Dungeon graffiti

[Bullgrit]

Why aren't dungeons filled with graffiti?

What kind of graffiti might adventurers find in a dungeon?

Bullgrit

 

[Mark CMG]

I like simple arrows scrawled onto the walls, sometimes leading in circles.

 

[Croesus]

One of the best 3.x ideas I read was from a story hour. There were signs and even artwork which could only be perceived correctly using darkvision. If you saw it with normal light, you wouldn't notice anything unusual.

 

[TanithT]

Why aren't dungeons filled with graffiti?

What kind of graffiti might adventurers find in a dungeon?

Bullgrit

Probably nothing we can post here without using a lot of asterisks.

Graffiti can be nice flavor/fluff text, especially in a city setting. I don't do a lot of "dungeon crawls" per se, where the premise is that for some reason you have a bunch of underground rooms populated by monsters guarding treasures of unknown origin with no visible ecosystem, economy or culture. But if you have a reason to go exploring underground, and a structure that makes sense, the graffiti should fit with the culture of its inhabitants.

Which generally means you're likely to see a lot of variants of the F-word in Orcish. Probably with crudely drawn illustrations.

If you look at the graffiti archaeologists have found on Roman walls, a pretty large percentage of it is something like "Lucius ****ed Mencius" or "Primus ****ed Principia". And the aforementioned illustrations. There's some pretty solid scholarly material on the subject if anyone cares enough to go digging for it.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Killroy was here...
Frodo lives...
Smarter as a zombie...
Ranger Bob loves Wench Wanda...
Look behind you...
For a good time, try the door third on the right...
Go Warhammer!

Also, lots of dirty pictures.



Oh...5E is coming!!!!

 

[nedjer]

A whole city full of graffiti: See No Evil

 

[El Mahdi]

In archeology it's called Graffito.

The article in Wikipedia has some examples and interesting iformation. I find it just chock full of adventure hook ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffito_(archaeology)

 

[Super Pony]

"He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of Aaargh"

Depending upon the most recent inhabitants of the dungeon:

Actual Dungeon Prisoners - Date ticks, tick tack toe, ticks for lunar phases, long division, epic ballads, detailed treasure maps, bad poetry, amazing poetry, insane ramblings, prayers, curses, exploding runes...>BOOM<

Small Evil Critters - Violent cartoons, excrement, more violent cartoons, hexes, wards against invaders, still more violent cartoons, chalk outlines, dead things pegged to walls and floors

Big Evil Critters - Big claw slashes...and my creativity just ran dry...to be continued

 

[TheAuldGrump]

"Ingvi is a louse!'

*In Orcish* 'Here I sit all broken hearted....'

'In this place I found nothing but bad beer and cruel women! This place is cursed!'

'Here Savn Strong Arm did lay him down and dee.'

*In Goblin* 'Hrgorgk+Savn - Best of Friends Forever, Rest Well My Friend.'

'Don't Bother - We Already Took The Treasure - Morak's Crew.'

The Auld Grump

 

[the Jester]

I've seen quite a few groups of pcs leave graffitti in dungeons, starting with the walls outside the Earth Temple in the ToEE ("Kord rules", "Pholtus sucks").