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In the former case, the advantage to this trope is obvious- a [[Game Master]] in a [[Tabletop Game]] could be badly hamstrung by a sufficiently [[Genre Savvy]] player anticipating the general direction of the campaign and being [[Crazy Prepared|prepared for anything]]. The subtle [[Retcon]] this trope provides is essential to keeping things interesting. Likewise, if it's necessary for the plot in a [[Video Game]] to have the [[Player Character]] meet [[The Rival]] early on but they're technically [[Wide Open Sandbox|free to go anywhere they want]], this trope is essential to keeping the plot together.
 
The trope has also become increasingly important in more traditional fiction as of late because the Internet's technological revolution is such that an author's "[[Movie Twist List|twists]]" could easily be predicted ahead of time if enough [[Fanon|clever fans]] [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|put their heads together]] and [[Wild Mass Guessing|talk things over]]. (And [[Epileptic Trees|over.]]) Catching wind of this, an author might then avoid being predicted by "coalescing" Schrodinger's Gun into a [[Trick Twist|sniper rifle]], [[Flashback Twist|uzi]], or [[Pound of Flesh Twist|rocket launcher]] as the situation requires. Since these cases involve more conscious improvisation, readers are more likely to consider the possibility that the writer doesn't actually know what they're doing and is just [[Jossed|jerking them around]], if not [[Writing Byby the Seat of Your Pants|making it up entirely]] [[Indy Ploy|as they go along]].
 
In interactive media such as video games, this trope can take the form of setting details retroactively warping themselves around the player's choices in ways that cannot be logically caused by the player character's in-universe choice -- for example, when the real location of [[MacGuffin|an artifact]] you seek throughout the campaign is dependent on the order in which you visit its possible locations.
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Not unlike the [[Ascended Fanon]] as applied to world-building.
 
This can be a form of [[Cutting Off the Branches]]. [[It May Help You Onon Your Quest]] is related, but use of this trope doesn't necessarily imply the writers themselves don't know yet what's going to happen. A fictional character taking a similar approach to their master plan is playing [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]. Contrast [[Retcon]]. See also [[Multiple Choice Past]], where this happens when something gets different origins over a period of time and different writers.
 
Compare [[Writing Byby the Seat of Your Pants]], [[Schrodinger's Suggestion Box]]. A subtrope is [[Schrodinger's Question]].
 
See also the [[Useful Notes]] regarding [[Useful Notes/Schrodinger's Cat|Schrodingers Cat]].
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== Film ==
 
* Masterfully applied in [[Clue (Filmfilm)|the movie]] about the [[Board Games|boardgame]] ''[[Clue (Tabletop Gamegame)|Clue]]''. It has [[Multiple Endings|endings]] for several characters where they are the killer, and of course they [[Flash Back]] [[Retcon|retroactively]] showing how ''only they'' could ever ''possibly'' be the killer. Each theatre showed it with a different ending. The Home Video showed all three straight through, and the DVD lets you do it either way, with a random ending or with all three. In the ''end'' end, {{spoiler|Mr. Green reveals himself as working for the government and that "They all did it!" Take them away boys}}!
{{quote| ''{{spoiler|But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, it was me, in the Hall, with the Revolver. [[Mistaken for Gay|Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and sleep with my wife]].}}''}}
** The final ending is itself a parody of the game, in which the killer could win by exposing himself. [[Innocent Innuendo|Not like that.]]
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**** {{spoiler|It still qualifies, the production team had to find a work around their earlier ad hoc numbering sequence that put the first few Cylons revealed as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8}}
**** Which is one place where the writers really missed a golden opportunity to tie off some dangling plot threads by making {{spoiler|Starbuck the daughter of the lone surviving #7.}}
* ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]''. During production, [[J. Michael Straczynski]] planned the ''B5'' plot out for a 5-year arc. However, he also made plans for [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]. Indeed, the show didn't even end as he had originally meant for it to end, due to changing station commanders between seasons 1 and 2, changing several major plot points. And if you were just watching the show, you probably wouldn't have noticed (much).
