...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Fair-Play Whodunnit

555 statements
102 feature instances
121 referencing feature instances

Fair-Play Whodunnit	type	FeatureClass
Fair-Play Whodunnit	label	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit	page	FairPlayWhodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit	comment	The opposite of a Clueless Mystery; the puzzle of the story is entirely solvable before The Reveal or The Summation, if you've spotted the clues, and not just by various methods as a reader/viewer. The trick, of course, is having it solvable by the reader/viewer, but still difficult enough that they don't all figure it out long before the actual reveal. To avoid the reader/viewer feeling guilt about enjoying the investigation of a murder, and to avoid disturbingly intense emotion among the characters, the victim is often someone whom the reader and the in-universe characters don't particularly mourn. In 1928, the writer and priest Msgr Ronald Knox created a "Ten Commandments" of plot devices (Knox's Decalogue) that more or less codified the rules of the Fair-play Whodunnit: The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow. All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.note Most modern interpretations are willing to allow this rule to be flouted, but only if said agencies are clearly explained beforehand and follow consistent rules. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable, and such a passage may only be in a house or building for which it is appropriate by age or purpose. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.note Like the supernatural rule, this is somewhat relaxed in the modern interpretation, but again the Phlebotinum must be introduced and clearly explained beforehand. No Chinaman must figure in the story.note This was not a case of racism, despite the Values Dissonance of the now-offensive but generally obsolete term "Chinaman". This was in fact an admonition against something considered both racist and clichÃ©d even then: the Yellow Peril villains, Magical Asians, and Inscrutable Oriental characters prevalent in dodgy crime fiction at the time, most notably Fu Manchu. The modern American equivalent would be a Scary Black Man (though those showed up in Knox's time too) or a Middle Eastern terrorist. Regardless of the time period and the ethnicity involved, the point remained: the Token Minority was automatically either the culprit or played for the rest of the story as a Red Herring. No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right. The detective must not himself commit the crime. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader. The stupid friend of the detective, the "Watson", must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them. Though increasingly rare in modern mystery literature and non-print media, in the "Golden Age" of mystery, novels were almost entirely of this type, though even then some were better about the "fair" part than others. This trend is kept alive largely through its incorporation in dinner theater, where a short mystery play is acted out while the patrons eat, and the audience is invited to solve it before the answer is played out. Done badly, this can lead to Conviction by Contradiction. Done correctly, it turns into what Golden Age writer John Dickson Carr called "The Grandest Game in the World." It can also lead to the work having a fair amount of Rewatch Bonus; particularly if the viewer had missed the clues in the story the first time through.
Fair-Play Whodunnit	fetched	2024-03-19T03:30:49Z
Fair-Play Whodunnit	parsed	2024-03-19T03:30:49Z
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to AdaptationExpansion: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to AnachronicOrder: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to Asspull: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to BreakingTheFourthWall: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to ChekhovsGun: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to DeadlyGame: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to DeconstructedTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to DefiedTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to DeliberateValuesDissonance: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to Deuteragonist: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to EnchantedForest: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to EstablishingCharacterMoment: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to FakingTheDead: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to InteractiveFiction: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to InterrogatingTheDead: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to Lampshaded: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to Nirvana: Not an Item - IGNORE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to OutOfCharacterAlert: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to PokemonSpeak: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to RealityWarper: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to ReverseWhodunnit: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to StrangerBehindTheMask: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to SubvertedTrope: Not an Item - CAT
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to TheReveal: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to TheStraightMan: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to TheSummation: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to TwinSwitch: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to ViewersAreGeniuses: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to ZigZaggingTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to lampshadehanging: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingComment	Dropped link to playercharacter: Not an Item - FEATURE
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingUnknown	TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids
Fair-Play Whodunnit	isPartOf	DBTropes
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_109f7814	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_109f7814	comment	The Sherlock episode "A Study in Pink" is fair play for the "who" part, if not the "how" and "why". The audience knows what all five victims had in common, and they are also aware of at least some of Sherlock's thought processes ("Who do we trust, even though we don't know them? Who passes unnoticed wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?"). Viewers have enough information to figure it out before the climax.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_109f7814	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_109f7814	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_109f7814
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_12cb8ca5	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_12cb8ca5	comment	Mira, Royal Detective: Any episode that features the bandits Manish and Poonam would have the viewer immediately realize they're the answer to the mystery of the day, given their obvious disguises and seemingly innocent tones.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_12cb8ca5	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_12cb8ca5	featureConfidence	1.0
Mira, Royal Detective	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_12cb8ca5
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_135eac46	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_135eac46	comment	Though more like logic puzzles or memory tests than traditional mysteries, the short stories in the Clue books by A. E. Parker, by design, always culminated in a specific mystery, for which the reader was given enough information to deduce the answer. Generally this simply involved keeping track of a series of fairly transparent mix-ups earlier in each story.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_135eac46	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_135eac46	featureConfidence	1.0
Clue	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_135eac46
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_149ceb2	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_149ceb2	comment	The Last of Sheila, where not only is the title a clue, but if you pay close attention during the early scenes you will see a vital clue that directly points to the murderer's identity.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_149ceb2	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_149ceb2	featureConfidence	1.0
The Last of Sheila	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_149ceb2
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1543f8a	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1543f8a	comment	Zero Time Dilemma, the sequel game to Virtue's Last Reward, also plays with the rules, especially Rule 1: Zero II is Q — but the name Q isn't referring to the little robot boy, but the elderly, allegedly disabled man who's been sitting just out of frame the entire game. This character's existence is foreshadowed, and really perceptive players can pick up on it, but the game doesn't introduce this character to the audience, making it incredibly difficult to guess who Zero is.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1543f8a	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1543f8a	featureConfidence	1.0
Zero Time Dilemma (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1543f8a
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_17293dfa	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_17293dfa	comment	In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the first case brutally breaks Rules 1 and 7. Player Character Kaede did it, and you switch to controlling the Deuteragonist Shuichi up to that point once you figure it out. You even get to recount several scenes linking apparently innocuous things Kaede did that link her to the crime. The sixth case is a retrial of the first, in which Shuichi proves that Kaede didn't do it, retroactively passing the rules after all, though the use of a secret passage from the girls' bathroom to the library toes the edge of Rule 3.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_17293dfa	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_17293dfa	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_17293dfa
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_19ae41a0	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_19ae41a0	comment	The Mysterious Affair at Styles is absolutely a Fair Play Whodunit. The reader knows everything Poirot does. No unknown illegitimate children there.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_19ae41a0	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_19ae41a0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Mysterious Affair at Styles	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_19ae41a0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1a5262be	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1a5262be	comment	In Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, an entire family was murdered, and the answer to which of the three survivors committed the crime is fairly clued within.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1a5262be	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1a5262be	featureConfidence	1.0
We Have Always Lived in the Castle	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1a5262be
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1f1beedc	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1f1beedc	comment	The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was intensely controversial at the time (which helped cement Christie's fame) but is now generally recognised as extremely fair. The way Poirot ultimately solves the crime is by reading what Dr. Sheppard wrote down which is exactly what the reader is reading. Which means that an acute reader could actually pick up most of the important clues before Poirot does. The controversy occurs because the novel does violate two of Knox's Commandments (the First and the Ninth; the Watson-figure of the novel is also the murderer, and he does not write down every thought he had in the journal — he does not actively lie to the reader, but fails to describe what he was doing at the time of the murder in a way that is blatant on a second reading but is easily passed over on the first). This does not keep it from being fair, serving as reminder that rigid adherence to Knox's rules is not what makes a good Fair-play Whodunnit.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1f1beedc	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1f1beedc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_1f1beedc
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_20a1fdef	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_20a1fdef	comment	The second of three conflicts in Trial of the Amazons revolves around this, although to have all the clues one would have to read the Wonder Girl (Infinite Frontier) series before the "Trial" event, and since DC Comic's marketing arm saw fit to completely undermine the mystery, one would also have to ignore the titles announced while it was ongoing to fully enjoy it, unless one enjoys internal reveals.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_20a1fdef	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_20a1fdef	featureConfidence	1.0
Trial of the Amazons (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_20a1fdef
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_21f00169	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_21f00169	comment	The Lord Darcy mysteries are an interesting case, in that they violate Rule 2 (since some of the characters have magical powers) and still manage to play fair with the reader. However, since the universe the stories are set in has consistent magical rules, Rule 2 could be said to be broken in letter but not in spirit. In some of the stories, the whole point is that everyone assumes an impossible murder was done by magic, and Lord Darcy explains how it could have been committed in a perfectly mundane way. Magic is mostly used for forensics. Rule 1 is violated in at least one story, where a character whose point-of-view is followed later turns out to be the murderer.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_21f00169	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_21f00169	featureConfidence	1.0
Lord Darcy	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_21f00169
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2209d496	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2209d496	comment	Max Finder Mystery: Each story includes clues so that the reader can solve the mystery along with the characters. According to series creator Liam O'Donnell, this was directly inspired by Encyclopedia Brown.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2209d496	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2209d496	featureConfidence	1.0
Max Finder Mystery (Comic Strip)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2209d496
