Urban adventures are often set in slums. In slums, the long arm of the law is often absent, thieves and cultists are rife; opportunities for adventure abound.

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

1. A warren of ramshackle shanties stretch as far as the eye can see.

2. The river winding through the slum is now little more than a channel of sludge.

3. Mountains of garbage and filth form miniature ranges across the slums.

4. Thick, stinking smoke coils up from the dung fires the slum dwellers use for cooking.

5. Colourful rags hang from crisscrossed lines of frayed rope, strung between shanty roofs.

6. Gaggles of dirt-crusted urchins stream through the streets, playing among, and on, the refuse piles.

7. Crows swarm so thickly over a mound it is impossible to tell if it’s rubbish or a body.

8. The skeleton of a horse lies half-buried in the muck, buckteeth grinning at passers-by.

9. Plump, hairy rats, sold for a copper apiece, sizzle on skewers over nearby fires.

10. A group of beggars have slathered themselves in mud to avoid baking as they sit in the sun all day.

11. These huts look to be built from nothing but dried mud, packed hay and sticks.

12. The path ends in a wide cesspool; rodent corpses, faeces and scraps of food float within.

13. The people—bellies protruding, cheeks cavernous and eyes empty of hope—here are starving.

14. Children play around a pigpen, occasionally running in to gulp handfuls of the slop.

15. A haphazard line of twitching bodies leads back to the dark entrances of several drug dens.

16. Slavers roam the street, looking for specimens healthy enough to chain up and cart off.

17. A cleric shuffles by, murmuring prayers for the downtrodden and lost.

18. A single home stands packed with dozens of people, leaving barely any room to sit or stand.

19. The stinking breeze is briefly replaced by the wafting scent of strange spices being cooked over a fire.

20. A squad of guards stalks past, their armour mismatched, their weapons dull and rusting. None look happy to be there.

Want More?

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

Members of our Patreon campaign got all four editions as a thank you for their awesome support. Join today!