Storytelling tropes: mystery

 


All the tropes beneath are from the website tvtropes. I did not include all of them, just the ones I found interesting. Check out tropes for love and family as well.


Only smart people may passThis refers to any barrier that requires the heroes to solve some kind of puzzle, riddle or test of skill in order to pass

Amnesiac hero: When the protagonist has amnesia.

Anachronistic clue: Something which can't come from the time period it supposedly came from, which is a sign something is amiss.

Anonymous Killer Narrator: When the serial killer is the narrator of the mystery story

Anomalous art: Works of art with mysterious properties

Bluffing the murderer: Someone is pretty sure who committed the crime, so they trick the criminal into revealing themselves

Conviction by contradiction: A mystery is solved by finding a hole in the perp's story, like a logic puzzle

Did not die this way: Someone lies about the cause of someone else's death

Everybody did it: All the suspects were responsible for the crime in some way

I never said it was poison: A character accidentally gives themselves away by revealing information that their knowledge of proves they are guilty

Ontological mystery: A story where the characters are locked somewhere and must find out how they got there, why, how to escape, and who (if anyone) is the cause of the situation

Public secret message: Sending a coded message to everyone because only the intended target of the message will understand the code

Signature item clue: A distinctive item means that someone must have put it there and that's a clue

Dream spying: A character dreams of something that is currently happening somewhere else

Riddle me this: In order for the characters to continue their journey, they need to solve another character's riddle first

Tour guide detective: Solving a mystery is used as a way to explore a setting

Red herringA clue that leads in the wrong direction

Facade drop: A character lets go of their mask to show who they really are

Literal metaphor: The simple truth, mistaken for a metaphor

Decoy backstory: The backstory we were initially given for a character turns out to be untrue

Liar's paradoxA stock technique where a paradox is formed from statements where truth and lie simultaneously occur

Unusually uninteresting name: This innocent-sounding group are not a secret organisation of any sort. You won't even question their involvement or even notice their existence. The name is likely to be technically correct, though

Dark secret: Someone has a negative secret, which almost always leads to lying

Hidden in plain sight: Something is being searched for, and it turns out it was there the whole time but blended into the surroundings

Mystery magnetSomeone who coincidentally seems to attract mysteries

Not quite dead: Someone thought to be dead turns out to be still alive

My significance sense is tingling: Psychics can sense important stuff happening

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