North Vander of Ravencourt Castle had died recently - very recently. His heiress was a young American named May Vandernot. And, according to the family solicitor, someone was trying to kill her.
Before Parker could get the specifics from the man, the phone had gone dead. And so he had taken the last train up from London. What else could a chief inspector do?
Thanks to the storm, he had barely enough time to send in a call to the local constable requesting information and to hire the last possible boat out. Alone, he would have to sniff out the would-be murderer and incapacitate him until help could arrive.
He found that he was quite looking forward to it.
Before Parker could get the specifics from the man, the phone had gone dead. And so he had taken the last train up from London. What else could a chief inspector do?
Thanks to the storm, he had barely enough time to send in a call to the local constable requesting information and to hire the last possible boat out. Alone, he would have to sniff out the would-be murderer and incapacitate him until help could arrive.
He found that he was quite looking forward to it.
BeTrapped! is a Yahoo! murder-mystery computer game that combines Minesweeper and Clue.
Gameplay involves finding and disabling traps by standing next to them, then rightclicking them (like Minesweeper), and interrogating suspects and ultimately deducing who the murderer is (like Clue).
Be Trapped! shows examples of the following tropes:
- Absent-Minded Professor: Franklin Eggerton, expert on entomology and graduate of Eton and Oxford, and quite disinterested in anything else (aside from May).
- Adventure Game
- Artifact of Death: The Bloodstone, a large, flawless ruby.
- Big Fancy House: Ravencourt Castle.
- Booby Trap: Every room is rigged in a manner ranging from the reasonable to the ridiculous. These include a giant metal spike popping out of the floor, Trap Doors, and Falling Chandeliers, Flower Pots, Mills Bombs, And Anchors Of Doom.
- Buried Alive: North's Uncle Mortimer was deathly afraid of this happening to him. So much so that he had an intercom system installed in his tomb and carried bells and mirrors around his neck. What the mirrors were meant to accomplish is anyone's guess. He wasn't, in case you were wondering.
- Cats Are Mean: Parker encounters a cat next to a can of bee repellant, which he needs to drive away bees from a birdhouse next to the only door to a room. He finds some catnip to tempt the cat, which makes the cat run away.
- Chekhov's Gun: Pretty much everything Parker finds and picks up. Also the intercom Uncle Mortimer had installed in his tomb.
- Chekhov's News: A newspaper article detailing Dirk "The Smirk" Chamberlain's recent parole denial.
- Closed Circle: A storm prevents anyone from leaving, and the island ferry is out of service. Parker finds the telephone out of service as well, which he assumes it a result of the storm but was actually sabotage.
- Curse: The Ga-gorib, caused by five men stealing the Bloodstone from an African tribe. One died suddenly, one was ripped apart by lions, one was burnt alive, one was completely drained of blood and one was disemboweled.
- Dialogue Tree: The conversations are framed this way. A topic must be selected and can only be advanced by pressing the "next" button. Occasionally, discussing one topic reveals another topic.
- During the War: It's revealed Ravencourt was used as a supply depot during the First World War, which accounts for bomb-making supplies and a manual on booby-trapping.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: Several of the guests and residents.
- Major Gunn owes back taxes on his house;
- Dashalot is reportedly broke;
- Fu Ling promised his agent he would have the Bloodstone for his next performance and North refused, resulting in a heated argument;
- Barbara Eggerton-Vandernot complains about being broke and getting nothing in North's will (although it turns out she has a balance of one million pounds in the bank, and received a respectable sum from North);
- Phillipa was scorned by North.
- It turns out everyone is a Red Herring: Major Gunn wouldn't murder his friend to pay back taxes and is genuinely afraid of the Ga-gorib, Dashalot would more likely try to marry May to solve his money problems, Fu Ling respected the wishes of his friend, Barbara is just putting on airs, and Phillipa had long since moved on. With the gardener, no less.
- Fauxreigner: Fu Ling, whose Chinese accent changes at every meeting, then speaks perfect English and reveals he went to boarding school with North when Parker confronts his inconsistencies, and Countess Rodriguez, who wears makeup to look Spanish.
- Fed to the Beast: One of the Ga-gorib's punishments was being torn apart by lions. Masterwood's fate, only with the guard dogs riled up with Bachelor Buttons.
- Forced Tutorial: The first five levels. Thankfully, it's limited to closeable information boxes.
- Foreshadowing/"Eureka!" Moment: Parker's observation that Greek goddesses and sisters Hestia and Demeter look very similar.
- French Maid: Julliette Minouche .
- Gentleman Adventurer: Edmund Dashalot, North Vandernot and Major Gunn.
- Grande Dame: Barbara Eggerton-Vandernot.
- Great White Hunter: Major Gunn, or at least he's dressed this way. Most likely a Shout-Out to Colonel Mustard, with at least a passing resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt.
- Happily Ever After: May and Franklin marry afterwards.
- Identical Stranger: Countess Rodriguez to Phillipa. She turns out to be Juliette's sister Isabel, and they're the daughters of famous French jewel thief Dirk Chamberlain.
- Majorly Awesome / Stiff Upper Lip: Major Gunn.
- Murder by Cremation: One of the Ga-gorib's punishments, and Dashalot's fate.
- Not Me This Time: North and Masterwood compiled a list of known jewel thieves who might try to steal the Bloodstone. North's diary notes they're either in prison, retired and living overseas, or unlikely candidates.
- Passed-Over Inheritance: Barbara Eggerton-Vandernot claims this is so for her and Phillipa and Franklin, but in truth North left them all a comfortable inheritance, and Phillipa and Franklin never expected him to leave them the estate.
- Plot-Triggering Death: North's.
- Posthumous Character: North Vandernot.
- Puppy Love: Franklin and May, even though he's 33 and she's 23.
- Reliably Unreliable Guns: Juliette pulls a gun on Parker in the Denouement. It misfires, and doesn't clear even after she pulls the trigger three more times.
- The Butler Did It: Briefly hinted at when Parker arrives and learns he's missing, then dismissed when more murders occur. Turns out he was murdered by the real killers, Julliette and Isabel Chamberlain. Parker muses he must have seen something he shouldn't have.
- They Don't Make Them Like They Used To: When Parker opens Masterwood's briefcase, the key snaps and he complains about shoddy workmanship these days and must find a pair of pliers.
- Tilesweeper: The first half plays this way. You walk around a tile-based room with traps scattered all over. The color of a tile indicates how many traps are adjacent (0 is blue, 1 is green, 2 is yellow, 3 is orange, 4 is red, 5 is pink). Violet tiles are blocked and can't be stepped on. You have to disarm traps by ctrl+clicking them which also makes their tiles black. There are also red and yellow skulls traps which don't show up as adjacent traps but you have to step off them quickly if you land on one.
- Unexpected Inheritance: May Vandernot, to whom North left the bulk of the estate. She mentions she'd lived with her mother's family in New York after her parents died in a car accident, and hadn't even spoken to the rest of the Vandernots.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Invoked by North, who went through pains to have the Bloodstone registered in his name and made public that he was its legal owner. This made it worthless on the black market and pointless to steal — no one would be willing to buy such a famous and easily retrievable item.
