Basic Trope: Rule breaking is considered acceptable if you don't get caught.
- Straight: In the card game Troperia, it is generally considered acceptable to break the rules if no one catches you in the act.
- Exaggerated:
- It is explicitly stated in the rules that it works this way.
- The rules say that any person accused of cheating is to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty, even if everyone knows.
- Downplayed:
- Some players play this way, but most follow the rules more closely.
- The rules are generally followed but not strictly enforced, and trying to enforce them will likely get you called a Rules Lawyer.
- Cheating is sanctioned by a single specific role within the game, The Mole. However if they are exposed they suffer very heavy sanctions that can possibly create an instant loss.
- Justified:
- It is really hard to prove that someone was cheating, and they don't want the game ruined by accusations of cheating several turns ago.
- People don't always follow the rules of games.
- Inverted:
- Even with shaky evidence, any rules violation has strict penalties laid out in the rules.
- Players only cheat when the referees and judges are watching.
- The referees and judges are corrupt and will accuse players of cheating even when they're not while helping their favorite players cheat.
- Rule breaking is acceptable only when done openly and not called out.
- Subverted: Alice and Bob are playing Troperia. Bob slips an extra card into the deck without Alice noticing. Two turns later, Alice says, "Something doesn't feel quite right..."
- Double Subverted: "...My chair's wobbling. I could swear it was just fine a minute ago."
- Parodied: The rules limit each player to cheating five times per turn, and only allow certain forms of cheating.
- Zig Zagged: Bob slips an extra card into the deck without Alice noticing, but she later says that something's wrong: "My chair seems to be wobbling ... and you cheated! How did we end up with two Charlie Troper cards?"
- Averted: Players generally follow the rules, and cheating is not considered acceptable, except perhaps as a rare house rule.
- Enforced: The game is intended to be chaotic, and adding in the question of figuring out whether opponents are cheating genuinely makes the game more fun.
- Lampshaded: "Yes, I know I cheated. People always seem to let me cheat."
- Invoked: A group of players decide on this as a house rule, and it catches on.
- Exploited: Players can build entire strategies based around making it hard to prove that they are cheating.
- Defied: A game has this as an official rule, but some players make a house rule that cancels it. Cheating falls out of favor.
- Discussed: "I should have cheated. I might have gotten away with it."
- Conversed: "Why do fictional characters always get away with cheating? It doesn't work like that in Real Life, and it sets a bad example for children."
- Deconstructed: The game is made less fun because people spend more time trying to prove each other to be cheating that actually playing.
- Reconstructed: The game is made more fun because it is largely about the challenge of out-cheating your opponents without getting caught, as well as having the best methods of detecting cheating.
Sneak on back to the main page! It's Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught.
