game. If the player decides innocent it will turn out she is innocent, if the player decides she is lying it will turn out she has been lying throughout the whole game. So in essence the girl is paradoxically telling the truth AND lying throughout the story until the scene when the player makes their decision.
* In Vice City, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect. Mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", ie NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians are killed.
* In Vice City, the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect. Mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", ie NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians are killed.
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** ''TheWestWing,'' being a show about politicians and elections, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rigI3FkwE mentioned this.]]
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Actually, it *is* a 50/50 chance. You can actually tell because the two have different dialogue — the one acting like a Jerkass is the non-evil one.
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** In another (paladin-specific) sidequest, you are charged with guarding someone until they're picked up by the appropriate person. An imperious man arrives and claims to be the appropriate person. If you believe him, he's not. If you don't, he is. The only way to get it right is to use the paladin's detect evil ability to know the answer before making the decision. If it wasn't like this, guessing with a 50% chance of getting it right would kill the whole ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman moment.
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Not an example. The truth about the package is not changed by the player\'s choices.
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* ''Spider and Web'' presents a brilliant twist on the Schrodinger's gun in the form of a mysterious "package." If you try to open the package in your flashback, you'll think "It's not yet time." One of the game's biggest puzzles is figuring out [[spoiler:the package doesn't exist, and you "remembered" it only to distract your interrogator]].
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** Plenty of InteractiveFiction games use this to let the player configure his character. The classic {{Infocom}} game ''Leather Goddesses of Phobos'' does this, where you have to go to the bathroom, and whatever room you choose -- ladies' or men's -- ends up being the correct one. A less known IF game called ''Enlisted'' pulls it off for the same reason, where you get your uniform out of a dispensing machine, and what settings you set it to (short, tall, etc), turn out to be the right ones. In an even less known IF game called ''Amnesia'' the main character closes his eyes and visualizes his appearance, to check how badly he's affected by the titular condition: your choices of features turn out to be completely wrong. [[MindScrew Dude be whack.]]
** ''Moonmist'' does this with your favorite color -- which color you choose determines how your bedroom is decorated, and also (no causal relationship) who the villain is.
** ''Spider and Web'' presents a brilliant twist on the Schrodinger's gun in the form of a mysterious "package." If you try to open the package in your flashback, you'll think "It's not yet time." One of the game's biggest puzzles is figuring out [[spoiler:the package doesn't exist, and you "remembered" it only to distract your interrogator]].
** ''Aisle'' type one-move games take this to the logical extreme: you get only one move and the world need not be internally consistent since each world instance ends after that single move. For example, in the parody game ''Pick Up The Phone Booth and Aisle'', climbing shows you to be [[spoiler:a mountain climber]], whereas entering the titular object reveals [[spoiler:that you're a spy]].
** Some IF designers call this the Magician's Choice, and it's a very good way to turn an initially wide-open map into a small one. Whatever direction the hero goes, that's the right way to go. See ''{{Photopia}},'' for instance.
** ''Moonmist'' does this with your favorite color -- which color you choose determines how your bedroom is decorated, and also (no causal relationship) who the villain is.
** ''Spider and Web'' presents a brilliant twist on the Schrodinger's gun in the form of a mysterious "package." If you try to open the package in your flashback, you'll think "It's not yet time." One of the game's biggest puzzles is figuring out [[spoiler:the package doesn't exist, and you "remembered" it only to distract your interrogator]].
** ''Aisle'' type one-move games take this to the logical extreme: you get only one move and the world need not be internally consistent since each world instance ends after that single move. For example, in the parody game ''Pick Up The Phone Booth and Aisle'', climbing shows you to be [[spoiler:a mountain climber]], whereas entering the titular object reveals [[spoiler:that you're a spy]].
** Some IF designers call this the Magician's Choice, and it's a very good way to turn an initially wide-open map into a small one. Whatever direction the hero goes, that's the right way to go. See ''{{Photopia}},'' for instance.
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** The classic {{Infocom}} game
** A less known IF game called ''Enlisted'' pulls it off for the same reason, where you get your uniform out of a dispensing machine, and what settings you set it to (short, tall, etc), turn out to be the right
** In an even less known IF game called ''Amnesia'' the main character closes his eyes and visualizes his appearance, to check how badly he's affected by the titular condition: your choices of features turn out to be completely wrong. [[MindScrew Dude be whack.]]
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** I prefer the obvious actor/role substitutions: Jeffrey Sinclair/John Sheridan; Carolyn Sykes/Catherine Sakai/Anna Sheridan; Laurel Takashima/Ivanova/Lockley. Minor aversion with Ivanova, as she wasn't a straight substitution. [[spoiler: Originally, Takashima was a traitor. Instead, it's Garibaldi's aide.]]
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** I prefer the The obvious actor/role substitutions: Jeffrey Sinclair/John Sheridan; Carolyn Sykes/Catherine Sakai/Anna Sheridan; Laurel Takashima/Ivanova/Lockley. Minor aversion with Ivanova, as she wasn't a straight substitution. [[spoiler: Originally, Takashima was a traitor. Instead, it's Garibaldi's aide.]]
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**Justified as [[spoiler: Kessler is actually Cole from the future, which means he can predict what would Cole do in that situation]]
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** This even holds true in the current storyline, Homestuck. Although Hussie has officially closed the suggestion boxes, and they won't be opened again until Homestuck is over and the next story has begun, he's taking cues from the fans; he's said that "ninety percent of 'calling it' is actually suggesting it in disguise."
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** This even holds true in the current storyline, Homestuck.''{{Homestuck}}''. Although Hussie has officially closed the suggestion boxes, and they won't be opened again until Homestuck is over and the next story has begun, he's taking cues from the fans; he's said that "ninety percent of 'calling it' is actually suggesting it in disguise.""
** Also used in-story in ''{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler:If you confront the Denizen before it awakens, it will already be awake anyway.]]
** Also used in-story in ''{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler:If you confront the Denizen before it awakens, it will already be awake anyway.]]
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* Tim points out that Steve is using this technicque in [[http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=179 chapter two]] of ''Loaded Dice''.
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* Tim points out that Steve is using this technicque technique in [[http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=179 chapter two]] of ''Loaded Dice''.
