Just wondering for future campaigns, what would you guys add to a town (other than the usual must-haves like taverns and such) to provide more engaging activities or events that can occur for the players to participate in? I don't have the Dungeon Master's Guide (at least not yet) and I'd love to hear what other dungeon masters do to brighten their villages.
I feel normal shopkeeper shenanigans can be a little boring and repetitive, but I'm not too sure how I can enhance the players' experience otherwise. A list of possible sightings would be great, but any ideas are appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

Quote from MarcusGrenhart >>

Just wondering for future campaigns, what would you guys add to a town (other than the usual must-haves like taverns and such) to provide more engaging activities or events that can occur for the players to participate in? I don't have the Dungeon Master's Guide (at least not yet) and I'd love to hear what other dungeon masters do to brighten their villages.
I feel normal shopkeeper shenanigans can be a little boring and repetitive, but I'm not too sure how I can enhance the players' experience otherwise. A list of possible sightings would be great, but any ideas are appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

 Gimmicks. Think of what the town is known for most in your world and add a building or two related to that.

1. Apothecaries / Alchemists, and Jewelers (useful for both spell components, concoctions, and gifts)
2. Black Smiths, Armorers, and Weapon Smiths
3. Astrologers (though likely better suited and attached to Noble Houses and even Royalty)
4. A Primary House of Worship or two, along with lesser shrines scattered throughout the Town / City
5. An Orphanage
6. A Fightclub, either a full on Coliseum or something more underground
7. A Graveyard (one inside the walls for people of note, and one outside for the commoners and riffraff (possibly including mass graves for paupers))
8. A Brothel or two (depending on the maturity rating you associate with your Campaign)
9. A Guards Barracks
10. Guild Halls for Wood Work, Tailors, Cobblers, Weavers, and Stone Masons
11. Wine Makers and Millers should be outside the city walls but relatively close by
12. A full on street plus for stall and shops of food
13. Puppet Shows and Actors Theatre
14. ”Public” Pools, only available to those with Class, Wealth, or by Invitation 
15. A Bank
16. A Library (although depending on how true to history your game is, that is likely something available only to Nobles and Royalty and part of their estates).  Alternatively, there actually COULD be a university, I sometimes forget that these wouldn’t be super anachronistic.  Even GRRM had one in his series.  They also started cropping up at the end of the Middle Ages, IIRC
17. And an obligatory anachronistic sewer system, lmao

Farms should be a distance away outside the walls, requiring the farmers to cart their food stuffs into the city.  Make sure there are bailiffs on the gates checking carts as they come in.  Obviously everything here doesn’t include regular houses.  If there are places for public parks or gardens, great, otherwise confine those to the Estates of wealthy merchants, nobles, and whatever royalty may exist.  Don’t confine yourself to straight lines for streets, and create small intricacies of architecture such as an arching bridge that connects to a lane while crossing a street below.  Fountains and Statues might start to appear in the wealthier neighborhoods.  Musicians will play for coins at taverns and on street corners.  Dice will be the most common form of gambling but cards are not so rare that a game can’t be found in the better dens.

A goblin junta over the whole thing!

The cartographer’s shop is the front of the assassins guild.  Go ahead bully the guy at the counter for a map.

Here's some things I've played around with:

• Newspaper offices and with couriers on horseback. The town criers are worried, and competition between reporters is much akin to gang warfare.
• Stew kitchens. They offer a meal to die for. That's a promise.
• Mortician. "Montgomery-Sterling Askett, at your service. You just ask it, I've got the casket!"
• Hot springs. This town is world renowned for calming tensions in its natural hot baths. Enchanting, one might say...
• Parade Square. Every so often used by the town's military for drill exercises, it is also a place of celebration. It also has a history of many villains making a grand entrance and exit.
• Bank. The building is in the shape of a pig.
• Musical Instrument Shop. There's a sign which says "No Stairway to Heaven" on the door.
• Eversmoking Crater. It emits a lovely charred smell, and is great for roasting meat over. It's mostly safe.
• The Statue Garden. It's full of life-like statues of animals and humanoids; many of which emote enthusiastically!
• The Tinkers, Tailors, Soldiers & Sailors Committee. They had once a doubtful strife, sir.
• Hookah Lounges and Opium Dens. An alternative to the traditional inn.
• River Cruises. Guided tours around the town/city via its water ways. You think there's a number missing before the '0' in 'Days without Incident'.