** One particular noteworthy instance of a double-Schrodinger for the same plotline. Lyta Alexander was introduced in the pilot as a telepath who got to see and have mental contact with a Vorlon, thus establishing her connection with them and providing possible material for [[Took a Level In Badass|leveling her up later]]. However, because the actress had other obligations Lyta didn't make it to the first season. Instead, Talia Winters was introduced, also a telepath. And she was also given a plot arc that actually began the process of leveling her up. Then, the actress playing her proved too much of a prima donna (and went through a nasty divorce from Garibaldi's actor), so she left. But they got Lyta's actress back, so they just went on and did what was originally intended.
** The obvious actor/role substitutions: Jeffrey Sinclair/John Sheridan; Carolyn Sykes/Catherine Sakai/Anna Sheridan; Laurel Takashima/Ivanova/Lockley. Minor aversion with Ivanova, as she wasn't a straight substitution. {{spoiler|Originally, Takashima was a traitor. Instead, it's Garibaldi's aide.}}
*** [[Word of God]] is this was done because JMS let slip that {{spoiler|Takashima would have become a traitor.}} So instead he gave that to someone else, and tossed in the occasional [[Red Herring]] regarding Ivanova for those who thought she was a straight substitution as subtle misdirection.
* Each season of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' has lots of shots of various characters giving significant looks and suspicious glances, so when [[The Mole]] is revealed, no matter who it is the audience has already been given a lot of seemingly suspicious behavior to justify it.
** The reason why is that each season only ''starts'' with the first half of the season planned out. The rest is written on the fly.
* The new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' set one of these up with the Master. {{spoiler|After his death and cremation, an unidentified hand reaches in and takes a ring he wears. The creators have said they have no plan for this, and have not assigned the hand to belonging to anyone in particular. It's meant as a hook that the next batch of writers and producers can retroactively fit into their own plot when they want to resurrect him again.}}
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* Included as an explicit character creation option in the [[Tabletop RPG]] ''FATE''. When using this option, players start play with an essentially "blank" character sheet, and fill in skills as the play progresses. For example, if a character is stuck behind a locked door, the player can declare that his character has the lockpicking skill and fill it in in one of his skill slots.
* The "Gizmo" advantage in ''[[GURPS]]''. This advantage allows the player to be carrying around an unspecified "gizmo", which he may at any time "pull out" and declare it to be whatever device he wants it to be (that he could have reasonably possessed). Additionally, the gizmo does not "enter play" until activated, so it cannot be damaged, lost, stolen, or uncovered in a search.
** The same is true in ''[[Toon (Tabletop Gamegame)|Toon]]'' -- Steve Jackson games love this trope.
* This is essentially how ''[[Burning Wheel]]'' works: If you say that you want to kick a bowl of fruit into the guard's face to create a distraction, then there will be a bowl of fruit right there for you to kick. It wasn't there until you said it was. Essentially, the players all have Schrodinger's Gun, to an extent.
** ''Houses of the Blooded'' is similar. When a player rolls for something, it's generally the right to decide things about the scene or how actions turn out. The rules explicitly state that you can decide pretty much anything that hasn't specifically been established yet.
*** There are several other games which allow the players to retroactively decide minor aspects of the current scene, such as ''[[Feng Shui (Tabletop Game)|Feng Shui]]'' and ''[[Exalted]]''.
** ''Adventure!'' handles this with a game mechanic: players can spend points to perform a Dramatic Edit and declare that there is e.g. a [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer|convenient manhole cover]] in the blind alley they've run down. This is great when the players ''only'' need to use it to collaboratively make situations more awesome, but less great when, as it sometimes does, it becomes a sort of ablative defense against railroading (why would the GM decide it was a blind alley in the first place?).
** In ''Wushu'', everything happens exactly as the players describe it. Additionally, the more complicated and [[Rule of Drama|dramatic]] a description is, the more dice the players receive, providing massive incentive to weave complicated and dramatic descriptions. To prevent complete insanity, actions can be vetoed by another player or the GM, and there's generally a "pool limit" maximum dice cap.
* ''[[Nobilis (Tabletop Game)|Nobilis]]'' has The Monarda Law, which states that the answer to a PC's question should almost never be a flat-out "no". Additionally, in that game, prophecies explicitly work by the GM throwing out a lot of [[Ice Cream Koan|meaningless]] [[Faux Symbolism|symbolism]] -- when the PCs offer a plausible explanation, it is assumed to be true, and any action they take on it gains a bonus.
