Build a fair mystery

NovelGraph ships fair-play-detective-2026@1 as an executable rule pack. Select Strict Golden Age, Contemporary Fair-Play, Hybrid, or Rule-Breaking before planning. Contemporary is the default. Rule-Breaking is the only mode that permits a blocker waiver, and every waiver requires author rationale.

Before drafting, record the actual event, apparent event, responsible parties, motive layers, method, opportunity, concealment, and reconstruction. Then build suspects, evidence, normalized chronology, access, character knowledge, hypotheses, and deductions. Lock the solution after author approval.

Each clue records discovery, interpretation, access, reader visibility, dependencies, payoff, and red-herring purpose. A later clue may clarify earlier evidence, but planting new decisive evidence retroactively requires an approved retcon.

Drafting and reader agents receive a chapter-bounded reader projection rather than the sealed solution. The adversarial solver uses that same projection and attempts an independent solution before the fairness auditor compares it with the sealed truth.

Publication remains blocked when decisive evidence is hidden or late, deductions lack evidence, access or chronology is impossible, the solution is unlocked, or narration withholds an indispensable fact. Major realism and character findings require author review. Prose-pattern findings remain advisory.