Many towns straddle rivers, and such towns need bridges! Often massive structures, a bridge can be the focal point of a town.

Use this list, to add pieces of interesting dressing to the bridge towns in your campaign:

Wheels rattle as a wagon crosses the wide slats of a bridge made entirely of rickety wood.
Rusting metal cages hang on chains dangling from a steel-spiked bridge.
The tromp of feet nears as a guard patrol makes its way over the bridge.
Children laugh as they scamper from one end of the bridge to the other in a friendly race.
A raucous parade pauses in the middle of the bridge to sing the mayor’s praises.
Stonemasons hammer and chisel large blocks, which they’ll use for essential repairs.
Pallbearers carry a casket over a bridge that symbolizes the passage between life and death.
Mounted guards shout for people to make way as they thunder after a fleeing criminal.
Wind whistles through this bridge’s high arches.
The complex web of ropes holding up the bridge creaks alarmingly as the party crosses.
Wherever they go in town, swarms of biting insects follow the characters.
The water level in the canal below the bridge is surprisingly low, revealing glistening mud flats.
Every guard has a shield adorned with a bridge sigil.
People whisper excitedly that the town’s “ghost bridge” is supposed to be manifesting soon.
Dozens of shop fronts line this canal, but each of them is only accessible via the waterfront.
Lifelike faces of stone peer unblinkingly from their settings in the side of this bridge.
A messenger boy walks past, calling out an advertisement for the Underbridge Inn.
A cloaked trio of people glide past, faces masked to resemble a variety of unearthly creatures.
The nearby craft shop resounds with hammering, and the occasional thud of a heavy object falling.
The stagnant water under the bridge is covered with algae and crowded with frogs and turtles.

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The material in this article appears in Urban Dressing: Bridge Town by Josh Vogt which is available in 5e, Pathfinder 1, Pathfinder 2 and OSR editions.

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