Several sketchy sewers

An archmages tower

A fey crossing or other portal.

I love all these answers, never really thought some of these could be possibly implemented but here I am lol

An orphanage, that always seems to be taking a new orphan in as a former resident makes their way out into the world.  New arrivals are always less than a year old.  Maybe even one or more of the PCs has a past there.  Kids when encountered in town all seem like solid folk and when they grow up either become upstanding members of the community or make their way in the world, not forgetting to send tribute back to the home that reared them.

Thing is, nobody knows where these babies comes from.  The delivery of new children to the door is always very perfunctory when witnessed.  There's no corresponding record of any resident dying prior to the child's rendering to the home.  The town's relatively remote, not a crossroads or major hub of much of anything and nearest towns and cities barely know of it, let alone its orphanage.

It is a small, but very productive farming community, mostly cabbages. 

Conflict. Any kinds of conflict reasonable for the setting. Farm town? Land dispute. Ranch town? Water dispute. Mining town? Claim dispute. Gambling town? Debt disputes. Conflicts are interesting and interesting things are memorable.

Assassins

Ignored? Don't assume that, yours stuck out the most; being one of the most detailed lists in this thread. It would be unnecessary to make an individual reply to every single comment to show my recognition. I thank everyone who responded, including you.

If you have access to it, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus has an appendix all about Baldur's Gate, most of which isn't actually relevant to the adventure but does give the Baldur's Gate setting some life if someone were to further campaign or adventure there.  There's tables of random encounters for each of BG's districts, and perusing those might give you further particulars for what could be added into a city.  I don't know Waterdeep: Dragonheist that well, but I imagine that may have something similar.

I don't have access to Baldur's Gate, at least I don't think I do. I'm guessing there are costs applied to look into it?

Yeah, BG:DiA is a WotC book available in the Marketplace, the Baldur's Gate Gazetteer, I feel, does an excellent job demonstrating to a DM how to really get into city's nitty gritty.  If you don't have access to it see if you can join a campaign with the content shared.

* bored grooms slacking in the shadow of two buildings. but don't underestimate such a bland description! depending on the need they might spot a pick-pocketing pc, hie your barbarian over to buy snake oil, shout at impious strangers (to introduce the town cult: "no bare elbows!"), run off to tell the mayor a wanted bandit was spotted, tail your players because they look like wanted bandits, be recruited by a charismatic wanderer to distract the merchant, etc.

* a traveling merchant stopped to sell pans, needles, an other necessities to the innkeep. but they're making a fuss about doing business in the open to draw out other customers (or even drive up bids for scarce items). and they're just as interested in gossiping as unloading. prepare to hear some rumors of a band of heroes one town back! but, he also asks questions. very pointed questions about three boys... no, they're not in trouble. and certainly not tied to some prophecy!! ha ha what??

* what can only be described as a stereotypical lemonade stand. except, it says Adventures Guild (sic). they just learned about spell components, yesterday. the kids that run it have a board full of quests for arcane ingredients: four-legged minotaur chips, un-horned unicorn hairs, cockatrice stones, flatland mountain goat snot, two-eyed beholder toenails, etc. and if that's of interest, you'll want to check back for a demonstration of a potion of featherfall down by Jake's hay loft.

* a rare vagrant beggar away from the city, naked and... entirely ignored?? he's fiddling with a copper coin upon which it can be seen tangled antlers. this is borrowed from the Acq Inc book, and i recommended it for minor missable stuff like this. a successful religion check reveals this to be a priest of Beshaba, Lady of Misfortune. best to avoid them carefully and completely! a player must not be rude but also not too nice and answer a riddle if given. failure means a curse of bad luck (disadvantage every roll) that only ends with a remove curse spell... oooor if it is passed on to another. it's an evil act to pass it to an innocent person, and an NPC could literally die from this bad luck.