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swapping ptitle and redirect
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[[redirect:{{ptitleocg6iflv079q}}]]
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So, when faced with an impending OffTheRails event, the author can subtly tweak the facts the reader hasn't discovered yet to suit the changed plot. Improvisation masquerading as planning, if you will. For obvious reasons, this kind of plot event is pretty much impossible unless the work in question is either interactive or is written at such a scale that the author can change plot events based on what (s)he hears in the fandom.
In the former case, the advantage to this trope is obvious- a GameMaster in a TabletopGame could be badly hamstrung by a sufficiently GenreSavvy player anticipating the general direction of the campaign and being [[CrazyPrepared prepared for anything]]. The subtle RetCon this trope provides is essential to keeping things interesting. Likewise, if it's necessary for the plot in a VideoGame to have the PlayerCharacter meet TheRival early on but they're technically [[WideOpenSandBox free to go anywhere they want]], this trope is essential to keeping the plot together.
The trope has also become increasingly important in more traditional fiction as of late because the Internet's technological revolution is such that an author's "[[MovieTwistList twists]]" could easily be predicted ahead of time if enough [[{{Fanon}} clever fans]] [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife put their heads together]] and [[WildMassGuessing talk things over]]. (And [[EpilepticTrees over.]]) Catching wind of this, an author might then avoid being predicted by "coalescing" Schrodinger's Gun into a [[TrickTwist sniper rifle]], [[FlashbackTwist uzi]], or [[PoundOfFleshTwist rocket launcher]] as the situation requires. Since these cases involve more conscious improvisation, readers are more likely to consider the possibility that the writer doesn't actually know what they're doing and is just [[{{Jossed}} jerking them around]], if not [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants making it up entirely]] [[IndyPloy as they go along]].
In interactive media such as video games, this trope can take the form of setting details retroactively warping themselves around the player's choices in ways that cannot be logically caused by the player character's in-universe choice -- for example, when the real location of [[MacGuffin an artifact]] you seek throughout the campaign is dependent on the order in which you visit its possible locations.
A helpful way to look at this is how sometimes MysteryFiction authors will constantly feed the audience [[RedHerring "clues"]] supposedly narrowing down the possible suspects, only to select the "right" clue as a ChekhovsGunman by the denouement and fit the facts around it. Similarly, in movies it is common practice to write most of the story - and only then pick the ending that [[FocusGroupEnding resonates the best with the test audience.]]
Also known as "Railshroding" (forgive the pun) because it can easily be used for {{Railroading}} purposes.
The larger principle behind Schrodinger's guns is ChandlersLaw.
Not unlike the AscendedFanon as applied to world-building.
This can be a form of CuttingOffTheBranches. ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest is related, but use of this trope doesn't necessarily imply the writers themselves don't know yet what's going to happen. A fictional character taking a similar approach to their master plan is playing XanatosSpeedChess. Contrast RetCon. See also MultipleChoicePast, where this happens when something gets different origins over a period of time and different writers.
Compare WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants, SchrodingersSuggestionBox. A subtrope is SchrodingersQuestion.
See also the UsefulNotes regarding UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' - As said by Virgilia two theories can exist at the same time but neither is more right than the other, until one is proven real.
* In {{Tsubasa}} this is justified as a plot point, as the angelic heroine's talent is luck. She sacrifices this to Yuuko in exchange for the independence to stop being a NeutralFemale.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* A ''{{Batman}}'' ChooseYourOwnAdventure involves the Joker deciding to kill half of Gotham's population. Batman decides that involves piping poison from a utility. The Joker is always at the first utility one chooses to investigate.
* The villain of TheDCU CrisisCrossover ''Armageddon 2001'', the mysterious Monarch, was originally intended to be the superhero CaptainAtom. After fans figured it out too soon, DC changed the story, and the Monarch wound up being a different superhero entirely. (However, the ''[[LegacyCharacter latest]]'' Monarch, villain of ''{{Countdown to Final Crisis}}'', actually ''was'' Captain Atom ([[HeelFaceTurn he got better]]). You couldn't make this stuff up.)
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film ]]
* Masterfully applied in [[{{Film/Clue}} the movie]] about the [[BoardGames boardgame]] ''{{Clue}}''. It has [[MultipleEndings endings]] for several characters where they are the killer, and of course they FlashBack [[RetCon retroactively]] showing how ''only they'' could ever ''possibly'' be the killer. Each theatre showed it with a different ending. The Home Video showed all three straight through, and the DVD lets you do it either way, with a random ending or with all three. In the ''end'' end, [[spoiler:Mr. Green reveals himself as working for the government and that "They all did it!" Take them away boys]]!
-->''[[spoiler:But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, it was me, in the Hall, with the Revolver. [[MistakenForGay Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and sleep with my wife]].]]''
** The final ending is itself a parody of the game, in which the killer could win by exposing himself. [[InnocentInnuendo Not like that.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Literature ]]
* Just about every ''ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' book does this heavily, in order to keep it interesting through multiple re-reads.
** Rampant in the ''{{Goosebumps}}'' ChooseYourOwnAdventure books. There'll at the very least be a major choice near the beginning that divides the book in half (say, try to give the magic book back or try to hide it), and the entire setup, the very nature of the situation you're in, will be completely different depending on which you choose. Then other decisions will cause the same thing to happen on a smaller scale. Worst, often there'll be a situation in which you have a single decision where both lead to a quick death and an unhappy end, but the nature of what was putting you in danger is not the same depending on which you pick.
* Chuck Palahniuk has mentioned in interviews that he got stuck at the ending of ''FightClub'' until he read over what he had written earlier and found the line [[spoiler: "paraffin has never, ever worked for me"]].
* MatthewReilly said that, in ''Contest'', the way to kill the [[NighInvulnerable Karanadon]] - [[spoiler:with Swain's explosive wristband]] - came to him completely out of the blue.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'':
** The "Helo on Caprica" plot in the first season was like this. Favorable fan reaction to Helo upgraded him to MauveShirt, and a new plot was born. It's actually evolved to the point of being an entire series long affair, which in retrospect the writers may have never considered until the miniseries was over and done with.
** Likewise the four Cylons revealed in the Season 3 finale are practically Schrodinger's Hit-squad. All were perfectly plausibly human until the revelation, one even went through an "Am I a Cylon?" existential crisis and was told by an existing Cylon that he wasn't! But after the revelation, things still fit with them being Cylons. Though there are a few niggling plot details on how one managed to infiltrate colonial society for so long, the series kept its word that "anyone can be a Cylon". At this point, with one last Cylon left to reveal, the only people we ''know'' aren't Cylons are Helo [[spoiler: and Cally]] (have a HalfHumanHybrid child with a Cylon), Roslin (flat out told by the only one who knows she's not), and Apollo (can at most be a half Cylon).