** {{spoiler|The John Tynes [[Call of Cthulhu]] scenario ''In Media Res'' uses a very similar device: You're given a whole heap of weird symbolism to throw at the players, and whatever they decide it means, it means.}}
*** And really, the whole idea of it is a pretty common [[Game Master]] trick: Throw out an ambiguous scenario with a lot of plot hooks, see which one the players respond to, and run with it like it's the baton at a relay.
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* Some computer games (especially [[Interactive Fiction]], given that it is just one step away from a table-top RPG) can do this. For example, in the ''[[Homestar Runner|Peasant's Quest]]'' game, at one point, there are four bushes with a trinket hidden in one of them. No matter what order you go to the bushes, the trinket is ''always'' in the fourth bush you look in.
* Plenty of [[Interactive Fiction]] games use this to let the player configure his character.
** The classic [[Infocom]] game ''[[Leather Goddesses of Phobos (Video Game)|Leather Goddesses of Phobos]]'' does this, where you have to go to the bathroom, and whatever room you choose -- ladies' or men's -- ends up being the correct one.
** A less known IF game called ''Enlisted'' pulls it off for the same reason, where you get your uniform out of a dispensing machine, and what settings you set it to (short, tall, etc), turn out to be the right ones.
** In an even less known IF game called ''Amnesia'' the main character closes his eyes and visualizes his appearance, to check how badly he's affected by the titular condition: your choices of features turn out to be completely wrong. [[Mind Screw|Dude be whack.]]
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* [[Sierra]] [[Adventure Game|Adventure Games]]. If the programmers can't kill your character off with something because you noticed it, they may not bother with it at all. Your car only has a fault if you don't perform the safety inspection. (''[[Police Quest]] 1''). The policeman's only there if you're indecent. (''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]''). There's only a car coming if you don't look at the street. (''[[The Dagger of Amon Ra]]''). The biggest example is in the latter: giving the wrong item to a speakeasy doorman would make the game [[Unwinnable]], so it also causes a completely random person to walk in from offscreen and stab the protagonist to death. The game then quotes [[Have a Nice Death|knife crime statistics]].
* In the horror RPG/adventure game ''[[Elvira Games|Elvira 2 - The Jaws of Cerberus]]'', there are three places where Elvira may be hidden. No matter in what order you reach them, the first two Elviras will be fake and transform into monsters.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones (Video Game)|Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones]]'', there's a plot choice point of which main character to follow. Excluding the main character, you get all the current secondary characters ''and'' the same new characters (with a few exceptions) appear in each chapter. Your chosen lord will even have the same encounters with the [[Big Bad]] and {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] will always take the Sacred Stone from whichever lord you picked.}}
** That being said, there ''is'' a difference in the routes, at least storyline wise. In Eirika's, {{spoiler|Lyon's spirit is subsumed and killed by the demon king's.}} In Ephram's, {{spoiler|Lyon's spirit ''unites'' with the demon king's and does a full (if very [[Tear Jerker|sad]]) [[Face Heel Turn]].}}
* In ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'', the player can choose three party members for the whole game: one main character and two support characters. Whoever the player picks as the main character becomes the only one who can wield the Mana Sword, and it also determines which of the three evil factions wins the race to the Holy Land, and which of the three [[Big Bad|final bosses]] the player ends up fighting.
* Seen in ''[[Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' in a boss battle at Joke's End. When Jojora asks the Mario Bros. which of her friends should come (and beat the crap out of them, presumably), the player is given the choice of four different names, which seem to refer to four different possible enemies. However, no matter which one you pick, Jojora's friend will look and fight exactly the same. The only thing your choice really affects is what name the battle display refers to her as.
* Used extensively in ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]'', due to Will's ability to guess any question correctly. It is demonstrated at the beginning of the game, where Will is asked to pick a card. No matter what the player picks, it is the right one. It resurfaces much later for a [[Wire Dilemma]], where the player simply has to remember that Will is psychic and make a decision quickly. Amazingly, used at the end of the game to win a game of Russian Roulette.