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_22e860f4	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_22e860f4	comment	Most Psych episodes are fair play, especially since clues are highlighted for the viewer as Shawn sees them, plus the viewer sees the opening flashback which always relates to the story at hand. The exceptions are usually cases where Shawn doesn't figure out who the bad guy is until they reveal themselves either, like with Yang and Yin.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_22e860f4	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_22e860f4	featureConfidence	1.0
Psych	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_22e860f4
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_25f6f1a0	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_25f6f1a0	comment	Umineko: When They Cry starts out rather questionably if it's a mystery or a fantasy, and it's the main conflict of the first four arcs—as in the characters actually argue over the genre: Beatrice insists that she killed everyone with magic while Battler refuses to believe that magic exists at all, though he also handicaps himself by refusing to admit that this means someone he knows committed the murders. As the story progresses, we're first shown Beatrice killing everyone with magic, which makes Battler despair until it's explained that anything not seen from the personal perspective of his piece on the "game board" is unreliable information. In the fifth arc, the reader is presented with the Knox's Decalogue as a hint to solving the mysteries presented, with a further hint being that if it's possible for Battler to be right, then the story must by definition be a Fair-Play Whodunnit. The only question is whether he can figure out how it was actually done or, more importantly, the real meaning of the game and what magic actually is. While some of the individual mystery stories can be solved, there is ultimately no solution given for the broader question of what happened in the "real" mystery, or indeed what exactly that was, making the broader plot closer to a Clueless Mystery. Although literal clues abound, there is no way to confirm anything. Half of Episode 5 is about weaponizing Knox's Decalogue, with Battler figuring out not how to solve the mystery from his experience with Beatrice's riddle, but by thinking of the solution first then justifying it with the Decalogue. Though by the end of the visual novel a full answer is never explicitly given, the viewer can still check if their theories are correct by matching it with Willard's answers during Episode 7, where he uses flowery and symbolic language to provide answers to the Who and How of the first four Episodes. Episode 5 and the events in the real world go largely unanswered, however, though the latter is arguably never presented as a solvable mystery. The manga is less coy about the answers, visually depicting the Who, How and Why of every Episode in details in Episode 7 and 8. This entire trope is deconstructed during the Question Arcs. The Anti-Mystery perspective, championed by Beatrice, is that fair-play mystery is inherently unrealistic. Only a fictional detective has a guarantee from god that the mystery is solvable and all the necessary clues to reach it are attainable. In the real world, there is no such thing. Perhaps testimonies and confessions are simply false. Perhaps the culprit was meticulous enough to not leave evidence anyway. Perhaps the necessary evidence is never recovered by the detective. To expect a solvable mystery is inherently illogical, as no such guarantee exists for any living breathing detective. The Answer Arcs reconstruct all this by saying that because the reader is never really given this guarantee, they must be able to have faith in the writer and tackle the puzzle anyway because, without this baseless belief, the mystery cannot be solved. Only with the trust that this question was crafted to be answered can they begin to find that answer. Without love, the truth cannot be seen.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_25f6f1a0	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_25f6f1a0	featureConfidence	1.0
Umineko: When They Cry (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_25f6f1a0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_261c8d3f	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_261c8d3f	comment	The Simpsons: The first few Sideshow Bob episodes were this kind of story, with the second, "Black Widower," even written with assistance from the head of Mystery Writers of America. Later on, the writers abandoned the mystery angle because coming up with them proved too difficult. The 2-part Season 6 closer/Season 7 opener "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" Even though the culprit did seem to come out of the blue ( It was the baby, Maggie Simpson), the clues were indeed all there, with the mystery even being drummed up as a contest to see who could figure it out. In fact, the culprit was actually properly identified by a fan of the show, legitimately using the clues presented, in the summer between the two episodes. Sadly, he didn't actually win anything. note The reason the fan didn't win was that the contest was so poorly designed. The way it worked was that of all the entries, the producers would choose a thousand, out of which they would pick whoever sent in the correct answer. Unfortunately, from the thousand that they picked, no one actually had the correct answer. You would assume that they would just start again with another thousand, but the rules specifically stated that the winner had to be out of the first thousand picked. So, they just chose someone randomly. Of course, this meant that any number of people could have sent in the correct culprit, just were unlucky to not wind up in the final thousand. The writers lampshade this by ending the first part with Dr. Hibbert turning to the viewer and saying "Well, I couldn't possibly solve this mystery...can YOU?" Then the camera pans back and we realize he's actually talking to Chief Wiggum.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_261c8d3f	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_261c8d3f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Simpsons	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_261c8d3f
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_277975b4	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_277975b4	comment	Several of the Miss Marple short stories were the ultimate in fair play. They were told to Miss Marple by guests at a party, so the reader knows exactly what the detective knows. It also helps explain what an elderly woman is doing solving mysteries.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_277975b4	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_277975b4	featureConfidence	1.0
Miss Marple	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_277975b4
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_285bfa3e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_285bfa3e	comment	Willard Wright demanded that all detective fiction be Fair Play Whodunnits. When he wrote the Philo Vance novels (under the pen name S.S. Van Dine), he wrote them to code. Late in The Greene Murder Case, Vance even writes a multi-page summary of the crimes, officially to help focus his thoughts, but it makes sure the reader is up to speed as well.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_285bfa3e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_285bfa3e	featureConfidence	1.0
Philo Vance	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_285bfa3e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2ac52633	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2ac52633	comment	Pooh's Grand Adventure: Older fans of the movie will clearly hear Owl is spelling "school", not "skull", but given that everyone except Christopher Robin is illiterate, it was intentional.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2ac52633	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2ac52633	featureConfidence	1.0
Pooh's Grand Adventure	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2ac52633
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2b0b461e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2b0b461e	comment	Black Widowers: In "Northwestward", The clues are all presented during the grilling, and The Summation doesnâ€™t start until the diners turn to Henry for advice. The only missing clue is that there used to be a popular airline company named Northwest Airlines.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2b0b461e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2b0b461e	featureConfidence	1.0
Black Widowers	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2b0b461e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2f28a53c	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2f28a53c	comment	Ellery Queen: The TV series reflected most of the books in this regard. Notable for when Ellery would address the camera to ask the audience if they had noticed the same clues he did. "Are you with me? You might even be ahead of me, all the clues have been right there."
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2f28a53c	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2f28a53c	featureConfidence	1.0
Ellery Queen	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_2f28a53c
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_303f74a5	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_303f74a5	comment	The When They Cry mysteries have Fair Play solutions, but apparent violations are used to misdirect the viewer, and either come from unreliable sources, or they're irrelevant to the who- and howdunnit. Umineko: When They Cry starts out rather questionably if it's a mystery or a fantasy, and it's the main conflict of the first four arcs—as in the characters actually argue over the genre: Beatrice insists that she killed everyone with magic while Battler refuses to believe that magic exists at all, though he also handicaps himself by refusing to admit that this means someone he knows committed the murders. As the story progresses, we're first shown Beatrice killing everyone with magic, which makes Battler despair until it's explained that anything not seen from the personal perspective of his piece on the "game board" is unreliable information. In the fifth arc, the reader is presented with the Knox's Decalogue as a hint to solving the mysteries presented, with a further hint being that if it's possible for Battler to be right, then the story must by definition be a Fair-Play Whodunnit. The only question is whether he can figure out how it was actually done or, more importantly, the real meaning of the game and what magic actually is. While some of the individual mystery stories can be solved, there is ultimately no solution given for the broader question of what happened in the "real" mystery, or indeed what exactly that was, making the broader plot closer to a Clueless Mystery. Although literal clues abound, there is no way to confirm anything. Half of Episode 5 is about weaponizing Knox's Decalogue, with Battler figuring out not how to solve the mystery from his experience with Beatrice's riddle, but by thinking of the solution first then justifying it with the Decalogue. Though by the end of the visual novel a full answer is never explicitly given, the viewer can still check if their theories are correct by matching it with Willard's answers during Episode 7, where he uses flowery and symbolic language to provide answers to the Who and How of the first four Episodes. Episode 5 and the events in the real world go largely unanswered, however, though the latter is arguably never presented as a solvable mystery. The manga is less coy about the answers, visually depicting the Who, How and Why of every Episode in details in Episode 7 and 8. This entire trope is deconstructed during the Question Arcs. The Anti-Mystery perspective, championed by Beatrice, is that fair-play mystery is inherently unrealistic. Only a fictional detective has a guarantee from god that the mystery is solvable and all the necessary clues to reach it are attainable. In the real world, there is no such thing. Perhaps testimonies and confessions are simply false. Perhaps the culprit was meticulous enough to not leave evidence anyway. Perhaps the necessary evidence is never recovered by the detective. To expect a solvable mystery is inherently illogical, as no such guarantee exists for any living breathing detective. The Answer Arcs reconstruct all this by saying that because the reader is never really given this guarantee, they must be able to have faith in the writer and tackle the puzzle anyway because, without this baseless belief, the mystery cannot be solved. Only with the trust that this question was crafted to be answered can they begin to find that answer. Without love, the truth cannot be seen. Higurashi: When They Cry, Umineko's predecessor, also has the same theme running much more quietly in the background. It is possible to figure out how things are occurring by the end of the first half of the story, though perhaps not why. Of course, the crime may not be exactly what you've been led to believe, which may trick you into believing there has been a rules violation when Keiichi goes crazy and kills his friends.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_303f74a5	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_303f74a5	featureConfidence	1.0
When They Cry (Franchise)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_303f74a5
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_331e009	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_331e009	comment	Borderlands 2 has one of these. A man is murdered in Sanctuary and there is a confirmed description of the killer... only he's one of four quadruplets. Interviewing everyone will reveal vital clues, however.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_331e009	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_331e009	featureConfidence	1.0
Borderlands 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_331e009
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_36f5e759	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_36f5e759	comment	Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency series revolved around a beautiful ex-CIA agent who runs a PI firm, her true crime writer fiancÃ©, and the (usually fairly clued) mysteries they run across.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_36f5e759	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_36f5e759	featureConfidence	1.0
The Maze Agency (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_36f5e759