** And now with the final Cylon revealed as [[spoiler: Ellen Tigh]], the niggling details are explained. [[spoiler: Cavil, the first humanoid Cylon they built, killed them, blocked their memories and placed them on the Colonies to witness the coming genocide.]] The "oldest" among them has been explained in official statements as [[spoiler: not having served in the first Cylon war, Saul just ''thinks'' he did, a service record was probably forged by Cavil.]]
** They're still Schodinger's Hit-squad when you realize that two of the four were unplanned additions to the cast, which means that there is literally no way their reveals were planned out from the start of the show. They even had to RetCon that [[spoiler: Nicki isn't a half cylon, Cally apparently slept with Hot Dog. The producers even admitted it was their biggest problem when picking Chief as a Cylon.]]
** They've since added [[spoiler: a 13th (well, actually the 7th) Cylon named Daniel. His clones were "corrupted" by Cavil, meaning they're either dead or transformed/transplanted into someone else, bringing it back to "Anyone could be a Cylon".]]
*** [[spoiler: WordOfGod shot this theory down -- Daniel's long dead, Schrodinger's gun was never fired.]]
**** [[spoiler: It still qualifies, the production team had to find a work around their earlier ad hoc numbering sequence that put the first few Cylons revealed as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8]]
**** Which is one place where the writers really missed a golden opportunity to tie off some dangling plot threads by making [[spoiler: Starbuck the daughter of the lone surviving #7.]]
* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]''. During production, JMichaelStraczynski planned the ''B5'' plot out for a 5-year arc. However, he also made plans for RealLifeWritesThePlot. Indeed, the show didn't even end as he had originally meant for it to end, due to changing station commanders between seasons 1 and 2, changing several major plot points. And if you were just watching the show, you probably wouldn't have noticed (much).
** One particular noteworthy instance of a double-Schrodinger for the same plotline. Lyta Alexander was introduced in the pilot as a telepath who got to see and have mental contact with a Vorlon, thus establishing her connection with them and providing possible material for [[TookALevelInBadass leveling her up later]]. However, because the actress had other obligations Lyta didn't make it to the first season. Instead, Talia Winters was introduced, also a telepath. And she was also given a plot arc that actually began the process of leveling her up. Then, the actress playing her proved too much of a prima donna (and went through a nasty divorce from Garibaldi's actor), so she left. But they got Lyta's actress back, so they just went on and did what was originally intended.
** I prefer the obvious actor/role substitutions: Jeffrey Sinclair/John Sheridan; Carolyn Sykes/Catherine Sakai/Anna Sheridan; Laurel Takashima/Ivanova/Lockley. Minor aversion with Ivanova, as she wasn't a straight substitution. [[spoiler: Originally, Takashima was a traitor. Instead, it's Garibaldi's aide.]]
*** WordOfGod is this was done because JMS let slip that [[spoiler: Takashima would have become a traitor.]] So instead he gave that to someone else, and tossed in the occasional RedHerring regarding Ivanova for those who thought she was a straight substitution as subtle misdirection.
* Each season of ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' has lots of shots of various characters giving significant looks and suspicious glances, so when TheMole is revealed, no matter who it is the audience has already been given a lot of seemingly suspicious behavior to justify it.
** The reason why is that each season only ''starts'' with the first half of the season planned out. The rest is written on the fly.
* The new ''Series/DoctorWho'' set one of these up with the Master. [[spoiler: After his death and cremation, an unidentified hand reaches in and takes a ring he wears. The creators have said they have no plan for this, and have not assigned the hand to belonging to anyone in particular. It's meant as a hook that the next batch of writers and producers can retroactively fit into their own plot when they want to resurrect him again.]]
** [[spoiler:As things turned out, ''they'' were the ones who ended up using it for the Tenth Doctor's finale.]]
* As a nod to the pre-written victory/concession speeches from RealLife below, TheWestWing final season election had Santos' speechwriter do these, then additional permutations (won but lost home state, lost but won home state, etc.) were brought up for the contingency speech list...
** This was done frequently in earlier seasons, too, and tied into Toby's general paranoia about counting unhatched electoral chickens. During the blowout midterm election he reveals that he has prepared a concession speech just in case. And there's a dark echo in the beginning of season 5, after [[spoiler: Zoey Bartlett is kidnapped]]. Toby is seen preparing two sets of remarks - one for use if [[spoiler: Zoey]] comes back alive and well, one for ... otherwise.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* A campaign example for the [[TabletopGames Tabletop Game]] ''[[{{Pokemon}} Poké]][[CosmicHorror thulhu]]'' involves the players "choosing between four houses for shelter". The book explicitly says that no matter which house the party chooses, it will be the one which contains the plot devices.
* Included as an explicit character creation option in the TabletopRPG ''FATE''. When using this option, players start play with an essentially "blank" character sheet, and fill in skills as the play progresses. For example, if a character is stuck behind a locked door, the player can declare that his character has the lockpicking skill and fill it in in one of his skill slots.
* The "Gizmo" advantage in ''{{GURPS}}''. This advantage allows the player to be carrying around an unspecified "gizmo", which he may at any time "pull out" and declare it to be whatever device he wants it to be (that he could have reasonably possessed). Additionally, the gizmo does not "enter play" until activated, so it cannot be damaged, lost, stolen, or uncovered in a search.
** The same is true in ''Game/{{Toon}}'' -- Steve Jackson games loves this trope.
* This is essentially how ''BurningWheel'' works: If you say that you want to kick a bowl of fruit into the guard's face to create a distraction, then there will be a bowl of fruit right there for you to kick. It wasn't there until you said it was. Essentially, the players all have Schrodinger's Gun, to an extent.
** ''Houses of the Blooded'' is similar. When a player rolls for something, it's generally the right to decide things about the scene or how actions turn out. The rules explicitly state that you can decide pretty much anything that hasn't specifically been established yet.
*** There are several other games which allow the players to retroactively decide minor aspects of the current scene, such as ''FengShui'' and ''{{Exalted}}''.
** ''Adventure!'' handles this with a game mechanic: players can spend points to perform a Dramatic Edit and declare that there is e.g. a [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer convenient manhole cover]] in the blind alley they've run down. This is great when the players ''only'' need to use it to collaboratively make situations more awesome, but less great when, as it sometimes does, it becomes a sort of ablative defense against railroading (why would the GM decide it was a blind alley in the first place?).
