Language Log offers a great post about the comics convention of using typographical symbols to represent swear words.

In any case, ! — * @ # $ % & seem to be the characters most commonly used in the U.S. (I suppose £ and € get some play outside the U.S.) At the moment I have no idea about why = is out of the game.]

I’ve been playing Rogue, so I want to translate that as “potion, scroll, gold, Rogue, corridor, stairway…”