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3b34143f	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3b34143f	comment	The Harry Potter books are like this; the mystery plot is deliberately littered with Red Herrings to lead Harry (and the reader, by extension) down the wrong path at first, but an acute reader can pick up on the actual clues and determine the true culprit before Harry does. For example, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets drops several easily-missable clues about who is the opener of Chamber of Secrets, the most notable being Ginny crying out about having to go back and get her diary long before it becomes a major plot point — although while we learn that the diary is alive and can communicate with people, we don't actually learn that it can possess people until the denouement. In fact, many readers who had become used to Rowling's extensive use of Chekhov's Gun and Chekhov's Gunman were able to figure out a couple of things the sixth book set up before the seventh book confirmed them: the identity of "R.A.B." and that Harry himself is a Horcrux. And even smaller ones, like the barman of the Hog's Head in book 5 being Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3b34143f	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3b34143f	featureConfidence	1.0
Harry Potter	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3b34143f
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3d2687f6	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3d2687f6	comment	The mystery portion of Hoodwinked! is designed with the intention of little kids being able to feel triumphant for figuring out who the villain is. The character appears in all four stories during the film's "Rashomon"-Style first two acts; the third story, in which he turns up completely unexpectedly at the scene of a crime and drops a few lines of dialogue that hint at his motivation, is the point at which most viewers, both child and adult, figure it out, with his largely throwaway recurrence in the fourth story being there just to confirm suspicions.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3d2687f6	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3d2687f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Hoodwinked!	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_3d2687f6
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_43f52aa9	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_43f52aa9	comment	One quest in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion plays with this. A precious painting is stolen in Castle Chorrol, and the Countess hires the player to track down the thief; a list of four suspects, all members of the castle's staff, is given. While you can solve the crime just by exploring the estate and finding evidence, astute players can crack the case just by talking to the suspects: three of the four's alibis mention a big rainstorm on the night of the theft, while the court wizard, the culprit, claims she was making star charts in the courtyard, which wouldn't be possible because of the storm. If anything, deducing the mystery that way would point players in the right direction re: hunting for clues, but since it's not necessary, it's perfectly possible to simply ransack everyone's quarters until you find the items you need.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_43f52aa9	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_43f52aa9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_43f52aa9
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4522fd1	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4522fd1	comment	The Big Idea of the Whateley Universe is a Fair-Play Whodunnit, even though the superpowers of the characters add complications over the usual detective story. The reader even has more information than Reach, the character who plays the detective in the story.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4522fd1	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4522fd1	featureConfidence	1.0
Whateley Universe	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4522fd1
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_46196a4	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_46196a4	comment	The Kindaichi Case Files shares enough information with the audience to allow you to solve the mystery before The Summation. The translator involved goes to a lot of effort to translate the relevant evidence into English.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_46196a4	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_46196a4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Kindaichi Case Files (Manga)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_46196a4
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a	comment	When Robert van Gulik wrote his novels starring Judge Dee, he deliberately incorporated many of Knox's principles into them (except the Chinaman rule, for obvious reasons—though he still follows the spirit of the rule, in that all of the perpetrators are ordinary people and not diabolical supervillains). In particular, he had to struggle with the second commandment, as the supernatural elements are omnipresent in traditional Chinese detective fiction (e.g. it's not uncommon for the victim's ghost to appear to the detective ten pages in and give a detailed account of their own murder), due to the genre's cultural purpose being to teach the reader a moral lesson, rather than to challenge their puzzle-solving skills. In fact, the very first novel Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee (not part of later continuity) was Gulik's only translation from a Chinese original, which attracted his attention primarily because it lacked any supernatural elements relevant to the mystery plot.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a	featureConfidence	1.0
Judge Dee	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_468c2a7a
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a49aec6	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a49aec6	comment	Garfield's Babes and Bullets: A viewer can figure out the mystery with some thinking once Kitty gives Sam some important information. Kitty mentions that O'Tabby was an insomniac so, in addition to her making coffee for him, she would also fill out his prescriptions for sleeping pills. It contradicts O'Felix and the police saying he fell asleep at the wheel due to exhaustion.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a49aec6	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a49aec6	featureConfidence	1.0
Garfield's Babes and Bullets	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a49aec6
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a92404f	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a92404f	comment	Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent delicately scatters its clues amidst character development and the trial plotline — all the reader needs is in the text.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a92404f	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a92404f	featureConfidence	1.0
Presumed Innocent	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4a92404f
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4b13f12b	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4b13f12b	comment	"Let's Get Together": The mystery puzzle in this story is in figuring out how to identify at least one humanoid robot before they can create their Total Conversion bomb. Lynn's realization indicates that all the clues have been presented to the reader.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4b13f12b	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4b13f12b	featureConfidence	1.0
Let's Get Together	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4b13f12b
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4cc06582	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4cc06582	comment	Hot Fuzz actually follows the rules rather well. The audience sees all of the clues that Nicholas Angel sees, and his partner Danny fits the 'below-average intelligence' requirement. The clues are so plentiful in pointing to a singular culprit, it almost seems like a Reverse Who Dunnit. Then it's all subverted. EVERYONE in town except for the children and a few police are guilty. Better still, the earlier clues could have legitimately indicated this.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4cc06582	featureApplicability	-0.3
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4cc06582	featureConfidence	1.0
Hot Fuzz	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4cc06582
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d60bed0	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d60bed0	comment	Oddity Woods: "The Cat Manor Mystery", the prologue chapter, is set up as an easy case with a simple solution... which is interrupted when protagonist Marietta barges into the crime scene and tries to uncover the culprit through supernatural means. Hilarity Ensues. "The Demon of Labyrinth Inn" plays by the rules aside from Rule 2: a consequence of the Woods, which are filled with all sorts of ghosts and monsters. It also skirts Rule 3: while the Labyrinth Inn is filled with shifting walls and secret rooms, they're only a hindrance to the characters in the present day and didn't factor into the murder itself.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d60bed0	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d60bed0	featureConfidence	1.0
Oddity Woods (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d60bed0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d6ad22f	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d6ad22f	comment	Discussed in Virtue's Last Reward, but also immediately dismissed by Sigma, who due to his more or less Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory is able to bypass Rule 6. Even though the game violently smashes every rule, it still manages to encompass the SPIRIT of the rules, unlike most examples of this, by having the very spirit of why every rule exists being intact, while still breaking the fundamental rules themselves. This is done through a mixture of ways: Rule 1 is broken in the same way as Rule 7: by revealing Sigma to be Zero. However, since it was his future self, the Sigma we follow is not privy to this information, and is as surprised as the player when he finds out himself. Rule 2 is broken by, of course, the constant mind leaping, and time stuff. But the essence of why the rule is included; so that supernatural stuff can't just be used as an Ass Pull, is respected and never broken. Every element of the supernatural abilities is explained with actual scientific, if fictional pseudoscientific, explanations, and the entire thing is laid on a plate for the player at the start. There's never a single moment where the supernatural elements are treated as anything other than established points, as normal to the in-game universe as, say, jet-travel is in the real world. Rule 3: The facility everyone is trapped in does not seem like the kind of place a secret passage would be expected to be found. Despite this, the big door in the Floor B warehouse serves as one. This is justified in that it's not "secret"; it just can't be opened from the inside. Alternatively, the facility itself is filled with doors with rules tied to the Deadly Game everyone's playing, and full of puzzles and one-way-until-unlocked-from-the-right-side doors. However, the doors with rules are explained at the start of the game, and characters are given a map (with one-way doors annotated) upon completion of a puzzle. Rule 4: The reason some things are given long scientific explanations in game is that because those explanations become vital later on, and are used for a number of "loop-hole" breakages, once again making sure that the reason the rule exists (to prevent pointlessly confusing dialogue and banter) is not broken. The presence of Alice breaks Rule 5, but she is never treated any differently than all the other characters based on her ethnicity, which is the reason the rule exists in the first place. The game's updated Rule 5 (No one with extra-sensory perception or similar powers may appear) is also technically not broken; none of the time travel abilities are described as ESP, and while Clover does have some abilities, they are never once relevant. Sigma himself is called out on this by Luna, who uses Rule 6 to discount his argument when he used information from another timeline. Sigma uses this example as to why he didn't do anything wrong: The two timelines, timeline A and B, both stream from timeline P. Since timeline A and B both run of the same "time", one that came from timeline P, and since he himself can timeline jump, him taking information from timeline A and using it in timeline B isn't breaking any rules. He also goes on to say that if he had taken info from timeline A then gone back to timeline P and used the info to change the branches, then she would have a point. But as he never actually used information he couldn't otherwise know to change the OUTCOME of the timelines, which is the fundamental reason why Rule 6 exists, he's not doing anything wrong. Rule 7 is MASSIVELY broken. Sigma himself is Zero. But once again, the game pays homage and never breaks the reason for the rule existing: It never has the 'detective' turn out to be "the bad guy", therefore breaking the entire point of the story. Sigma himself is just as shocked as anyone to learn that he was the 'criminal' all along. Rule 8 is broken by Sigma revealing information that he shouldn't yet know, confusing other characters and having the timelines you go down have moments of Sigma sporadically pulling information from timelines the player most likely hasn't gone down yet. However, Sigma never once knows more than the player. In fact, on many occasions, it's the OTHER WAY AROUND. The game also makes you play down a timeline that Sigma has pulled information from first before you can see the moment in the other timeline where Sigma states the info he pulled [this is achieved by using "path blocks" that cuts the scene whenever Sigma is about to say something the player shouldn't yet know]. Rule 9: This game's Deuteragonist, Phi, appears to regularly keep important information from Sigma. However, it's eventually revealed that this is not the case, as Phi shares any pertinent info she may have, and any time she dismisses how she got this info with "I Just Knew", she really did just know. In addition, since you pair up with different characters, and follow different character routes, most of the characters end up as the "Watson" at some point. For one example, Tenmyouji and Quark keep quiet about the Facility being on the moon, and being set 45 years later than most players expect. They've been told if they talk, they'll be killed, but due to the game's copious amounts of foreshadowing, it's possible (though difficult) to guess/work out some details ahead of time. Rule 10 is broken when K's mask is removed to reveal Sigma's face. However, the fact that they look identical never plays into the story and is explained at the end. Further, the specific wording of "unless we have been duly prepared for them" is followed too. Depending on the order you get endings, either Luna route or Dio's ending provides a reasonable explanation for K looking exactly like Sigma. That is, K is either a robot or a clone respectively.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d6ad22f	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d6ad22f	featureConfidence	1.0
Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4d6ad22f
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4f847312	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4f847312	comment	The Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout sometimes are and sometimes aren't Fair Play, since they're all narrated by Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's dogsbody and legman. Archie reports everything he finds to Wolfe, but Wolfe often doesn't return the favor, leaving both Archie and the readers in the dark. As a result, Archie and the reader usually have about the same chance of solving the mystery. If it is a Fair-play story, Archie will tell the readers at some point that he figured it out, and that they can too.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4f847312	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4f847312	featureConfidence	1.0
Nero Wolfe	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_4f847312
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_51ba977e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_51ba977e	comment	The oldest, which is appropriately titled Murder Mystery, is essentially Clue; the master of an estate has been murdered and the local lawmen are turning to you because they're stumped, and one of his six or so children did it, but the culprit is different for each player. Pay attention to the clues you find, and it should be easy to deduce who did it.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_51ba977e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_51ba977e	featureConfidence	1.0
Clue (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_51ba977e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_526d4c5c	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_526d4c5c	comment	The two mystery subquests in Knights of the Old Republic play completely fair, given that it's up to you to solve them. There are a LOT of Red Herrings to make it look more difficult than it is—especially given the black-and-white morality of the rest of the game.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_526d4c5c	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_526d4c5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Knights of the Old Republic (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_526d4c5c
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_546d9f5d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_546d9f5d	comment	The Eagle Eye Mysteries PC game series eventually becomes this for older and more seasoned and experienced players.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_546d9f5d	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_546d9f5d	featureConfidence	1.0
Eagle Eye Mysteries (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_546d9f5d
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_58808436	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_58808436	comment	Higurashi: When They Cry, Umineko's predecessor, also has the same theme running much more quietly in the background. It is possible to figure out how things are occurring by the end of the first half of the story, though perhaps not why. Of course, the crime may not be exactly what you've been led to believe, which may trick you into believing there has been a rules violation when Keiichi goes crazy and kills his friends.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_58808436	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_58808436	featureConfidence	1.0
Higurashi: When They Cry (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_58808436
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5921531b	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5921531b	comment	Persona 4 counts. The player is given all the information, and the culprit is someone they know. In the endgame, the player is given a list of all the characters (s)he has met so far and a set of clues that should narrow it down to one person. They must then select the culprit correctly within three guesses, or be foisted off with a bad ending. Unfortunately, there's 80 hours of dungeon crawling between those vital clues and the event when it becomes crucial to remember them. There is one vital clue that helps considerably: The killer left the player a threatening note in their own house while they weren't there, and they didn't break in. The killer must be someone that Dojima and Nanako trust.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5921531b	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5921531b	featureConfidence	1.0
Persona 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5921531b
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5d7f0a07	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5d7f0a07	comment	Turnabout Storm has the protagonists and viewers sharing the same level of knowledge of the crime most of the time, which means the audience is given all clues necessary to uncover the truth as the case unravels. Before the final confrontation, all the information necessary to deduce the entirety of the events is given. The same goes for its sequel series, Elements of Justice, for the same reasons.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5d7f0a07	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5d7f0a07	featureConfidence	1.0
Turnabout Storm (Web Animation)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5d7f0a07
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5e189068	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5e189068	comment	As the narrator in Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is a how-to-write-crime author, he not only adheres to Knox's commandments throughout the story (using them as the book's epigraph) but spelling out in the prologues exactly what the reader can expect through the book, including the page numbersnote Chapter numbers, in the audiobook where someone dies.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5e189068	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5e189068	featureConfidence	1.0
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_5e189068
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6176df4a	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6176df4a	comment	Donald J. Sobol's other series, Two-Minute Mysteries, was similarly deliberately fair-play (and similarly not always plausible).
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6176df4a	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6176df4a	featureConfidence	1.0
Two-Minute Mysteries	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6176df4a
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_625e571	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_625e571	comment	Law & Order: Criminal Intent does this more often than the others. Excluding the cases where you know who did it from the very beginning about a third of the shows have enough clues to solve it part way through, a couple can almost be deciphered based on the opening.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_625e571	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_625e571	featureConfidence	1.0
Law & Order: Criminal Intent	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_625e571
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_64b8b713	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_64b8b713	comment	Most of the novels in The Lady Grace Mysteries follow this style; due to the diary format Grace provides the reader with every new clue and piece of information she's learned, we only know what Grace knows (although sometimes she may take longer to piece something together than the reader if they're savvy enough), the culprit is usually a character who is already known to Grace/the reader, and there's plenty of foreshadowing and subtle hints to the solution that can be picked up on.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_64b8b713	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_64b8b713	featureConfidence	1.0
The Lady Grace Mysteries	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_64b8b713
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_65ede3d5	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_65ede3d5	comment	Hanai's route in Metro PD: Close to You provides the audience with all of the facts needed to solve the mystery. Unfortunately, combined with the Law of Conservation of Detail and the fact that the VN's focus is more on romance than on mystery, this means that the reader will probably have it figured out well before any of the detectives do.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_65ede3d5	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_65ede3d5	featureConfidence	1.0
Metro PD: Close to You (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_65ede3d5
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6744d821	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6744d821	comment	In The Owl House, one of the main mysteries of the first season is the identity of the person who cursed Eda. It is possible to eliminate and narrow down the suspects and figure out who it is. The main clue is that she was cursed when she was a child, so it has to be an adult character who knew her as a child.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6744d821	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6744d821	featureConfidence	1.0
The Owl House	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6744d821
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6756334b	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6756334b	comment	Played with in Deep Red; an early scene actually shows the face of the murderer, but it's done so quickly — and before you know to look for it — that most people never catch on.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6756334b	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6756334b	featureConfidence	1.0
Deep Red	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6756334b
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_68fe3a17	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_68fe3a17	comment	Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective attempts to obey Knox's Canon (how well varies) by engaging the players as assistants who run around London attempting to gather the same clues as Holmes.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_68fe3a17	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_68fe3a17	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_68fe3a17
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_691be369	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_691be369	comment	The X-Files: The episode "The Amazing Maleeni" provides you with all clues needed to solve the mystery. There is at least one unexplained question, befitting the series, but it's not required to solve the mystery.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_691be369	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_691be369	featureConfidence	1.0
The X-Files	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_691be369
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6cdec540	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6cdec540	comment	Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Set up, but not revealed to be a mystery until the end of issue #18. The crew of the Lost Light are holed up in a jail cell with an Autobot named Minimus Ambus, a small-time Energon trader who was accused of smuggling dangerous superfuels, only it's heavily implied that's not the whole truth. The psychologist Rung has his suspicions as to what's going on and finally calls out Ambus in front of the crew. He points out that careful observation of Ambus' behavior throughout the book revealed, among other things, meticulous focus on order and procedure, an utter lack of mirth, and an immense distaste for filth and mess, as well as various quirks of speech tone and vocal pattern. It's possible to spot the same things Rung did and come to the same conclusion. Minimus Ambus is in fact Ultra Magnus, stripped of his Ultra Magnus armor and identity, who had gone missing earlier on after being presumed fatally wounded. Early on, readers are presented with a question that no one has the answer to: what does resident psychologist Rung transform into? For a long time the official answer was 'ornament' and in one instance, 'beating stick,' but the implied greater mystery is "Who is Rung?" When you notice that Rung is described as a universal constant who has 'always been there' with a unique perfectly round serial number of 100000000, who manages to survive accidentally getting his head blown off and the subsequent coma, who is able to produce photonic crystals. Aware readers will have caught on that The Matrix was once described a photonic crystal. He seems to be a minor, almost comic relief character, yet is set up to be central to, among other things, the overarching plot which involves an Alternate Timeline and Cybertronian mythology, which is unable to firmly establish the most central of mythology tropes, a Creation Myth and an attendant Creator God. Step back, take it all together, and in spite of the sheer ludicrous impossibility of the prospect, you can reach the same conclusion that Nightbeat and later Rung himself did: Rung is an amnesiac Primus returned to live among his people and save them in their Darkest Hour... and his alternate mode is a Matrix creation machine. His serial number isn't one hundred million, he's been looking at it upside down all these millions of years. It's one, as in, the first Cybertronian.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6cdec540	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6cdec540	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers: More than Meets the Eye (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_6cdec540
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_72e7d7f6	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_72e7d7f6	comment	There's a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery where a particular missing item from a painter's setup is an important clue that the painter had been murdered, rather than died accidentally, and the page revealing what it is before The Summation, in a vaguely clever twist, is removed for "the entertainment of the reader". Sayers still plays fair, though. There are three or four other scenes between the missing page and the summation which, taken together, can be used to work out what the object was and what happened to it. In fact, you can deduce what's missing in the same way that Lord Peter does, from the description of the scene alone, although a (very) basic knowledge of oil painting may be needed. A subversion is Have His Carcase, where the solution requires a very elaborate (and accidental on the part of the murderer) trick involving the time of death. The victim has a rare condition known as hemophilia, which prevents the blood from clotting, obscuring the real time of death. If the reader is knowledgeable enough in minor trivia, there are enough clues for a genius to figure out what the trick is — but it requires a very specialized knowledge base that most people simply do not have. For those without the prerequisite knowledge, Lord Peter's revelation seems a bit like an Ass Pull or Deus ex machina, though the astute reader can generally figure out that something is hinky, because everyone's alibi is too solid, which is what tips Wimsey off that something is hinky. One of the things that tips him off to the identity of the murderer is that that suspect also has a (manufactured) alibi for the real time of death, once he realizes what that is.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_72e7d7f6	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_72e7d7f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Lord Peter Wimsey	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_72e7d7f6