** In ''Wushu'', everything happens exactly as the players describe it. Additionally, the more complicated and [[RuleOfDrama dramatic]] a description is, the more dice the players receive, providing massive incentive to weave complicated and dramatic descriptions. To prevent complete insanity, actions can be vetoed by another player or the GM, and there's generally a "pool limit" maximum dice cap.
* ''{{Nobilis}}'' has The Monarda Law, which states that the answer to a PC's question should almost never be a flat-out "no". Additionally, in that game, prophecies explicitly work by the GM throwing out a lot of [[IceCreamKoan meaningless]] [[FauxSymbolism symbolism]] -- when the [=PCs=] offer a plausible explanation, it is assumed to be true, and any action they take on it gains a bonus.
** [[spoiler: The John Tynes CallOfCthulhu scenario ''In Media Res'' uses a very similar device: You're given a whole heap of weird symbolism to throw at the players, and whatever they decide it means, it means.]]
*** And really, the whole idea of it is a pretty common GameMaster trick: Throw out an ambiguous scenario with a lot of plot hooks, see which one the players respond to, and run with it like it's the baton at a relay.
* ''{{Exalted}}'' and its modern cousin ''{{Scion}}'' both rely on a [[RuleOfCool Stunting system]]. Do it with style, and even if it is utterly ludicrous, it's more likely to succeed than if done boring-ly. For the most part, "stunts" involve pieces of the environment that the players make up as they go along. Asking if something exists in the scene should be met with "It does now."
* The ''[[http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12960.phtml DC Heroes RPG]]'' had a similar feature. A PC may spend a few of his/her Hero Points to decree the existence of specific objects in his vicinity, if the GM agrees to allow them.
** Then there's the Omni-Gadget, Omni-Connection, etc advantages. "Whaddya know, this 8 AP opmni-gadget in my belt is an 8 AP FORCE FIELD gadget!", or "Paradyne technologies? What luck, an old buddy of mine from college is the VP in charge of Marketing there!" and so on.
* It is explicitly written into the rules of ''{{Paranoia}}'' that anything the GM says goes. ''Anything''. The GM is perfectly free to roll a 5 and declare it a 17. Similarly, players may discover that they had mutations they were unaware of, that the NPC they're assigned to kill suddenly belongs to their secret society now, or that their weapon was actually sabotaged by Communists, or that while they were fleeing from a renegade robot they caused an Ultraviolet citizen a twenty minute delay in his routine. If it doesn't contradict established fact, or if the GM can invent a justification for why it doesn't, then it's all good. (Although, considering that this is ''Paranoia'', contradicting established fact is perfectly acceptable behavior.)
* In the new Czech RPG Střepy snů (''Dreamshards''), this is a mechanic given to the players -- if you want to have done something in the past that could help you in the current situation (or if you simply want something to be a certain way), you can burn one of your dream points and it's part of the game now. Hiding in a basement and the only way out is besieged by zombies? One dream point later, you can leave through the secret door (that you most certainly installed) into the tunnels below.
* ''SpiritOfTheCentury'' is fond of this one. The languages that a character knows need not be specified at creation. A character can spend "Fate Points" in order to make declarations about the scene in their favor or create weird coincidences (e.g. "I declare that the guard holding us hostage was my college roommate"). Players can use knowledge skills to make similar declarations (so an expert in architecture can "create" a secret passage in a building by declaring that he or she learned such in his or her research). Furthermore, numerous stunts allow for Schrödinger's Gun situations, like Personal Gadget, which gives the player a gadget less fancy than the standard, but the player can create it on the spot when he or she needs it (they had it all along), or Master of Disguise, which allows a character to effectively stop playing, then later declare that any unimportant character "is really ''me'' in disguise!" The game also gives rules for on the fly character creation, which works similar to the ''FATE'' example above -- unsurprisingly, as it's based on another version of the same system.
* ''Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies'' and other [[ProseDescriptiveQualities PDQ]] system games are fond of this one - there's usually a power currency (Style Dice, Hero Points) to let the players declare significant facts about the game, such as inventing useful [=NPCs=] or giving them new abilities. [=S7S=] even encourages players to make flat statements that something exists and tossing a Style Die down, as opposed to asking if it's so and having to pay the cost the GM sets (though the GM should ask for more dice on particularly large changes anyway).
** [=PDQ2=] rules game ''Vox'' has a starting scenario to run character creation similar to a [=FATE=] game, where you choose what you can do as you need to do it until all your abilities are set.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* Some computer games (especially InteractiveFiction, given that it is just one step away from a table-top RPG) can do this. For example, in the ''[[HomestarRunner Peasant's Quest]]'' game, at one point, there are four bushes with a trinket hidden in one of them. No matter what order you go to the bushes, the trinket is ''always'' in the fourth bush you look in.
** Plenty of InteractiveFiction games use this to let the player configure his character. The classic {{Infocom}} game ''Leather Goddesses of Phobos'' does this, where you have to go to the bathroom, and whatever room you choose -- ladies' or men's -- ends up being the correct one. A less known IF game called ''Enlisted'' pulls it off for the same reason, where you get your uniform out of a dispensing machine, and what settings you set it to (short, tall, etc), turn out to be the right ones. In an even less known IF game called ''Amnesia'' the main character closes his eyes and visualizes his appearance, to check how badly he's affected by the titular condition: your choices of features turn out to be completely wrong. [[MindScrew Dude be whack.]]
** ''Moonmist'' does this with your favorite color -- which color you choose determines how your bedroom is decorated, and also (no causal relationship) who the villain is.
** ''Spider and Web'' presents a brilliant twist on the Schrodinger's gun in the form of a mysterious "package." If you try to open the package in your flashback, you'll think "It's not yet time." One of the game's biggest puzzles is figuring out [[spoiler:the package doesn't exist, and you "remembered" it only to distract your interrogator]].
** ''Aisle'' type one-move games take this to the logical extreme: you get only one move and the world need not be internally consistent since each world instance ends after that single move. For example, in the parody game ''Pick Up The Phone Booth and Aisle'', climbing shows you to be [[spoiler:a mountain climber]], whereas entering the titular object reveals [[spoiler:that you're a spy]].
