LEAPFROG'S PROFILE

A lot of what I would have said about designing a town has been said already, so I'm just going to throw this in, even though it's not strictly to do with town design:

If a character that I'm particularly invested in lives there, I'll gladly revisit even if it is boring - especially if I have reason to expect a change to occur in dialogue, or that they might be in some sort of danger.

I'm not just talking about the sort of people you help once as sort of a side-quest and then move on, I mean characters that you and the party have good reason to be invested with. Maybe they're a recurring ally that's helped you out of danger several times, or that you've helped in some plot-relevant situation. Maybe, if your game has non-permanent party members, they're someone you've fought alongside that has since left the party. Maybe a party member has family in a town, or falls in love with someone living there. If that's too cliche for you, maybe they form a strong friendship instead.

I know my examples aren't very specific. I could paint images of a young orphan who takes you in when you're wounded and then risks his life to steal an important item from the antagonist, or of an elderly couple who hide you from the enemy, or of the younger brother of the party's mage who threatens to go off the rails because their mother died when he was still young and he didn't get the same upbringing or education. But all that is really up to the player and the world they're creating.

I just wanted to say that having a character whose well-being the party - and player - has good reason to care about can add a spark of interest to an otherwise boring town, as well as help to flesh out the party members themselves and provide possible plot opportunities. By way of example, if you've made a compelling-enough NPC, hearing that their town is under siege by enemy forces will prompt a reaction and give the player more enthusiasm for rescuing the town than they might have had otherwise.