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Ten Types of Stonework Decorations

by Mike on 7 October 2024

As characters explore dungeons deep and ancient ruins, they often come across decorations from times past. Such decorations serve as excellent vehicles for secrets and clues, single-sentence pieces of history or lore revealed through play.

Here are ten types of stonework decorations to keep on hand to improvise the revelation of such secrets and clues.

Relief. The projection of an image in which the stonework around the image is carved back, leaving the image protruding forward. Includes low (bas), high, and sunken. Such reliefs might reveal lost histories or forgotten knowledge.
Frieze. A long horizontal stretch of painted or sculpted decoration at the upper edge of a wall, room, or object like a sarcophagus. These decorations might not be noticed at first glance but a perceptive character might pick up interesting clues with their keen eye.
Mural. A piece of graphic artwork painted directly on a wall or ceiling. Murals can depict great wars, images of gods, or rulers of old. Murals might peel away revealing layers of such works.
Fresco. A vivid painting applied directly to freshly laid plaster. The plaster might break away showing carvings on the wall underneath.
Mosaic. A pattern or image created from inlaying small pieces of stone, glass, or ceramic. Such pieces of glass might contain magical lights or other embedded spells.
Runic carvings. Writing of language or ideographs carved into rock slabs or tombstones. A knowlege of history might uncover their meaning.
Encaustic painting. Using heated wax to apply pigments to a surface, often wood or canvas. The wax might be melted away to reveal something underneath.
Gilded Engravings. Applying a thin coating of gold over another surface, sometimes inlaid within a carving. Such engravings might conduct electricity or activate a trap when pulled away.
Marouflage. Applying a painted canvas to a wall with an adhesive such as plaster or cement. Such decorations might hide a secret door behind the canvas.
Sgraffito. Scratching through the surface of one pigment to reveal the pigment underneath. Scratching away further might reveal a mural painted underneath – like a giant scratch-off ticket.

Keep these art styles in mind to add richness and detail to the characters' discoveries in the depths of the dark.

These decorations have been added to the Lazy GM's Reference Document in the "Core Adventure Generators" section released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

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RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Mix easy encounters with hard encounters. Don’t always push PCs to the limit.
You don’t always have to call for an ability check. Sometimes characters just do it.
Add shortcuts to your dungeons so characters have an easy way to enter and exit big multi-level dungeons.
Visions or remnant illusions can show moments of history long forgotten.
Know your wall decorations: mosaics, frescos, reliefs, friezes, murals, tapestries, engravings, marouflage, and encaustic paintings.
Use waves of combatants to shake up challenging fights.
Tag improvised monsters with keywords that remind you of unique abilities like “life drain” or “necrotic blast” or “cunning action” or “pack tactics” or “reposte”.

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