** Some IF designers call this the Magician's Choice, and it's a very good way to turn an initially wide-open map into a small one. Whatever direction the hero goes, that's the right way to go. See ''{{Photopia}},'' for instance.
* {{Sierra}} [[AdventureGame Adventure Games]]. If the programmers can't kill your character off with something because you noticed it, they may not bother with it at all. Your car only has a fault if you don't perform the safety inspection. (''PoliceQuest 1''). The policeman's only there if you're indecent. (''LeisureSuitLarry''). There's only a car coming if you don't look at the street. (''TheDaggerOfAmonRa''). The biggest example is in the latter: giving the wrong item to a speakeasy doorman would make the game {{Unwinnable}}, so it also causes a completely random person to walk in from offscreen and stab the protagonist to death. The game then quotes [[HaveANiceDeath knife crime statistics]].
* In the horror [=RPG=]/adventure game ''[[ElviraGames Elvira 2 - The Jaws of Cerberus]]'', there are three places where Elvira may be hidden. No matter in what order you reach them, the first two Elviras will be fake and transform into monsters.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'', there's a plot choice point of which main character to follow. Excluding the main character, you get all the current secondary characters ''and'' the same new characters (with a few exceptions) appear in each chapter. Your chosen lord will even have the same encounters with the BigBad and [[spoiler: the BigBad will always take the Sacred Stone from whichever lord you picked.]]
** That being said, there ''is'' a difference in the routes, at least storyline wise. In Eirika's, [[spoiler: Lyon's spirit is subsumed and killed by the demon king's.]] In Ephram's, [[spoiler: Lyon's spirit ''unites'' with the demon king's and does a full (if very [[TearJerker sad]]) FaceHeelTurn.]]
* In ''SeikenDensetsu3'', the player can choose three party members for the whole game: one main character and two support characters. Whoever the player picks as the main character becomes the only one who can wield the Mana Sword, and it also determines which of the three evil factions wins the race to the Holy Land, and which of the three [[BigBad final bosses]] the player ends up fighting.
* Seen in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' in a boss battle at Joke's End. When Jojora asks the Mario Bros. which of her friends should come (and beat the crap out of them, presumably), the player is given the choice of four different names, which seem to refer to four different possible enemies. However, no matter which one you pick, Jojora's friend will look and fight exactly the same. The only thing your choice really affects is what name the battle display refers to her as.
* Used extensively in ''IllusionOfGaia'', due to Will's ability to guess any question correctly. It is demonstrated at the beginning of the game, where Will is asked to pick a card. No matter what the player picks, it is the right one. It resurfaces much later for a WireDilemma, where the player simply has to remember that Will is psychic and make a decision quickly. Amazingly, used at the end of the game to win a game of Russian Roulette.
** For the WireDilemma, it might be subverted as [[spoiler:the bomb doesn't explode at all if the bosses are defeated. Maybe it's some kind of boss-powered device?]]
** And for the Russian Roulette game, if you pick the wrong choice, the game ask you if you're ''really'' sure.
* ''IndigoProphecy'' has a tarot card reading about half way through. No matter which card you pick or in what order, you get the same ominously creepy message. I guess [=~You Can't Fight Fate~=].
* In ''TacticsOgre'', there's a branching off point at the end of the first chapter of the game. You have to choose whether to kill a group of prisoners in order to frame the BigBad. (It's complicated and political). If you choose to kill the prisoners, your best friend will reveal himself to be incredibly noble and oppose you and all governments, and throughout the game form LaResistance until you become TheAtoner. If you choose not to kill the prisoners, your best friend will reveal himself to be the biggest asshole ever and side with the killers just to gain power.
** In a way, this is a bizarre [[TheSadisticChoice sadistic choice]]. You cannot be a spotless hero and at the same time have your best friend be a good guy (and alive) by the end of the game.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'', you can answer various questions about past events, such as Revan's fate in the first game and the color of the lightsaber the Jedi Council took away from you, and the answers retroactively determine what happened.
** As well, depending on which side you pick on Onderon, an opposing NPC will either be a mercenary or a patriot.
* In the ''StarOcean'' games, in order to keep some kind of weird ArbitraryHeadcountLimit, you can only pick certain party members; which prevents you from getting others, who just aren't available anymore.
** Or, in one particularly egregious case (Bowman), just not interested in traveling with you anymore.
* ''{{Drakengard}}'' has what might be the most strenuous version of this. Depending on which ending you get the very fabric of reality functions differently. Your Dragon might be the only thing that can save the world, or you may be destined to destroy her lest she destroy the world.
* At one point in ''{{Fable}}'', a key is hidden in one of three books. No matter what, the key is always in the second book you pick.
* In the second ''NES'' ''VideoGame/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' game, the player faces a WireDilemma when defusing a bomb. Any choice turns out to be the right one, though one causes the screen to flash white with a boom, [[FissionMailed then revert back as one character says "Just kidding!"]]
* The "It's War" chapter of ''ConkersBadFurDay'' has a pair of levers near a soldier strapped to an electric chair. The first level Conker pulls will electrocute the soldier. The second lever he pulls opens a door.
* The ''BladeRunner'' AdventureGame had several plot points (such as whether characters were replicants or not) decided either at random in each game, or depending on the choices the player made.
* ''DeadRising'': [[spoiler: Did Barnaby manage to bite Jessie when he started turning into a zombie? Only if you start case 8-1. If the truth vanishes into darkness before then, no he didn't.]]
* At two different points in ''{{Persona 3}}'', you can join one of three clubs. No matter which club you choose, the characters for the related social link will ''always'' be members of that club. It's most obvious with the Culture Clubs, as Yukari says Fuuka is a member of one of them, but can't remember which -- it turns out to be whichever one you end up joining.
** To a lesser degree, the Athletic Club in ''{{Persona 4}}'' -- you're still hanging out with [[ThoseTwoGuys Kou and Daisuke]] -- only difference is which one is the focus character.
* Happens in ''RadicalDreamers'' the so-called "prototype" to ''ChronoCross''. Depending on which room you entered first and what you did; Magil is either a ''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot time-traveling guitar playing rockstar detective from Mars who plays with hand-puppets]]'', the forgotten lover to Ridell, or a demon from hell. Likewise Kid is sometimes else raised by a nunnery that Lynx killed off, raised by Lynx's daughter Shea, or a ''gigantic berserk magic-wielding sunflower''. Lynx himself is a nobleman, a ghost, a HumongousMecha, or a ''giant space octopus''.