** For the [[Wire Dilemma]], it might be subverted as {{spoiler|the bomb doesn't explode at all if the bosses are defeated. Maybe it's some kind of boss-powered device?}}
** And for the Russian Roulette game, if you pick the wrong choice, the game ask you if you're ''really'' sure.
* ''[[IndigoFahrenheit Prophecy(2005 video game)]]'' has a tarot card reading about half way through. No matter which card you pick or in what order, you get the same ominously creepy message. I guess [[You Can't Fight Fate]].
* In ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', there's a branching off point at the end of the first chapter of the game. You have to choose whether to kill a group of prisoners in order to frame the [[Big Bad]]. (It's complicated and political). If you choose to kill the prisoners, your best friend will reveal himself to be incredibly noble and oppose you and all governments, and throughout the game form [[La Résistance]] until you become [[The Atoner]]. If you choose not to kill the prisoners, your best friend will reveal himself to be the biggest asshole ever and side with the killers just to gain power.
** In a way, this is a bizarre [[The Sadistic Choice|sadistic choice]]. You cannot be a spotless hero and at the same time have your best friend be a good guy (and alive) by the end of the game.
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', you can answer various questions about past events, such as Revan's fate in the first game and the color of the lightsaber the Jedi Council took away from you, and the answers retroactively determine what happened.
** As well, depending on which side you pick on Onderon, an opposing NPC will either be a mercenary or a patriot.
* In the ''[[Star Ocean]]'' games, in order to keep some kind of weird [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]], you can only pick certain party members; which prevents you from getting others, who just aren't available anymore.
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* ''[[Drakengard]]'' has what might be the most strenuous version of this. Depending on which ending you get the very fabric of reality functions differently. Your Dragon might be the only thing that can save the world, or you may be destined to destroy her lest she destroy the world.
* At one point in ''[[Fable]]'', a key is hidden in one of three books. No matter what, the key is always in the second book you pick.
* In the second ''NES'' ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Videovideo Gamegame)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' game, the player faces a [[Wire Dilemma]] when defusing a bomb. Any choice turns out to be the right one, though one causes the screen to flash white with a boom, [[Fission Mailed|then revert back as one character says "Just kidding!"]]
* The "It's War" chapter of ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day (Video Game)|Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' has a pair of levers near a soldier strapped to an electric chair. The first level Conker pulls will electrocute the soldier. The second lever he pulls opens a door.
* The ''[[Blade Runner]]'' [[Adventure Game]] had several plot points (such as whether characters were replicants or not) decided either at random in each game, or depending on the choices the player made.
* ''[[Dead Rising]]'': {{spoiler|Did Barnaby manage to bite Jessie when he started turning into a zombie? Only if you start case 8-1. If the truth vanishes into darkness before then, no he didn't.}}
* At two different points in ''[[Persona 3]]'', you can join one of three clubs. No matter which club you choose, the characters for the related social link will ''always'' be members of that club. It's most obvious with the Culture Clubs, as Yukari says Fuuka is a member of one of them, but can't remember which -- it turns out to be whichever one you end up joining.
** To a lesser degree, the Athletic Club in ''[[Persona 4]]'' -- you're still hanging out with [[Those Two Guys|Kou and Daisuke]] -- only difference is which one is the focus character.
* Happens in ''[[Radical Dreamers (Visual Novel)|Radical Dreamers]]'' the so-called "prototype" to ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]''. Depending on which room you entered first and what you did; Magil is either a ''[[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|time-traveling guitar playing rockstar detective from Mars who plays with hand-puppets]]'', the forgotten lover to Ridell, or a demon from hell. Likewise Kid is sometimes else raised by a nunnery that Lynx killed off, raised by Lynx's daughter Shea, or a ''gigantic berserk magic-wielding sunflower''. Lynx himself is a nobleman, a ghost, a [[Humongous Mecha]], or a ''giant space octopus''.
* In ''[[Myst|Riven]]'', the passcode near the end of the game {{spoiler|which unlocks Catherine's prison}} is randomly generated the first time you see it, retroactively setting the lock to that code. It is impossible to open the lock without having first seen the passcode. This prevents a [[Medium Awareness|medium-aware]] player from saving the game early, finding out the code, loading the saved game, and then opening the lock much earlier in the game, which would have required the designers to come up with a completely different ending. (Note that the ''other'' randomly-generated passwords are not Schrödingified, so you can use this trick to unlock them ahead of time.)