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_73383fee	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_73383fee	comment	Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc breaks Rule 3 (there are hidden rooms and corridors in Hope's Peak, several of whom the game master hides from you), Rule 4 in order to maintain the ontological mystery of why and how you've been trapped in the school to begin with; it involves mind control/memory-altering technology that has not been established from the beginning of the game, and toes Rule 6 as Makoto's good luck is the reason he attended Hope's Peak in the first place, and it occasionally tosses him a bone. Rules 8 and 9 are also completely broken, since the Player Character's Watson is an actual detective and repeatedly finds clues Makoto can't see and hides her deductions from him. And, of course, it completely breaks Rule 10; the "Junko Enoshima" who got killed early on was actually the unmentioned twin sister of the real Junko; while the notion that there was an extra student was introduced early, it was never hinted that the extra was Junko's twin. Junko even complains about how cliche the secret twin trope is when she's explaining what happened.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_73383fee	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_73383fee	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_73383fee
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_744c9140	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_744c9140	comment	Asimov also tweaked the novelization of Fantastic Voyage to provide clues to the identity of the saboteur in the crew, as well as to paper over the scientific problems with the concept.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_744c9140	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_744c9140	featureConfidence	1.0
Fantastic Voyage	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_744c9140
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_74cdc7b	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_74cdc7b	comment	Done in the Wonder Pets! episode "Save the Puppy" — as the team meets the puppy who has a Potty Emergency, the doggy door can be seen in the backyard door long before they even realize it.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_74cdc7b	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_74cdc7b	featureConfidence	1.0
Wonder Pets!	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_74cdc7b
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_755fadab	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_755fadab	comment	The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has the mystery episode "Remote Island Syndrome". The first part of the episode seems to be a regular fun-filled day on a private island. That episode secretly contains almost all the clues you need to solve the mystery presented in the second half, although if you don't expect the mystery, you could easily miss them. However, it's heavily implied that Haruhi, despite noticing the clues, never actually solved the crime — she changed the facts of the case to fit the clues. This case was significantly different in the original novels, with Kyon's sister not going on the trip, copious amounts of alcohol being involved, and none of the incidents which implied use of Haruhi's powers (such as her and Kyon going out in the storm and seeing the mysterious shadow). The later story of Snow Mountain Syndrome has Koizumi deliberately set up a similar event on the trip with a detailed script which has given to all the characters to see if they could deduce it. Haruhi and Tsuruya got it before the other characters, but enough clues are given that the reader can solve it even before them.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_755fadab	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_755fadab	featureConfidence	1.0
Haruhi Suzumiya	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_755fadab
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7950511c	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7950511c	comment	Subverted as the point of Murder by Death as the final Big Bad rants to the various sleuths on how horribly they tricked readers into making it impossible to solve the crimes just so they could seem like super-geniuses: "You tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that make no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages who were never in the book before! You withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it!"
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7950511c	featureApplicability	-0.3
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7950511c	featureConfidence	1.0
Murder by Death	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7950511c
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7c432481	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7c432481	comment	The Westing Game. Easy enough to follow that any elementary or middle school kid could have a chance of arriving at the correct answer.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7c432481	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7c432481	featureConfidence	1.0
The Westing Game	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7c432481
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7dcdbde1	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7dcdbde1	comment	In The Great Ace Attorney, specifically the third case of the second game, the victim is killed during an experiment to test a teleporter and is found dead at his destination. The possibility of the victim having a twin brother is brought up, but Prosecutor van Zieks rules it out. The actual explanation is more complicated but does not break the rule.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7dcdbde1	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7dcdbde1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Great Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7dcdbde1
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7e4805b6	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7e4805b6	comment	Knives Out is a deliberate revival of the genre that is, in fact, scrupulously fair. The only clue not immediately revealed to the audience is the toxicology report that indicates that Harlan had no morphine in his system, which is still revealed a few minutes later during The Summation and can be intuited by factors like Harlan showing no symptoms of a morphine overdose despite him and Marta thinking he's dying rapidly of one, or the fact that it exculpating Marta was the only reason the culprit could have to attempt to destroy it. On the other hand, the sequel violates Rule 10 by introducing a twin of one of the main suspects without foreshadowing it, and revealing that the twin and the detective were working together the whole time and withholding evidence from the audience about halfway through. From that point on, it's rather fair, though it takes incorporating information from before and after the spoilered reveal to solve it.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7e4805b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7e4805b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Knives Out	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_7e4805b6
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8125b468	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8125b468	comment	A number of Batman comics, particularly during the Denny O'Neill/Neal Adams period in the '70s, provided fair-play mysteries. The narration would even challenge the reader at one point, once all the clues were presented, to solve the crime before Batman.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8125b468	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8125b468	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman (Franchise)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8125b468
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_82212fb0	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_82212fb0	comment	The Mrs. Hawking play series: In part III: Base Instruments the audience is provided with all the same information and suspects the lead characters are and may make the same deductions to solve the murder. Subverted in part VI: Fallen Women. Though the identity and whereabouts of Jack the Ripper is a major issue for the characters, the narrative is less interested in allowing the audience to solve the mystery than in examining what effect the search has on the characters.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_82212fb0	featureApplicability	-0.3
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_82212fb0	featureConfidence	1.0
Mrs. Hawking (Theatre)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_82212fb0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_83d2396e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_83d2396e	comment	In Ted's Human Cannonball riddle video, the narrator challenges you to solve both the main riddle (compensating for your cannon's sabotage), and figure out who sabotaged the cannon. The narrator introduces the three suspects — the Clown, the Lion Tamer, and the Ringmaster — beforehand and gives potential motives for each (the clown is in love with the trapezist partnered with the protagonist for the act, the Lion Tamer is jealous of your position as the star attraction, and the Ringmaster wants more money and publicity), but says nothing about which one it actually was; you have to use logic and clues hidden throughout the video to figure it out. For the record, the culprit is the Lion Tamer. One of his shoulder tassels was torn off and can be found in the canon, and he looks noticeably angry when the Human Cannonball manages to survive by solving the riddle. The Ringmaster didn't do it because killing his star attractions isn't worth getting shock value. The Clown didn't do it because he isn't going to risk his love's life to sabotage his rival, and he can be seen waiting with gifts for the Trapezist, who would've been severely injured if the Human Cannonball hadn't been able to do his part properly. He did know about the sabotage, but tried to stop it, as indicated by the splash of the yellow liquid in his squirting flower next to the Lion Tamer.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_83d2396e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_83d2396e	featureConfidence	1.0
Ted (Website)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_83d2396e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84809b33	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84809b33	comment	L.A. Noire largely obeys this, which can come as a surprise if you thought it was just a Grand Theft Auto clone.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84809b33	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84809b33	featureConfidence	1.0
L.A. Noire (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84809b33
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84986bf9	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84986bf9	comment	RuneScape has three murder mystery side quests, and both of these whodunnits are easily of the fair variety: The oldest, which is appropriately titled Murder Mystery, is essentially Clue; the master of an estate has been murdered and the local lawmen are turning to you because they're stumped, and one of his six or so children did it, but the culprit is different for each player. Pay attention to the clues you find, and it should be easy to deduce who did it. The second one, One Piercing Note, was one of the first quests to feature real instrumentation and voice acting. It's a lot more story-heavy than Murder Mystery and it has a higher death toll. While the supernatural explanation can't be completely ruled out due to the setting, it's pretty obviously the least probable explanation for the murder mystery itself, and the murders are committed through mundane, if not normal, means. The third one, Murder on the Border, is a homage to classic quests, and revolves arround a banquet being held at the World Guardian's new fort. During the banquet, one of the guests is poisoned, and as the banquet's host, the World Guardian tasks themselves with figuring out who did it by finding clues and interogating the other guests. It's easy to determine who did once you put all the evidence together, and at the Summation Gathering, your aide corrects you if you make a wrong deduction.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84986bf9	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84986bf9	featureConfidence	1.0
RuneScape (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_84986bf9
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_882a68cf	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_882a68cf	comment	In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Poirot asks the butler what the date was three days ago; the butler walks over to a wall calendar and reads off 'the 22nd'; and the reader is led to conclude that there is something important about the date. However, during The Summation, Poirot says that the whole point was to find out if the butler had bad eyesight. She also plays fast and loose with the "no doubles or hitherto unknown twins" rules, by dropping two hitherto unknown illegitimate sons of the victim into the plot although the possibility of their existence was explicitly stated by their father himself. The novel is also the subject of controversy as to whether having a member of the police investigative team that Poirot helps being the killer is a violation of the commandments.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_882a68cf	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_882a68cf	featureConfidence	1.0
Hercule Poirot's Christmas	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_882a68cf