* In ''[[{{Myst}} Riven]]'', the passcode near the end of the game [[spoiler: which unlocks Catherine's prison]] is randomly generated the first time you see it, retroactively setting the lock to that code. It is impossible to open the lock without having first seen the passcode. This prevents a [[MediumAwareness medium-aware]] player from saving the game early, finding out the code, loading the saved game, and then opening the lock much earlier in the game, which would have required the designers to come up with a completely different ending. (Note that the ''other'' randomly-generated passwords are not Schrödingified, so you can use this trick to unlock them ahead of time.)
* In ''CaveStory'', choosing to avoid speaking to an injured old man A) determines whether or not his injuries are fatal (they are only fatal if you talk to him) and also B) determines whether or not there is a vitally important rope among the junk on the floor of a room entered later, which appears to have been sealed for many years. (The rope is only there if you didn't talk to the old man.)
* Apparently one puzzle in ''SpaceQuest 4'' is about finding the two halves of a code and inputting them. Whichever order you first use to combine them is the wrong one. There's no detriment or danger, the programmers just hate you.
* You finally bring down a Yellow Squadron bird in the "Stonehenge" mission of ''AceCombat 4''. No matter which one gets shot down, though, it's always [[spoiler: Yellow 4]] who bites it.
* In the ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' text adventure game, there are 12 or so [[ChekhovsGun Chekhovs Guns]] to collect. The bad news is you'll need one at random at the end of the game or you'll die. The other bad news is the "random" one you need is always one you don't have unless you have them all. It's a cruel game.
* ''VideoGame/{{inFamous}}'' employs this to make its SadisticChoice even worse. [[spoiler: Your girlfriend Trish is always on the tower you ''didn't'' save, regardless of what the BigBad says.]]
* ''[=~Baldur's Gate~=] II'' has a sidequest where one of your companions returns home to find his sister has been murdered, and an investigation is still in progress. His father is convinced it was a hit from a rival and tells you to kill him in revenge. If you kill the rival, you later find out that he was innocent; if you spare him, he was guilty all along.
** In another (paladin-specific) sidequest, you are charged with guarding someone until they're picked up by the appropriate person. An imperious man arrives and claims to be the appropriate person. If you believe him, he's not. If you don't, he is. The only way to get it right is to use the paladin's detect evil ability to know the answer before making the decision. If it wasn't like this, guessing with a 50% chance of getting it right would kill the whole ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman moment.
* In ''TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'', Emil is asked to guess which of Lloyd's companions joined him at the end of ''TalesOfSymphonia''. Since it was based on RelationshipValues there, ''any'' answer could be a correct one, and, indeed, no matter what Emil (that is, the player) guesses, Lloyd admits that he guessed correctly.
* In ''BatmanArkhamAsylum'', at one point Batman must search three body bags in order to continue. No matter what order he opens the actual bags in, the result is always the same. [[spoiler: His dad's body, his mother's body, and then Scarecrow.]] Also, no matter what order you collect the audio logs in, they are always the next in the set, as are the Spirit of Arkham messages.
* An experience while playing ''DejaVu'' seemed like a literal Schrodinger's Gun: trying to shoot the gun-toting mugger resulted in him firing first for a game over. Restarting and giving in to his demands the next time around let him escape while claiming that the gun wasn't even loaded.
** Of course that could just be the mugger kicking you when you're down.
* In ''DragonAge: Origins'' you may end up with plot relevant fights halfway through traveling, no matter where you are, and there are dozens of them. Even if you meet a bunch of elves defending themself against some darkspawn in the far northwest near the dwarven home, while the elven woods are southeast and the darkspawn isn't actually rare on the surface that far north.
** The origin stories always end with Duncan bailing your ass out of trouble, which every origin you choose will be the place Duncan decided to recruit a new Gray Warden. It is implied if you go back to those places as a different origin that what happened happened but without Duncan saving that could be hero. The Dwarven Noble, the second child of King Endrin, was framed for murdering his brother and killed on the Deep Roads, the Dwarven Commoner died in jail, refusing to eat, the human noble was killed by TimCurry, etc.
** ''Awakening'' is an aversion if you don't import a Warden; there is a default outcome for everything that the Orlesian Warden Commander will arrive to (Alistair is [[spoiler: king,]] etc.)
* ''[[AssassinsCreed Assassin's Creed]] II'' does this with The Truth. No matter what order you find the glyphs, the segments of the video and puzzles will always be found in the same order.
* Averted in ''HeavyRain''. The eventual set of [[TheReveal reveals]] rely heavily on [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall fourth-wall shenanigans]] and mess with the player's expectations from the standpoint of someone playing a game as much as from the plot itself similar to ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'', so it's likely that this was a deliberate decision intended to give more value to the first playthrough.
* In the FMV-based adventure game ''{{Ripper}}'' by Take2Interactive, the titular serial murderer has four possible identities, depending on how the player pursue the investigation ([[spoiler:one of them being the main character's girlfriend]]).
* At the end of ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters '95'', returning villain Rugal announces his plan to destroy your team for foiling his plans last time. At the end of ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters '96'', Chizuru reveals that she lured your team there because she needed the help of those responsible for defeating Rugal. In both cases, this speech is made regardless of which team you are playing, and whether or not they actually won or were even in the previous game. (Aside from Geese/Wolfgang/Big, whom even she refuses to acknowledge.)
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' is full of stuff like this, although it's a lot easier to notice the guns that never were fired. Many quests apparently end with a storyline unresolved only to be picked up when the player's character is much higher level, or to be picked up later when the developers implement some new content that simply wasn't available earlier. Most of them seem to stand on their own or segue smoothly into the follow-up, like quests throughout the Storm Peaks and the Ulduar five-man instances that set up the Ulduar raid instance even before the raid instance was added by patch. However, in many cases the designers fire the gun in a way that's much more obscure or harder to find than the initial setup, or they just changed their mind about new content and never get around to firing it at all. The Chained Essence of Eranikus, for example. This item drops from a boss in a mid-level instance that almost every player will do at least once and hints at some way to help free and cure the imprisoned, insane dragon you take it from. However, there is no continuation of the questline. The dragon can be freed and cured, but only as part of a very difficult, endgame quest-chain.
* A quest in GuildWars requires the player to help the prince find a gift for his beloved. There are three items you can show him; the first two will always be rejected, no matter the order you try them in. An alternative option is to find only one of the items and hand it directly to the birthday girl, who gets pissed that the prince hired someone else to choose a gift for her.