* In ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'', choosing to avoid speaking to an injured old man A) determines whether or not his injuries are fatal (they are only fatal if you talk to him) and also B) determines whether or not there is a vitally important rope among the junk on the floor of a room entered later, which appears to have been sealed for many years. (The rope is only there if you didn't talk to the old man.)
* Apparently one puzzle in ''[[Space Quest]] 4'' is about finding the two halves of a code and inputting them. Whichever order you first use to combine them is the wrong one. There's no detriment or danger, the programmers just hate you.
** Not entirely. One half of the code is found on a wadded up piece of paper, and if you pay attention, a blob of chewing gum is covering the left side of the paper. (and therefore, the first half of the code) It should thusly follow that the second half of the code you find (later in the game) is the first half.
* You finally bring down a Yellow Squadron bird in the "Stonehenge" mission of ''[[Ace Combat]] 4''. No matter which one gets shot down, though, it's always {{spoiler|Yellow 4}} who bites it.
* In the ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' text adventure game, there are 12 or so [[Chekhov's Gun|Chekhovs Guns]] to collect. The bad news is you'll need one at random at the end of the game or you'll die. The other bad news is the "random" one you need is always one you don't have unless you have them all. It's a cruel game.
* ''[[In FamousInfamous (Videovideo game Gameseries)|In Famous]]'' employs this to make its [[Sadistic Choice]] even worse. {{spoiler|Your girlfriend Trish is always on the tower you ''didn't'' save, regardless of what the [[Big Bad]] says.}}
** Justified as {{spoiler|Kessler is actually Cole from the future, which means he can predict what would Cole do in that situation}}
* ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]] II'' has a sidequest where one of your companions returns home to find his sister has been murdered, and an investigation is still in progress. His father is convinced it was a hit from a rival and tells you to kill him in revenge. If you kill the rival, you later find out that he was innocent; if you spare him, he was guilty all along.
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World]]'', Emil is asked to guess which of Lloyd's companions joined him at the end of ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]''. Since it was based on [[Relationship Values]] there, ''any'' answer could be a correct one, and, indeed, no matter what Emil (that is, the player) guesses, Lloyd admits that he guessed correctly.
* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Game)|Batman Arkham Asylum]]'', at one point Batman must search three body bags in order to continue. No matter what order he opens the actual bags in, the result is always the same. {{spoiler|His dad's body, his mother's body, and then Scarecrow.}} Also, no matter what order you collect the audio logs in, they are always the next in the set, as are the Spirit of Arkham messages.
* An experience while playing ''[[Deja Vu]]'' seemed like a literal Schrodinger's Gun: trying to shoot the gun-toting mugger resulted in him firing first for a game over. Restarting and giving in to his demands the next time around let him escape while claiming that the gun wasn't even loaded.
** Of course that could just be the mugger kicking you when you're down.
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* ''[[Assassin's Creed]] II'' does this with The Truth. No matter what order you find the glyphs, the segments of the video and puzzles will always be found in the same order.
** A plausible explanation is that subject 13 shares the same memories of Ezio's travels, and [[Foregone Conclusion|subsequently knew in what order you'd visit the places he marked for the pieces of The Truth]].
* Averted in ''[[Heavy Rain]]''. The eventual set of [[The Reveal|reveals]] rely heavily on [[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall|fourth-wall shenanigans]] and mess with the player's expectations from the standpoint of someone playing a game as much as from the plot itself similar to ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', so it's likely that this was a deliberate decision intended to give more value to the first playthrough.
* In the FMV-based adventure game ''[[Ripper]]'' by [[Take 2 Interactive]], the titular serial murderer has four possible identities, depending on how the player pursue the investigation ({{spoiler|one of them being the main character's girlfriend}}).
* At the end of ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]] '95'', returning villain Rugal announces his plan to destroy your team for foiling his plans last time. At the end of ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]] '96'', Chizuru reveals that she lured your team there because she needed the help of those responsible for defeating Rugal. In both cases, this speech is made regardless of which team you are playing, and whether or not they actually won or were even in the previous game. (Aside from Geese/Wolfgang/Big, whom even she refuses to acknowledge.)