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89446aa7	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89446aa7	comment	On the other hand, the sequel violates Rule 10 by introducing a twin of one of the main suspects without foreshadowing it, and revealing that the twin and the detective were working together the whole time and withholding evidence from the audience about halfway through. From that point on, it's rather fair, though it takes incorporating information from before and after the spoilered reveal to solve it.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89446aa7	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89446aa7	featureConfidence	1.0
Glass Onion	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89446aa7
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89a7d44d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89a7d44d	comment	In Hangman's Curse, all of the clues are provided to the audience, giving them the material to determine the person behind it all by halfway through the film, earlier than it takes for the protagonists to figure it out.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89a7d44d	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89a7d44d	featureConfidence	1.0
Hangman's Curse	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_89a7d44d
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8d81f086	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8d81f086	comment	In several episodes of Monk, it's often possible to put them together and solve the case along with Monk. Sometimes, clues are revealed to us before Monk even notices them.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8d81f086	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8d81f086	featureConfidence	1.0
Monk	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8d81f086
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8f25225c	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8f25225c	comment	Danganronpa usually follows these rules, as the protagonist is deeply involved in the investigation, and you use evidence discovered during investigation in the trial, so if you're quick on the uptake, you can probably solve most cases before the protagonist does. Rule 5 is somewhat broken in 2 and V3, each of which includes one "gaijin" character (Sonia, who's European, and Angie, who's implied to be Polynesian), but neither ends up being a culprit. There's also a mechanic where the player can turn weak points into Truth Bullets, which essentially means the player has to manually catch the killers' mistakes during trials and use it against them. For example, in THH's second trial, you'll be put in a Nonstop Debate about tracksuit colors. None of it actually matters, but the killer will accidentally reveal they know something they really shouldn't with their initial statement, which the player must catch and confront them with. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc breaks Rule 3 (there are hidden rooms and corridors in Hope's Peak, several of whom the game master hides from you), Rule 4 in order to maintain the ontological mystery of why and how you've been trapped in the school to begin with; it involves mind control/memory-altering technology that has not been established from the beginning of the game, and toes Rule 6 as Makoto's good luck is the reason he attended Hope's Peak in the first place, and it occasionally tosses him a bone. Rules 8 and 9 are also completely broken, since the Player Character's Watson is an actual detective and repeatedly finds clues Makoto can't see and hides her deductions from him. And, of course, it completely breaks Rule 10; the "Junko Enoshima" who got killed early on was actually the unmentioned twin sister of the real Junko; while the notion that there was an extra student was introduced early, it was never hinted that the extra was Junko's twin. Junko even complains about how cliche the secret twin trope is when she's explaining what happened. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair gleefully breaks Rule 6 to bits with Nagito Komaeda, whose Ultimate Good Luck means that 'wander around and hope to stumble over evidence' is a completely legitimate strategy. Protagonist Hajime Hinata doesn't get these lucky breaks. Rule 2 is also broken in Case 5, where Nagito's supernatural luck is outright incorporated into his plan to have The Mole unintentionally kill him while leaving it impossible for the survivors to determine who the actual culprit could be. In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the first case brutally breaks Rules 1 and 7. Player Character Kaede did it, and you switch to controlling the Deuteragonist Shuichi up to that point once you figure it out. You even get to recount several scenes linking apparently innocuous things Kaede did that link her to the crime. The sixth case is a retrial of the first, in which Shuichi proves that Kaede didn't do it, retroactively passing the rules after all, though the use of a secret passage from the girls' bathroom to the library toes the edge of Rule 3.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8f25225c	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8f25225c	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa (Franchise)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_8f25225c
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_934f7972	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_934f7972	comment	Master Detective Archives: Rain Code has you investigate cases while the protagonist is just as unaware of the truth, but the clues provided by the Solution Keys help to reach the answer before the protagonist, and the protagonist is never the culprit for any of the cases, abiding Rule 1. However, the entire game breaks Rule 2, due to Master Detectives having Forensic Fortes, which are inherently supernatural, alongside the existence of Shinigami, a death god possessing the protagonist able to summon Mystery Labyrinths, which are essentially a Deus ex machina in the form of an Eldritch Location, which also breaks Rule 6, something the Big Bad abuses with his supernatural powers to try and kill the protagonist near the end of the story. As well as this, the entire game breaks Rule 10, as the Big Bad is the protagonist's Evil Twin, something that isn't obvious from the start unless you're actively picking up on Makoto's hints.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_934f7972	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_934f7972	featureConfidence	1.0
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_934f7972
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9356e658	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9356e658	comment	Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue is a slightly odd version of this. The goal is to deduce which of Morty's robots Morty is hiding in, so you can catch him. Technically, all the robots are committing the same crime (painting a school with disappearing paint), but you can only stop them all by figuring out which robot is housing Morty on the first try. Guess the wrong robot, and it's game over. Otherwise, the game plays this trope straight, as the player finds clues and makes deductions at the same time as the Super Solver.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9356e658	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9356e658	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Solvers (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9356e658
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9a67b688	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9a67b688	comment	Case Closed: Sometimes you'll need to know various Japanese references, names, and pronunciations to solve the manga mysteries before The Summation. Unfortunately for Detective Conan, this doesn't translate to the anime, which feels free to hide the evidence from you. (Although, especially early, Funimation made more of an attempt to translate culturally-specific info than Viz does with the manga.) The anime is sometimes good about playing fair, and other times shamelessly cheats. It depends on the writer, though the show seems to cheat more nowadays than they did in earlier seasons. Any story based on the manga will still be fair play, though, unless something crucial is cut during the shift from manga to anime. The odd thing about Detective Conan is how it follows the second rule: The whole Myth Arc is based on the protagonists being de-aged by poison, the devices he constantly uses are blatantly science fictional, and the show shares a setting with Magic Kaito where some of the events explicitly involve actual MAGIC. Yet none of the day-to-day cases involve factors that aren't possible in real life.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9a67b688	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9a67b688	featureConfidence	1.0
Case Closed (Manga)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9a67b688
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9b891ef2	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9b891ef2	comment	Oddly enough, the first Scary Movie is one, despite being a parody of the Slasher Movie genre. The movie does have enough clues to figure out the killer's identity before the reveal at the end, but the audience probably isn't approaching this particular film as a puzzle to be solved.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9b891ef2	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9b891ef2	featureConfidence	1.0
Scary Movie	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9b891ef2
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9dfa8216	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9dfa8216	comment	The occasional Law & Order spin-off (although not the original, for reasons related to its structure) will do this, probably more or less by accident. Law & Order: Criminal Intent does this more often than the others. Excluding the cases where you know who did it from the very beginning about a third of the shows have enough clues to solve it part way through, a couple can almost be deciphered based on the opening.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9dfa8216	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9dfa8216	featureConfidence	1.0
Law & Order (Franchise)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9dfa8216
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9f78fda3	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9f78fda3	comment	Murder, She Wrote actually had quite a few, given that the killers usually revealed themselves by saying something only the killer would know or assume. Another favored trick of the series was to have a clue pop up early in the episode, such as before the crime itself, but the information that links the clue to the crime be introduced later — rewarding viewers with a sharp memory.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9f78fda3	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9f78fda3	featureConfidence	1.0
Murder, She Wrote	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_9f78fda3
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a12eee33	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a12eee33	comment	In My Little Pony Micro Series Issue #1 all the clues that Twilight picked up on revealing Jade's identity are shown to the reader prior to her explanation — though not explained at that time they are shown. A big clue is a smudged cutie mark. However, some of the clues required a priori knowledge of Jade Singer — like her glasses and love of swing music — which are only brought up in connection to her when Twilight explains them. Similarly, in the main comic #21-22 (the Trixie arc), the reader can figure out Rough Diamond's real identity within the first fifteen pages, and the clue that eventually convinces the protagonists is shown several times in good detail.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a12eee33	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a12eee33	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony Micro Series (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a12eee33
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a309575c	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a309575c	comment	Jonathan Creek was well-liked among those who enjoy fair play mysteries, since even though the solutions to the various mysteries were always unusual and required lateral thinking, you always got to see everything the heroes saw that allowed them to solve the puzzle, and usually even had them highlight the significance of the clues.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a309575c	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a309575c	featureConfidence	1.0
Jonathan Creek	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a309575c
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a4ff8e01	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a4ff8e01	comment	The May 2018 event storyline in Fate/Grand Order, "Murder at the KOGETSUKAN," featured a murder mystery with ten chapters named after each of Knox's commandments. After enough of the story was published to solve the crime, players were asked to submit their guesses of the killer's identity via an online poll prior to the final reveal. How much the story follows the rules are up to debate, with Holmes, Mash, and Professor M discussing the fifth rule when one of the suspects (WÇ”) turns out to be a foreigner with borderline supernatural powers, ruling him out as being the killer from that alone.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a4ff8e01	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a4ff8e01	featureConfidence	1.0
Fate/Grand Order (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a4ff8e01
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a877956	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a877956	comment	The mystery in the second chapter of The Witcher is done fairly, perhaps even generously, giving the player multiple opportunities to gather all clues. The best rewards are for solving it through questioning suspects and studying books before even looking at physical evidence. Failing to solve it leaves the player with reduced experience gains and a disadvantage in the confrontation with the real culprit.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a877956	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a877956	featureConfidence	1.0
The Witcher (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_a877956
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ab3a6a48	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ab3a6a48	comment	An infamous breaking of Knox's rules occurs in Heavy Rain. The Origami Killer is Scott Shelby, one of the player characters, and what seems to be his investigation of the murders is actually him cleaning up evidence. You can view the thoughts of the current character at any time, but Shelby's thoughts never even hint at his identity as the killer. Some elements of the final reveal seem implausible in their timing, which may be related to the game's mystery changing drastically during development.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ab3a6a48	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ab3a6a48	featureConfidence	1.0
Heavy Rain (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ab3a6a48
