Basic Trope: Character tries to warn everyone about something they barely escaped from, usually unsuccessfully.
- Straight: Bob stumbles into Alice, Charlie, and Dracone's campsite and babbles wildly about black things in the woods before dropping dead. A few minutes later, the things show up.
- Exaggerated: Bob stumbles into the campsite and babbles wildly about many terrible things that he's seen, never being too specific about any of them. Mid-ramble, he's killed by one of the first things to arrive.
- Downplayed: Bob stumbles into the campsite and warns Alice, Charlie, and Dracone to get away, telling them that there's things chasing him and coming this way. Fifteen minutes later, the things show up.
- Justified:
- Bob is in shock; his brain isn't working well enough to be coherent.
- Bob is dying from his injuries and he can't get out more than a few words before collapsing.
- Inverted: Bob wanders into Alice, Charlie, and Dracone's camp and goes on at length about the cryptozoological things he's seen in the woods, and then invites them to come see for themselves.
- Subverted: Bob stumbles into camp babbling about black things in the woods, but it turns out he killed all of them and he's just rambling about what he's been experiencing rather than giving a warning.
- Double Subverted: ...However, then Eva stumbles into camp, rambling about "the red" before dying. A few minutes later, the thing she was warning about catches up.
- Parodied: Bob stumbles into camp, babbling wildly about black things, and it turns out he stumbled into the annual picnic of the Black Kitten Fanciers Society.
- Zig Zagged:
- Averted: ???
- Enforced: The author doesn't want the heroes to have too much information about the threat early on.
- Lampshaded: "We got a warning, of sorts, but not a very detailed one."
- Exploited: The monsters let one victim go, suspecting that s/he will manage to warn someone else and draw in more victims who are curious about the story or trying to disprove it.
- Defied: The monster kills the last survivor before s/he can run off and warn others.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