* A quest in [[Guild Wars]] requires the player to help the prince find a gift for his beloved. There are three items you can show him; the first two will always be rejected, no matter the order you try them in. An alternative option is to find only one of the items and hand it directly to the birthday girl, who gets pissed that the prince hired someone else to choose a gift for her.
** [[Guild Wars]] 2 makes extensive use of this trope, from personal storylines (which affect instances) to dynamic events (which alters the state of the world players share). An example of the latter is a village besieged by centaurs: if players kill the centuars, villagers will come out of hiding and offer services to anyone who visits; if nobody bothers to fight off the centuars, the village will be overrun and turned into a centaur fortress.
* The Master Sword in the [[The Legend of Zelda|Legend of Zelda]] [[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|Oracle games]] can come from two conflicting sources depending on which game you play first.
** The games also include a Schrodinger area of the game map: at a certain point in the game, you can earn a flute that will eventually allow you to summon one of the three animal companions. Each of them have skills that allow you to reach places Link can't reach alone, and depending on which flute you get, part of the map ends up being an area that requires that companion to get through.
** Late in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|Skyward Sword]]'', Link must revisit each of the previous areas in order to collect the parts of the Song of Heroes. These can be done in any order, but no matter when you choose to do Eldin Volcano you always arrive just as it erupts.
* In ''[[Contra]]: Hard Corps'', [[Big Bad|Colonel Bahamut's]] plan for the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Alien Cell]] depends on which path you take through the game. {{spoiler|Either he wants to use it to power a [[Kill Sat]], turn it into a bio-weapon, [[Fusion Dance|merge with it]], or load it on a missile and launch it into civilization.}}
** From the same game, Bahamut's base is either right next to your current location, a train ride away in the jungle, or a boat ride away on an island.
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* In the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'', you {{spoiler|are to choose between two guns, one loaded and one not, to and shoot Ocelot, while he shoots you with the other one.}} No mater what you choose, {{spoiler|you and Ocelot both survive. If you grab the gun and purposefully miss, there is a hole in the wall, but if you shoot him or grab the gun with no bullets and he shoots you, it turns out the bullet was a dud.}}
** Which is odd as {{spoiler|the bullet Ocelot keeps around his neck the whole game '''is''' a blank; you can notice that if you zoom in on it.}}
* In the FMV game ''Terror T.R.A.X. - Track of the Vampire'' (played by [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Spoony]] [http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/10/23/terror-t-r-a-x-track-of-the-vampire-pc-the-whole-bloody-affair/ here], one of the Bad Ending paths has one of your agents getting captured by a [[Mad Scientist]] vampire. When the second agent finds the first, [[Mission Control]] orders her to shoot him preemptively. If you don't, he springs up as a vampire and kills the other agent. If you do, the vampire calls to taunt you with the fact that the agent was still human so you killed him needlessly.
* Done several times in ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'', with an actual gun. With some of the puzzles, the player needs to fire the portal gun quickly [[Press X to Not Die|to not die]], but if they fire the wrong portal, they end up dying anyway. To fix this, the programmers fixed it so that whichever portal you fire is the right one and it retroactively changes the portal you had already placed.
* In [[XIII]], the player must enter a locked cabin to obtain a fuse. There are several guards in the area, but the last one who gets killed is always the one holding the key.
* In ''[[Dragon Quest V (Video Game)|Dragon Quest V]]'', it doesn't matter whether you decide to marry Bianca or Nera, either one will turn out to be {{spoiler|descended from Zenithian blood, and will give birth to the legendary hero}}. The original game plays this straight, but the [[Video Game Remake|remake]] justifies it a little. The new character Debora is Nera's sister, so they share the same fate, {{spoiler|and it's hinted that all three girls are secretly related anyway}}.
* In ''[[Catherine]]'', the differences between the [[Multiple Endings|"Bad", "Good", and "True" version of each ending]] are supposedly determined by how well the girl can sense your feelings (that is, your position on the [[Karma Meter]]), but other events happen differently seemingly independently of your feelings about relationships. {{spoiler|If you choose Katherine, Jonny, Orlando, and Boss don't show up to corroborate your story in the Bad ending. If you choose Catherine, her father doesn't show up in the Bad ending. And the difference between the Good and True freedom endings is whether or not Feather wins the wrestling tournament, which Vincent should have no way of influencing.}}
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'' has this at least on an occasion: when you rescue {{spoiler|the three scientists at Omega Ranch}}, the third one will always have the {{spoiler|virus Sevchenko built}}, regardless of the order you visit them.