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ad8541c9	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ad8541c9	comment	All Encyclopedia Brown mysteries are deliberately like this... but some of the "solutions" are less plausible than others. The mysteries also subvert the trope: Encyclopedia nearly always reveals the mystery's solution to the reader—but the challenge isn't (usually) to figure out the solution, it's more often to figure out which clue tipped off Encyclopedia. The question in most mysteries is generally phrased as "How did Encyclopedia know?" However, sometimes the books are accidentally unfair because the clue is a Conviction by Contradiction or (worse) Conviction by Counterfactual Clue.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ad8541c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ad8541c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Encyclopedia Brown	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ad8541c9
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b4996199	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b4996199	comment	Roger Stern's run on Amazing Spider-Man had several hints as to the Hobgoblin's identity, such as that he was wealthy, upper-class, and was someone who was cunning and ruthless. Although it was revealed that the Hobgoblin did have an identical twin who posed as him whenever he was dressed as the Hobgoblin, there was one tiny hint to this in a single panel. So if someone had found this tiny hint, they likely could have worked out the Hobgoblin's identity, although, with various changing writers, the whole thing soon became a confusing mess, which was only really fixed when Stern himself returned to write the Hobgoblin Lives! miniseries, over ten years after the Hobgoblin's first appearance.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b4996199	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b4996199	featureConfidence	1.0
Spider-Man (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b4996199
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8757e0b	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8757e0b	comment	Referenced in Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel by Mora due to the fact that the Another Story broke several rules, with the main one being that Mugen, the one who set up the whole recreation of an incident that happened before the events of Demonbane inserted themselves as a detective in the story. Mugen dismisses the complaint by saying that rules are made to be broken.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8757e0b	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8757e0b	featureConfidence	1.0
Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8757e0b
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b88460c9	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b88460c9	comment	The British game show Whodunnit? (UK) was based upon this concept.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b88460c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b88460c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Whodunnit? (UK)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b88460c9
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8e5dfd9	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8e5dfd9	comment	Disco Elysium, being a New Weird Deconstruction of the Detective Drama, deliberately subverts or breaks several of Knox's "Ten Commandments" during the course of the story. Most importantly, the first commandment is broken entirely. The culprit turns out to be a former communist revolutionary hiding on a nearby island. While his existence is vaguely foreshadowed at several points, he is otherwise a Stranger Behind the Mask who only appears in the game's finale. When it comes to supernatural elements, the second commandment is similarly broken, with supernatural ambiguities throughout the entire game. Ultimately, the cause of the murder is revealed to be entirely mundane, but supernatural elements are not ruled out 'as a matter of course' — at least not by the Detective himself, though admittedly he's crazy. The third commandment is also repeatedly broken, you stumble on several secret rooms and passages during the game. The sixth commandment is broken with gusto. Not only can failed skill checks actually help to accomplish certain things, certain skills can reveal information that later proves true, although often out of context. The seventh commandment is followed with regard to the actual murder you are investigating, but it is only half the story. A lot of the clues you pick up have nothing to do with the case, and have to do with solving the ontological mystery of who The Detective is and why he is so messed up, which is a direct result of the drunken bender the detective went through. The ninth commandment is broken with your partner, Detective Kim Kitsuragi. He plays a central role as a The Straight Man to your Defective Detective and is a heroic and competent detective capable of several deductions (and has a level of common sense) the Player Character isn't capable of. He also frequently and repeatedly keeps some of his own thoughts and conclusions from you, but only in regards to your amnesia and even then mostly because he's trying to protect the Detective's already fragile psyche. That said, being a By-the-Book Cop does keep him from breaking the sixth commandment the way the Detective can (and likely will), and it's implied Kim would not have been able to solve the case on his own. Kim is also is the son of immigrants from a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Korea, but he does not count as a 'Chinaman' for the purposes of the fifth commandment because he's a born Revacholian, and serves neither as a suspect, nor a Red Herring, nor as a way to introduce foreign or exotic components to the mystery. Bringing up his race is in fact one of the fastest way to get on Kim's bad side.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8e5dfd9	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8e5dfd9	featureConfidence	1.0
Disco Elysium (Video Game)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b8e5dfd9
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b9058e11	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b9058e11	comment	The Letters of the Devil is structured as a fair-play whodunit, and Word of God is that it will be entirely solvable prior to the big reveal.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b9058e11	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b9058e11	featureConfidence	1.0
The Letters of the Devil (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_b9058e11
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ba83d772	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ba83d772	comment	In the Longmire novel The Dark Horse, there's an offhand mention of a western meadowlark singing in the background while Sheriff Walt is on the phone with the brother of the deceased. If the reader is able to recognize it as a case of Misplaced Wildlife, they'll realize (long before the sheriff does) that the person he's speaking to is in Wyoming where the crime was committed, and not practicing dentistry in Ohio like he's claiming.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ba83d772	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ba83d772	featureConfidence	1.0
Longmire	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ba83d772
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_bfa1ae9a	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_bfa1ae9a	comment	Hyouka: A plot point in the student film arc. Several potential endings to the student film are eliminated because the author of the script was known to have written it according to the rules of fair play.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_bfa1ae9a	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_bfa1ae9a	featureConfidence	1.0
Hyouka	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_bfa1ae9a
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c34f83b2	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c34f83b2	comment	Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair gleefully breaks Rule 6 to bits with Nagito Komaeda, whose Ultimate Good Luck means that 'wander around and hope to stumble over evidence' is a completely legitimate strategy. Protagonist Hajime Hinata doesn't get these lucky breaks. Rule 2 is also broken in Case 5, where Nagito's supernatural luck is outright incorporated into his plan to have The Mole unintentionally kill him while leaving it impossible for the survivors to determine who the actual culprit could be.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c34f83b2	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c34f83b2	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c34f83b2
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c4282b71	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c4282b71	comment	Pops up in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic in several episodes. The episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well". There are deliberate clues throughout the episode to Mare Do Well's identity, though it does require some knowledge of the series continuity to puzzle out correctly. The episode "Mystery on the Friendship Express" kinda follows the rules for the first half (the introduction and crime), but then throws them away and conceals all the clues discovered during the investigation proper. The episode "Rarity Investigates!" plays the trope far more straight when Rarity, well, investigates a crime Rainbow Dash is accused of committing. Every clue is shown to the audience as Rarity finds them, even when there aren't any lines calling attention to them until the end.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c4282b71	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c4282b71	featureConfidence	1.0
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c4282b71
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c43df4d8	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c43df4d8	comment	The Doctor Who story "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances": Enough clues are presented for savvy viewers to solve the riddle before the Doctor does.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c43df4d8	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c43df4d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Who	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_c43df4d8
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ca03e3a5	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ca03e3a5	comment	Every season and version of The Mole contains hidden clues that viewers can spot to figure out who the Mole is before the final episode reveal. Some of these clues are extremely obscure or ambiguous, but others are easier to spot like the host never calling the Mole's name during executions in one U.S. season or even Hidden in Plain Sight like a contestant in season 8 of the Dutch version asking a question that confirmed them to be the Mole but was worded in a way to be easily misheard as them asking if another contestant was the Mole instead.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ca03e3a5	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ca03e3a5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Mole	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_ca03e3a5
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_da861da1	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_da861da1	comment	Applies to multiple episodes of Veronica Mars. In terms of the major arc mysteries, all would theoretically qualify, but the first three rely on last-minute clues that ensure that (while astute viewers might have speculatively guessed the culprits) the viewer can only be certain who the murderer/rapist is at the same time that Veronica herself is. The fourth arc is the only one where the viewer might beat Veronica to the punch, as the incriminating evidence is scattered quite early and there's a false resolution halfway through the episode that Veronica falls for. Her "Eureka!" Moment comes not from a new piece of evidence, but from hearing the real killer laying out the 'facts' of how the murders played out; she realises what some viewers will already have picked up on, that the first resolution was a frame job and that only one person could have done that.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_da861da1	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_da861da1	featureConfidence	1.0
Veronica Mars	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_da861da1
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e03940f	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e03940f	comment	Italian Mickey Mouse Comic Universe and Disney Ducks Comic Universe magazines sometimes have riddles similar to the Scandinavian ones. When the whodunnit is in the stories themselves, however, their fairness can greatly vary. A Donald Duck story in particular has a field day with this: several multi-billionaires, including Scrooge, are gathered together, and all of them are victims of theft, particularly Scrooge having his number one dime taken. A famous detective is on the case, but on Scrooge's request, Donald tries to solve the case himself before him, trying and failing several times to figure out who did it. In the end, the detective reveals the culprit... a famous international thief, never mentioned or seen before in the story. When Scrooge chastizes Donald for his failure, he asks how he was supposed to know about the thief. However, the rules are then respected when Donald uses clues (or rather, the significant lack of one) that has been evident to the readers throughout the story to deduce that the number one dime was not, in fact, stolen along with everything else and Scrooge just pretended to be a victim out of convenience.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e03940f	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e03940f	featureConfidence	1.0
Mickey Mouse Comic Universe (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e03940f
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e339dde3	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e339dde3	comment	The same goes for its sequel series, Elements of Justice, for the same reasons.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e339dde3	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e339dde3	featureConfidence	1.0
Elements of Justice (Web Animation)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e339dde3