** GuildWars 2 makes extensive use of this trope, from personal storylines (which affect instances) to dynamic events (which alters the state of the world players share). An example of the latter is a village besieged by centaurs: if players kill the centuars, villagers will come out of hiding and offer services to anyone who visits; if nobody bothers to fight off the centuars, the village will be overrun and turned into a centaur fortress.
* The Master Sword in the [[TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]] [[TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle games]] can come from two conflicting sources depending on which game you play first.
** The games also include a Schrodinger area of the game map: at a certain point in the game, you can earn a flute that will eventually allow you to summon one of the three animal companions. Each of them have skills that allow you to reach places Link can't reach alone, and depending on which flute you get, part of the map ends up being an area that requires that companion to get through.
* In ''{{Contra}}: Hard Corps'', [[BigBad Colonel Bahamut's]] plan for the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Alien Cell]] depends on which path you take through the game. [[spoiler:Either he wants to use it to power a KillSat, turn it into a bio-weapon, [[FusionDance merge with it]], or load it on a missile and launch it into civilization.]]
** From the same game, Bahamut's base is either right next to your current location, a train ride away in the jungle, or a boat ride away on an island.
* In ''DawnOfWar II: Chaos Rising'' there is a traitor in your party. And you ''really'' don't know who it is. The choice is only fixed if [[spoiler: everyone has zero [[KarmaMeter Corruption]] rating]]. But really, [[spoiler: Martellus]] is the last person you want as a traitor. [[spoiler: While others all have their [[StartOfDarkness starts of darkness]] and {{motive rant}}s prepared, Martellus is just a plain generic boss]].
* Each ''MassEffect'' game has an instance in the beginning; regardless of what Shepard's background and military reputation are, he or she is the ''perfect'' candidate for the first human Spectre. Likewise, when ''MassEffect2'' begins, regardless of whether the imported save file flags the council as saved, lost, or lost and replaced with an all-human council, Shepard "did everything right."
** Justified in the latter case, as no matter the outcome, ''it is perfect for Cerberus''. Although the degree and specifics of it vary, any of the endings puts humanity in an unprecedented position of power and influence, which is exactly what Cerberus wants.
* In the end of ''MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', you [[spoiler: are to choose between two guns, one loaded and one not, to and shoot Ocelot, while he shoots you with the other one.]] No mater what you choose, [[spoiler:you and Ocelot both survive. If you grab the gun and purposefully miss, there is a hole in the wall, but if you shoot him or grab the gun with no bullets and he shoots you, it turns out the bullet was a dud.]]
** Which is odd as [[spoiler: the bullet Ocelot keeps around his neck the whole game '''is''' a blank; you can notice that if you zoom in on it.]]
* In the FMV game ''Terror T.R.A.X. - Track of the Vampire'' (played by [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/10/23/terror-t-r-a-x-track-of-the-vampire-pc-the-whole-bloody-affair/ here]], one of the Bad Ending paths has one of your agents getting captured by a MadScientist vampire. When the second agent finds the first, MissionControl orders her to shoot him preemptively. If you don't, he springs up as a vampire and kills the other agent. If you do, the vampire calls to taunt you with the fact that the agent was still human so you killed him needlessly.
* Done several times in ''[[{{Portal}} Portal 2]]'', with an actual gun. With some of the puzzles, the player needs to fire the portal gun quickly [[PressXToNotDie to not die]], but if they fire the wrong portal, they end up dying anyway. To fix this, the programmers fixed it so that whichever portal you fire is the right one and it retroactively changes the portal you had already placed.
* In {{XIII}}, the player must enter a locked cabin to obtain a fuse. There are several guards in the area, but the last one who gets killed is always the one holding the key.
* In ''DragonQuestV'', it doesn't matter whether you decide to marry Bianca or Nera, either one will turn out to be [[spoiler:descended from Zenithian blood, and will give birth to the legendary hero]]. The original game plays this straight, but the [[VideoGameRemake remake]] justifies it a little. The new character Debora is Nera's sister, so they share the same fate, [[spoiler:and it's hinted that all three girls are secretly related anyway]].
* In ''{{Catherine}}'', the differences between the [[MultipleEndings "Bad", "Good", and "True" version of each ending]] are supposedly determined by how well the girl can sense your feelings (that is, your position on the KarmaMeter), but other events happen differently seemingly independently of your feelings about relationships. [[spoiler:If you choose Katherine, Jonny, Orlando, and Boss don't show up to corroborate your story in the Bad ending. If you choose Catherine, her father doesn't show up in the Bad ending. And the difference between the Good and True freedom endings is whether or not Feather wins the wrestling tournament, which Vincent should have no way of influencing.]]
* ''DeusExHumanRevolution'' has this at least on an occasion: when you rescue [[spoiler:the three scientists at Omega Ranch]], the third one will always have the [[spoiler:virus Sevchenko built]], regardless of the order you visit them.
* ''StarCraftII'' includes three levels where you can choose one of two possible methods to take. While the last one isn't one of these (merely determining if you strip the Zerg of their primary ZergRush generating unit or of their flying units), the first two are. In the Colonists story arc, the climax is to either fight off the Protoss to try and see if the Zerg infection amongst the colonists can be arrested and perhaps cured, or to side with the Protoss and mercilessly burn out all of the infected. Choose the former, and the game reveals that there were only a few infected colonists, who are easily contained, and Dr. Hanson leaves the ship to work on researching a cure. Choose the latter, the infestation is far more widespread, and Dr. Hanson goes insane and infects herself, turning into a monstrous human/zerg hybrid that Raynor has to kill. In the Spectres story arc, the final mission is to either assist Tosh in breaking out his fellow Spectres from the prison Mengsk is keeping them in, or to believe the claims of Dominion Ghost Nova and put a stop to it. Choose the former, and Tosh remains (as he was before then) a loyal, dependable ally, and investigating around the ship reveals that Nova was basically lying about Spectres being {{Psycho Prototype}}s. Choose the latter, and Tosh gets assassinated, without any real evidence that he was anywhere near as bad as Nova claims -- and all of the "political prisoners" that would have incidentally been freed by helping Tosh remain in jail.
* Used extensively by ''SilentHillShatteredMemories'', primarily for purposes of MindScrew.