* ''[[Starcraft II]]'' includes three levels where you can choose one of two possible methods to take. While two aren't one of these (merely determining if you strip the Zerg of their primary [[Zerg Rush]] generating unit or of their flying units), one is. In the Colonists story arc, the climax is to either fight off the Protoss to try and see if the Zerg infection amongst the colonists can be arrested and perhaps cured, or to side with the Protoss and mercilessly burn out all of the infected. Choose the former, and the game reveals that there were only a few infected colonists, who are easily contained, and Dr. Hanson leaves the ship to work on researching a cure. Choose the latter, the infestation is far more widespread, and Dr. Hanson goes insane and infects herself, turning into a monstrous human/zerg hybrid that Raynor has to kill.
* Used extensively by ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'', primarily for purposes of [[Mind Screw]].
* In ''[[Fear Effect]]'', two of the player characters continuously are at odds over whether or not a girl they are helping is a legitimate damsel in distress or secretly the [[Big Bad]] playing a [[Xanatos Gambit]]. Right before the final battle the player must decide who is correct and that choice will determine the final scene of the game. If the player decides innocent it will turn out she is innocent, if the player decides she is lying it will turn out she has been lying throughout the whole game. So in essence the girl is paradoxically telling the truth AND lying throughout the story until the scene when the player makes their decision.
* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto Vice City]]'', the player is recruited by an old Haitian woman to help out her son in an upcoming gang war. This mission involves assisting a group of a dozen Haitians as they fight off wave after wave of Cubans. This raises the question of exactly which of the dozen Haitians is the son you are trying to protect, as mechanically and graphically they are all identical. However, the mission is a failure only if ALL the Haitians die, which means that 11 of the 12 are "expendable", i.e. NOT the son you're supposed to protect. Thus one can conclude that the son will always be the final Haitian killed, regardless of the order in which the Haitians go down.
* ''[[Brain Lord (Video Game)|Brain Lord]]'': In the first town, there's a small sidequest you can do involving rescuing a pair of kids who wander down into a cave below the city. However, they only get lost in the cave if you actually talk to them - ignoring them or simply not talking to them will mean you don't need to rescue them.
* ''[[Escape Velocity]] Nova'' has a few - mainly, the fact that you with little doubt is the universe incarnate in two of the storylines, certainly ''isn't'' in one of the storylines, and has some question-marks regarding that status in the remaining three storylines. Other than that, {{spoiler|Frandall}} either set up {{spoiler|the Rebellion as a trap}} or is {{spoiler|genuinely, if for selfish reasons, opposed to the Bureau}}, and someone shows up in the Auroran storyline that has what would have been ''your'' role and backstory in the Pirate storyline.
 
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** Not only does the trope appear in that particular strip, but also in the writing process behind the strip. In the earlier draft of the comic, David Morgan-Mar kept flip-flopping on whether the punchline should reference Heisenberg or Schrödinger. He decided on Heisenberg and wrote [[The Rant|a long note below the comic]], explaining Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principle, before realizing that Schrödinger worked better as a punchline and changing it. He left the note below mostly unchanged, presumably as a record of the uncertainty in the writing process.
* Also appears in ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' by the same creator, starting [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0179.html here]. It also appears in a more amusing variation, Schrodinger's Bodyguard, seen [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0211.html here].
* In [[Chainmail Bikini (Webcomicwebcomic)|"Chainmail Bikini: The Nightmarish Legend of Deuse Baaj"]], the players are sent to retrieve a farmer's pigs in return for a sword. Instead of fighting the goblins that have stolen the pigs, they set a siege and wait until the goblins have run out of food and surrender, thus totally ruining the adventure the [[Game Master|GM]] had written. (And then they go and slaughter the goblins anyway.) The GM gets back at them by having the farmer's village been attacked and razed by the minions of the [[Big Bad]] [[Diabolical Mastermind]] by the time the characters return.