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e5feb1e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e5feb1e	comment	In the Ace Attorney games, since you play as a lawyer whose job is to take clues found during investigation and use those to argue your point, most trials are these. The ones that aren't either give you more information than Phoenix gets or involve the player using the first court segments to provide probable cause to investigate something or someone that wasn't part of the investigation previously, allowing them to get more clues for later court days. For example, the presence of case 1-3's murderer is only established at the end of the first court day when you're able to corner Wendy Oldbag into admitting that several people (including the murderer) were present close to the crime scene, a fact which she'd previously concealed at their request and which can't be discovered during the investigation phase. It gets ridiculous in the last case of Ace Attorney Investigations. Edgeworth figures out the culprit and Big Bad easily, but cornering the bastard is a marathon because the crime took place at an embassy and extraterritorial rights make it incredibly difficult to prove Edgeworth is even within his jurisdiction to catch the Big Bad. Justice for All plays with breaking Rule 2 in its second case, which revolves around a murder that occurred during a spirit channeling session. It's entirely plausible, given what's already been established about spirit channeling, that the spirit Maya channeled did it, since the client, Dr. Turner Grey, was involved in ruining Mimi Miney's life before she died in a car crash, and prosecutor Franziska von Karma bases her case around this happening. Phoenix argues that while spirit channeling is a thing, it wasn't happening during this particular murder. Which, of course, turns out to be the truth. The killer, a not-really-dead Mimi Miney, knocked Maya out and impersonated her to fake a channeling gone wrong with the help of Maya's evil aunt. The final case of Trials and Tribulations does break Rule 2, but spirit channeling has been a non-mystery plot point for three games by that point and the player can be expected to be familiar with its rules and limitations. It also plays hard and fast with Rule 10 — while the player is told upfront that Iris and Dahlia look alike, and can easily figure out that they're twins, the latter character turns out to be dead, so a Twin Switch should have been impossible. It's only by combining these two bits of information that the player can arrive at the solution. Spirit of Justice more blatantly breaks Rule 2, since half of the game takes place in a country that revolves around the supernatural powers introduced in the previous games. In particular, Rayfa is able to use her channeling powers to show the court what the victim saw in their last moments as 'divination seances', and during case 3, the victim is channeled to testify about his own death, which he lies about since he killed himself in order to frame Maya. However, all such powers are well-explained for the audience (and Phoenix's) benefit, and their limits are plot points in trials. The solution to the final puzzle in the game is to ask Queen Ga'ran to use her spirit channeling powers to channel the Holy Mother... which will prove that she can't, and is thus ineligible for the throne by Khura'inese law. In The Great Ace Attorney, specifically the third case of the second game, the victim is killed during an experiment to test a teleporter and is found dead at his destination. The possibility of the victim having a twin brother is brought up, but Prosecutor van Zieks rules it out. The actual explanation is more complicated but does not break the rule.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e5feb1e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e5feb1e	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Attorney (Franchise)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_e5feb1e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_eef69f10	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_eef69f10	comment	Most Sherlock Holmes mysteries are not really fair, if only because Dr. Watson (the narrator) is not as observant as his colleague. It bears mentioning that Watson is usually writing these up after the fact. He could give the reader the clues—Holmes himself professed a preference for a didactic style of write-up that would be something like this trope—but arguably intentionally averts the trope in order to play up Holmes's brilliance, as well as for the continuity of the narrative (something Holmes regularly criticizes Watson for, but in the stories where Holmes is the narrator, he's forced to admit Watson has a point, noting that the collection of facts that Holmes claims is superior is in fact boring as hell and so must hobble himself to present an interesting story). If Watson's powers of observation had been greater, it might be true that his normal narrative flow might well play the trope straight. "The Lion's Mane" gives the reader enough information to draw a conclusion even before Holmes does (given that "The Lion's Mane" was one of the few stories narrated by Holmes himself, this may or may not be intentional). Silver Blaze is another. All the important clues are shown to the reader, leading to one of the greatest detective fiction quotes ever.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_eef69f10	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_eef69f10	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock Holmes	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_eef69f10
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f16ee232	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f16ee232	comment	The Caves of Steel and the other Elijah Baley novels were also written to prove that it was possible to write a Science Fiction Fairplay Whodunnit, despite the risk of violating the Fourth of Knox's Commandments above.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f16ee232	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f16ee232	featureConfidence	1.0
The Caves of Steel	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f16ee232
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f7355f1e	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f7355f1e	comment	The first season of Remington Steele aimed for fair-play mysteries, with varying degrees of success. Then the network made them dumb down the scripts, so as not to alienate viewers.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f7355f1e	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f7355f1e	featureConfidence	1.0
Remington Steele	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_f7355f1e
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_fc439a61	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_fc439a61	comment	It gets ridiculous in the last case of Ace Attorney Investigations. Edgeworth figures out the culprit and Big Bad easily, but cornering the bastard is a marathon because the crime took place at an embassy and extraterritorial rights make it incredibly difficult to prove Edgeworth is even within his jurisdiction to catch the Big Bad.
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_fc439a61	featureApplicability	1.0
Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_fc439a61	featureConfidence	1.0
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Fair-Play Whodunnit / int_fc439a61

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingCategory2	Mystery Tropes
Fair-Play Whodunnit	processingCategory2	Older Than Television
Lupin III: Part 6 / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Bookhunter (Comic Book) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
My Little Pony Micro Series (Comic Book) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Maze Agency (Comic Book) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Max Finder Mystery (Comic Strip) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
A Very Muppets Mystery / Fan Fic / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Total Drama Switcheroo / Fan Fic	seeAlso	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Badge & O'Possum: Ace Attorneys (Fanfic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Danganronpa: In Harmony's Wake (Fanfic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin (Fanfic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
OurTrueColors	seeAlso	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Persona: The Sougawa Files (Fanfic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Three-Point Shot (Fanfic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Fermat's Room / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Hangman's Curse / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Jack Reacher / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Knives Out / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Scary Movie / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Silver Bullet / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Last of Sheila / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Murderer Lives at Number 21 / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Wee Sing / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Hercule Poirot (Franchise) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Gosick / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Lord El-Melloi II Case Files / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Black Widowers / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Castle Perilous / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Crooked House / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Danganronpa Kirigiri / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dr. Gideon Fell / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
87th Precinct / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Encyclopedia Brown / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Existentially Challenged / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Gosick / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Hyouka / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
John Putnam Thatcher / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Lord El-Melloi II Case Files / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Market of Monsters / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Murder Mysteries / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Northwestward / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Out of Sight / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Philo Vance / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sad Cypress / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sano Ichiro / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sir Henry Merrivale / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Caves of Steel / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Coronation / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Further Adventures of Batman / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Moving Finger / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Mystery Sphere	seeAlso	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Naked Sun / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Obvious Factor / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Robots of Dawn / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Sittaford Mystery / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Undead Girl Murder Farce / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Yankee Doodle Went To Town / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
FairPlayWhoDunnit	sameAs	Fair-Play Whodunnit
FairplayWhoDunnit	sameAs	Fair-Play Whodunnit
FairplayWhodunnit	sameAs	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dorohedoro (Manga) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Squid Girl (Manga) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Kindaichi Case Files (Manga)	seeAlso	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Kindaichi Case Files (Manga) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Ellery Queen / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Furuhata Ninzaburo / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Jonathan Creek / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Jury Duty (2023) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Murder Rooms / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Murder, She Wrote / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Spencer Sisters / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Whodunnit? (2013) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Whodunnit? (UK) / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Mrs. Hawking (Theatre) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Oedipus the King (Theatre) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Play That Goes Wrong (Theatre) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Back to the Future: The Game (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Detective Grimoire (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Disco Elysium (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Eagle Eye Mysteries (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Eastshade (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Heavy Rain (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Pedestal (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Pedestal (2021) (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Super Solvers (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Outer Worlds (Video Game) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dangan Ronpa (Visual Novel) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dear Devere (Visual Novel) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Higurashi: When They Cry (Visual Novel) / int_9a690f7d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Umineko: When They Cry (Visual Novel) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Turnabout Storm (Web Animation) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
A Killer Party (Web Video) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dark Simpsons (Web Video) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Dimension 20 (Web Video) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Drawtectives (Web Video) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
MoringMark - TOH Comics (Webcomic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Roommates (Webcomic) / int_6ac9df9d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Letters of the Devil (Webcomic) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Subeta (Website) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids (Website) / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Abby Hatcher / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Cyberchase / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Garfield's Babes and Bullets / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Mira, Royal Detective / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
My Friends Tigger & Pooh / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sally Bollywood / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Sofia the First / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Superman: The Animated Series / int_a164f37d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Owl House / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
The Roman Mysteries / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.