Dirtbag Fantasy
Why even are there “adventurers?” Like, seriously, why? It seems like a pretty horrible way to make a living. You risk life and limb and the possibility of having your face eaten by an eldritch horror or some kind of undead grub worm, and for what? Enough gold and gems to pay for another week at the inn that you're only staying at because it's close to the dungeon where you're plundering treasure to pay for your stay at the inn?
I mean, get a job, dude.
If you look at it through a romantic lens, the PCs are kind of like prospectors – the hardy souls who braved the American frontier to make a fortune during the gold rush. The kind of plucky freedom-lovers who couldn't be tied down by something as mundane as a vocation or a farm. And you know, most of whom died broke and shoeless.
I think a much more likely option is that PCs are scumbags who either can't or won't participate in society and for sure aren't interested in an honest day's work. Best case, they think they've found a way to get rich quick. More likely, this is the last option available to them.
Maybe that fighter is a veteran who couldn't re-integrate into civilian life. That cleric got caught drinking the sacramental wine one too many times and finds himself between congregations. That thief...well, thieves gonna thieve. Plundering ancient treasure hoards actually makes sense for them.
For old-school dungeon-delving play, there's an economy based on desperation that lends itself far more to people on the fringe of society than it does dewey-eyed young heroes-in-the-making who, I guess, are going to rob only as many graves as necessary to get their throne-bound life of glamour back on track.
Naw, fam. Dungeon crawling is the provenance of Dirtbags.
Now, they might be dirtbags with a heart of gold – scamps, even. They're not necessarily hardened criminals. Dungeon delving may even represent a way to turn their lives around. But they're surely not honest taxpaying citizens of the empire happy with baking pies or slopping hogs or marching to the hinterlands to die in the mud in the service of the king.
Look, our table is comprised of professional comedians, DJs, writers, actors, and a Canadian, so we gravitate quite naturally to dirtbag play.
Our Low Fantasy Gaming campaign was based almost entirely around the fact that they found some green dragon scales on a random roll and told everyone they'd killed a dragon. Our Traveller characters have destabilized entire planetary governments instead of admitting we had taxable income. Shit, even our Brindlewood Bay ladies were played pretty gritty – definitely a pile of used scratchers in Gertie's glove box, you know?
I guess what I'm suggesting is that if you're going to dungeon crawl, I really recommend embracing the sketchiness of it all. It's definitely a play style unto itself. It's not quite the same as junior high kids trying to assemble a party of goth edgelords – more like a table of middle aged men who have been in enough comedy clubs to be very familiar with the lovable dirtbag archetype.
Delving ain't pretty. Embrace it.