Betrayal Tropes

Basic Information

Betrayal tropes are topical tropes about how characters break each others' trust.

List of Betrayal Tropes

• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
• Dangerous Deserter
• Deceptive Disciple
• Enemy Alien
• Et Tu Brute
• Face Heel Turn
  • Heel Face Turn
• Fifth Columnist
• Finding Judas
• Going Native
• Gold Fever
• Les Collaborateurs
• Love Makes You Evil
• Lovable Traitor
• Martin Guerre
• M.I.C.E
• The Mole
  • Heel Face Mole
• Rewarded As A Traitor Deserves
• Sixth Column
• The Starscream
• Turn Coat
• Treacherous Advisor
• Uriah Gambit
• Was It All A Lie?
  • Becoming The Mask
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit
• You Said You Would Let Them Go

Sources

TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• In some genres, characters often get betrayed by those who hired them, or by those they depended on. So make sure that if this happens, the betrayal will elicit the right emotions - anger at the betraying character instead of resentment at the GM for "just jerking them around".