** Not to mention, a player thoughtlessly wonders why the starving goblins didn't simply eat the stolen pigs; at which point the rescued pigs suddenly transform into a pile of bones as the gamemaster quickly [[Retcon|retcons]] the situation.
** In the sort-of prequel ''[[DM of the Rings]]'', during a dice roll for an enemy attack, the dice accidentally drops beneath the table to an inconvenient spot. The player who the attack was targeted towards then calls himself an "Uncertainty Lich" between life and death (though the issue is quickly cleared up).
* Hilariously occurred in ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]] Tangent''. The comic had a forum right beneath it, where people often speculated. One person yelled out, without spoiler tags. "Ooh! That one guy we saw taking a bath is going to swoop in and pull a [[Big Damn Heroes]], making him a Chekhov's gun!" The artist's response? "Great, now I need a new way to bail them out!" He figured it out.
* In Chapter 2 of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', a set of glowing pictures (a [[Shout-Out]] to the film ''The Peanut Butter Solution'') are briefly featured in the library. When asked about the pictures, Tom Siddell explained that he has planned out a [[Story Arc]] involving those pictures, but he isn't certain that he'll be able to work that arc into the comic. So it's unknown at this time whether those pictures will end up being a [[Chekhov's Gun]] or just [[Cow Tools]].
** The waveform has collapsed: [[Word of God|Tom says]] that particular story arc has been cut.
* Every single thing in ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]''. Since the various series use [[Interactive Fiction|fan-submitted suggestions]] to drive much of the plot, seemingly non-sequitur commands like "[[Problem Sleuth|Build a fort out of your desk]]" can lead to larger developments in the in-game universe. Or just be one-off non-sequiter gags.
** This even holds true in the current storyline, ''[[Homestuck]]''. Although Hussie has officially closed the suggestion boxes, and they won't be opened again until Homestuck is over and the next story has begun, he's taking cues from the fans; he's said that "ninety percent of 'calling it' is actually suggesting it in disguise."
** Also used in-story in ''[[Homestuck]]'': {{spoiler|If you confront the Denizen before it awakens, it will already be awake anyway.}}
* If somebody who read through [[Bob and George]] somehow managed to be oblivious to the heavy [[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall]], they might get the impression that the comic had a complex, carefully planned, intricately connected plot. However, by his own admission, Dave was just really good at making crap up on the fly, and then making up ''more'' crap to explain why the previous crap was significant.
* Tim points out that Steve is using this technique in [http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=179 chapter two] of ''Loaded Dice''.
* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'', Faye once [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=647 found a box of condoms in the couch]. Marten says it's Pintsize's, and Pintsize says it's not his. The author's notes at the bottom read: "So who does the box in question belong to? [...] I haven't decided yet."
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== Web Original ==
 
* In [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|The Spoony Experiment]]'s [[Let's Play]] of the FMV game ''Phantasmagoria2'', Spoony mocks how the game tries to get around this--that the protagonist Curtis could experience the various supernatural death threats in a different order--by having him seem newly surprised in each clip, as though every one was the first (which it could be, depending on what the player does). In the finale of the [[Let's Play]], {{spoiler|Spoony is trapped in a similar setting and actually gets '''more''' exaggeratedly shocked every time something supernatural happens}}.
 
== Western Animation ==
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** {{spoiler|It would be revealed that the boys were ''always'' clones.}}
* ''[[Total Drama]]'' has an alternate ending each season where the runner-up (in slightly different circumstances) actually won the prize. In fact, for the second season, it was declared that both endings ''were'' the possible "real ending", since each country voted differently on which of that final two they wanted to win. Unfortunately, the first and third season endings ended up very contrived by comparison.
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] is a veritable font of minor [[Shrodingers Guns]] (Schrodinger's Derringers if you will), with all manner of nods towards it's [[Periphery Demographic|unexpected older fanbase]]. The most obvious is Derpy Hooves, who was an animator's joke in the first episode, but started getting inserted into episodes after the creators noticed the internet had latched onto her, and has even recently had a (rather controversial) voiced appearance.
 
== Real Life ==
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== Theater ==
* A musical based on ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' stops the action at the point where [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]]' death left the novel unfinished and then uses audience votes to determine the villain, lovers and true identity of Dick Datchery.
 
{{reflist}}
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