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[[folder: Web Comics ]]
* The idea is brought up in [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1944.html this]] ''IrregularWebcomic'' strip. Fittingly enough, the characters are players in a DeepImmersionGaming RPG, and they actually mention Schrödinger.
** Not only does the trope appear in that particular strip, but also in the writing process behind the strip. In the earlier draft of the comic, David Morgan-Mar kept flip-flopping on whether the punchline should reference Heisenberg or Schrödinger. He decided on Heisenberg and wrote [[TheRant a long note below the comic]], explaining Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principle, before realizing that Schrödinger worked better as a punchline and changing it. He left the note below mostly unchanged, presumably as a record of the uncertainty in the writing process.
* Also appears in ''DarthsAndDroids'' by the same creator, starting [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0179.html here]]. It also appears in a more amusing variation, Schrodinger's Bodyguard, seen [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0211.html here]].
* In [[Webcomic/ChainmailBikini "Chainmail Bikini: The Nightmarish Legend of Deuse Baaj"]], the players are sent to retrieve a farmer's pigs in return for a sword. Instead of fighting the goblins that have stolen the pigs, they set a siege and wait until the goblins have run out of food and surrender, thus totally ruining the adventure the [[GameMaster GM]] had written. (And then they go and slaughter the goblins anyway.) The GM gets back at them by having the farmer's village been attacked and razed by the minions of the BigBad DiabolicalMastermind by the time the characters return.
** Not to mention, a player thoughtlessly wonders why the starving goblins didn't simply eat the stolen pigs; at which point the rescued pigs suddenly transform into a pile of bones as the gamemaster quickly {{retcon}}s the situation.
** In the sort-of prequel ''DMOfTheRings'', during a dice roll for an enemy attack, the dice accidentally drops beneath the table to an inconvenient spot. The player who the attack was targeted towards then calls himself an "Uncertainty Lich" between life and death (though the issue is quickly cleared up).
* Hilariously occurred in ''ComicBook/GoldDigger Tangent''. The comic had a forum right beneath it, where people often speculated. One person yelled out, without spoiler tags. "Ooh! That one guy we saw taking a bath is going to swoop in and pull a BigDamnHeroes, making him a Chekhov's gun!" The artist's response? "Great, now I need a new way to bail them out!" He figured it out.
* In Chapter 2 of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', a set of glowing pictures (a ShoutOut to the film ''The Peanut Butter Solution'') are briefly featured in the library. When asked about the pictures, Tom Siddell explained that he has planned out a StoryArc involving those pictures, but he isn't certain that he'll be able to work that arc into the comic. So it's unknown at this time whether those pictures will end up being a [=~Chekhov's Gun~=] or just CowTools.
** The waveform has collapsed: [[WordOfGod Tom says]] that particular story arc has been cut.
* Every single thing in ''MSPaintAdventures''. Since the various series use [[InteractiveFiction fan-submitted suggestions]] to drive much of the plot, seemingly non-sequitur commands like "[[ProblemSleuth Build a fort out of your desk]]" can lead to larger developments in the in-game universe. Or just be one-off non-sequiter gags.
** This even holds true in the current storyline, Homestuck. Although Hussie has officially closed the suggestion boxes, and they won't be opened again until Homestuck is over and the next story has begun, he's taking cues from the fans; he's said that "ninety percent of 'calling it' is actually suggesting it in disguise."
* If somebody who read through {{Bob and George}} somehow managed to be oblivious to the heavy {{Leaning on the Fourth Wall}}, they might get the impression that the comic had a complex, carefully planned, intricately connected plot. However, by his own admission, Dave was just really good at making crap up on the fly, and then making up ''more'' crap to explain why the previous crap was significant.
* Tim points out that Steve is using this technicque in [[http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=179 chapter two]] of ''Loaded Dice''.
* In ''QuestionableContent'', Faye once [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=647 found a box of condoms in the couch]]. Marten says it's Pintsize's, and Pintsize says it's not his. The author's notes at the bottom read: "So who does the box in question belong to? [...] I haven't decided yet."
* Used in [[http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp10182011.shtml this]] ''SomethingPositive''.
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[[folder: Web Original ]]
* In TheSpoonyExperiment's LetsPlay of the FMV game ''Phantasmagoria2'', Spoony mocks how the game tries to get around this--that the protagonist Curtis could experience the various supernatural death threats in a different order--by having him seem newly surprised in each clip, as though every one was the first (which it could be, depending on what the player does). In the finale of the LetsPlay, [[spoiler:Spoony is trapped in a similar setting and actually gets '''more''' exaggeratedly shocked every time something supernatural happens]].
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[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* The Season Two premiere of ''TheVentureBrothers'' is a veritable Schrodinger's ''machine gun''. The writers deliberately took all the fan speculation about how the cliffhanger at the end of the Season One finale would be resolved, and ''made it all true''. A partial list follows.
** [[spoiler:With Hank and Dean dead, the title would now refer to brothers Rusty and Jonas Junior -- as seen in the episode's opening credits.]]
** [[spoiler:The boys would be raised from the dead by Doctor Orpheus.]]
** [[spoiler:Dr. Venture would clone the boys.]]
** [[spoiler:It would be revealed that the boys were ''always'' clones.]]
* ''TotalDrama'' has an alternate ending each season where the runner-up (in slightly different circumstances) actually won the prize. In fact, for the second season, it was declared that both endings ''were'' the possible "real ending", since each country voted differently on which of that final two they wanted to win. Unfortunately, the first and third season endings ended up very contrived by comparison.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Real Life ]]
* Many of a stage magician's illusions rely on some form of this. TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation_(magic) has more details]].
* Politicians facing elections usually have their victory ''and'' concession speeches prepared well in advance. Similarly, newspapers pre-write articles and obituaries. HilarityEnsues if they jump the gun and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Defeats_Truman publish a wrong article]].
* Similarly, Nixon had a speech ready in case something happened to Neil Armstrong and crew during their lunar soujourn.
* The items (from newspapers with banner headlines to caps and T-shirts) that get waved around during post-game celebrations at the Super Bowl, World Series, and other championship sports events featuring the team that was just victorious seconds earlier were also prepared in advance in versions for both teams. The merchandise items proclaiming victory for the losing team are often sold to third-world countries that don't care who really won as long as they get proper clothing.
* To avoid a portrait subject having to spend weeks sitting still, portrait painters used to do a subject's body, clothing, and furniture before the customer actually paid for a picture. Then they'd just add on the appropriate head (which is why some portrait figures have oddly long necks).
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