Basic Trope: A con man uses monsters to attack an area, then defeats the monsters, earning money and praise.
- Straight: Slimes attack a village and Bob the hero destroys them. It's discovered that Bob sent the slimes into the village in the first place.
- Exaggerated: Bob slowly starts to reform a world overtaken by slimes when it's revealed that he was the one who orchestrated the attacks in the first place.
- Downplayed:
- "Rat catchers" are actually breeding more rats so they'll always have something to collect money from.
- The attack was not Bob's idea, he just let things get out of hand so they will need him.
- Justified:
- Bob is trying to show that the monsters are more dangerous than the townsfolk think.
- Bob wants to retain his reputation.
- Inverted:
- A dragon keeps Bob as a slave to "kill" him in public when he becomes too notorious.
- An unknown hero destroys slimes en masse... which messes up local ecosystems, and renders the species endangered. Bob the necromancer goes town-to-town humbly reintroducing the species for a hefty fee. It's discovered that Bob killed the slimes in the first place.
- Subverted: It looks like Bob caused the slimes to attack a village, but he was framed by the true lord of the slimes.
- Double Subverted: The true lord is being set up by Bob so he can get even more fame by killing him.
- Parodied: Bob makes his act just a little too obvious, parading around proclaiming "I am the great hero who has come to kill these completely unrelated monsters!"
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob is a Chessmaster and it's very difficult to tell whether he orchestrated a certain attack or not.
- Bob attracted the monsters and profited from it. However it turned out to be because his power attracted them and was horrified to learn the truth. He leaves civilization behind only to find that they got attacked anyway in his absence. He later settles in an area exploiting it to make money - but at least he can keep them safe from the random attacks as well.
- Averted: The attacks are unrelated to the hero.
- Enforced: The author wants to show people not to give people your trust too easily.
- Lampshaded: The mayor of the village suspiciously asks Bob if he didn't send the monsters to attack the village in the first place.
- Invoked: This trope is normally invoked.
- Exploited: Roger the Rogue, who has learned about Bob's racket, reveals it at an appropriate moment to distract the townsfolk from his own treachery.
- Defied:
- Bob sees a cage of monsters, but knows he's not a good enough fighter to pull off the con so he continues playing shell games.
- The law of the land includes an addendum that anybody caught doing this kind of racket will suffer summary execution. And the man who points out who is responsible, to try to prevent frame jobs.
- Bob decides to stop playing hero and straight up tells the villagers "if you don't pay up I'll sic the monsters on you".
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- After innocents are killed by the monsters, Bob has serious moral compunctions.
- Bob's racket doesn't works more than once, because the village will arm itself to the teeth and be more vigilant from now on. Chances are that the monsters Bob managed to convince to help with his swindle will get killed as a result.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob decides to become so good at slaying the monsters that it will never happen again... but he'll charge more.
- A part of Bob's racket then becomes infiltrating the village in advance and sabotaging its defenses. He may also have to switch to expendable, stupid monsters.
- Bob orchestrates the attack to be the one to raise alarm and demonstrate how to defeat the monsters. Even if he didn't single handily "save" the village, he still gets plenty of credit, as well as an excuse to leave before the villagers get suspicous.
- Implied: After Bob defeats the slimes, Alice decides to investigate the person who sent them in the first place. It's not confirmed, but the evidence seems to point to Bob himself.
- Played For Laughs: Slimes attack a village. Bob the hero, wearing a glistening suit of armor and a shiny sword, proclaims he will slay them and gives a sly wink to the camera. After a vicious off-screen battle... he runs away in just his Goofy Print Underwear, being pursued by a slime. He later returns and promises to save the village people from the slimes in their darkest hour, for real this time, and then finds that the village people have domesticated the slimes he unleashed. He gives an exasperated sigh as a baby slime rubs up against him.
- Played For Drama: One of Bob's cons does not go as planned, and has disastrous consequences for the community. Not only did the slimes destroy a massive amount of property, but innocent people were slain, including children. Bob saves the village, but has a "My God, What Have I Done?" moment, slips into a Villainous BSoD/Heroic BSoD, and suffers guilt for all the innocents he had hurt for a profit.
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