* geologist and mineral trade. let your players know there's caves, mines, and hillsides that may be dangerous, un-abandoned, or hiding riches. also, they might guess that bandits watch who comes out of town looking maybe a touch overburdened with coin. and, of course, there's always the chance one of the slightly sparkly rocks the party stumbles across and takes with might actually be a geode or uncut gem masquerading as just another sling stone. bring in enough good ore to impress the grizzled old miner with the jewelry kit and he might just reminisce about another adventuring party that passed through so long ago. they went down a tunnel looking for drow slave catchers and never returned. must not have found them. only, well, gosh, that one dwarf in their party, she was so good at teaching jewel cutting. face like a princess cut topaz, too. he frowns. the grizzled old miner seems to have had something he wanted to say to her, not that he's been waiting! it's been twenty years! but if you did go looking in the rock slides, you might find a goodly number of cut gems and skeletons there. and if you ran across a certain locket necklace...

* ranger station. part law office, part fire spotting tower, part museum. come talk about local plants that might boost your next potion or ingrediented spell. hear about odd happening, weird rumors, and new homesteads that popped up just before the strange stuff occurred. see the "how to spot a druid" life sized diorama and learn why poaching might just be bad for your health. buy a guide to mushrooming that could make your next cave run less interesting by half!

* fantasy amish bakery!! except it's halflings and they take it much further. these luddites have forsworn any machinery, artifice, or even domesticated animal. they walk to town only once a ten-day to sell and bring back provisions (always a cash transaction, never a trade). the breads are a little rough on the outside, the crude jars of preserves look a touch gritty as well (it's sugar), but you'll love the fruit pies. and later when you meet others like them in seeming wilderness, one mention of the prior purchase of food will set them completely at ease as good as any introduction. their hospitality is equally as broad as their conveniently extensive wall-breaching earthen tunnels.

...edit: and another few...
* nobility on retreat. perhaps they've set up an easel and canvas in the middle of the town's only road, all the better to capture the quaint bucolic portrait of these podunk dirt farmers romping about their meager lives ("just the background, m'hah. i'll add people and animals later when i've time to hire suitable models. something more believable."). or maybe they've come to do astrology far, far from the lights of the city (and the entire alehouse is incredibly tired of them offering to read their fortunes, all of those coming out dire and tragic (but do they come eerily to pass or not?)). or maybe the city is with plague and the family has moved here for fresh air ("oh, yes, do please keep that under your hat. that was privileged information as not everyone can leave, can they, when the city must continue to function."). or maybe this is where all the nobles come in the autumn to view the leaves turning. what do the locals think of that? price inflation, pick pockets, invented charitable holidays complete with silly hats.

* a spicy house on the corner with spicy music pouring out the windows and spicy persons on balconies lit by red lights, spicily waving kerchiefs at a steady stream of escorted caravans passing through. inside, it's even more spicy than advertised. Ma Bell serves nothing without a dozen peppers in it. her children have been tasked with drawing in customers and are quick to reduce the 'spice factor' of their efforts immediately if Ma should step outside for any reason. her idea of 'spicy' wasn't as popular as the image the kids came up with. and business has really picked up since they figured it out! anyone who enters is quickly seated and plied with appetizers before they have a chance to reconsider. a few nervously nibbled chips will inspire an incredible thirst that keeps most rooted. milk (to lessen the burn) by request only, else it's all expensive chilled ale as fast as you think you need it. in-the-know locals enjoy some outdoor tables at the popular alehouse across the road, enduring the dust and sun for the free spicy show.

* since Waterdeep Dragon Heist was mentioned, chapter 9 of WDH includes Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion which is entirely useful even here in what was described as 'a town' (rather than a big capital city) because of the festivals. there are something like ~27 holidays that could be adapted as the one big event in a town or village, something that draws in the rural farmers from all around. it could be spontaneous or an effort by the town council or maybe the local baron is in town for one of his two yearly trips (the other being tax time). enjoy a parade or a carnival or even freely given gifts of food or clothing by the noble. tomorrow the peasantry will all be wearing the one hat or short cape or epaulet they received as if it's entirely normal to have one very fancy sleeve sewn onto moth-eaten woolen jerkin.

wow that's a lot rumloverum, thanks!

• Public bathhouses (good places for merchants to make deals, good places for criminals to talk business, good places for spies to gather or forward information, luxurious ones for the rich and noble. Some might even have more exotic services.)
• Casinos. Some are public, some invite-only. "Is this a game of chance? - Not the way i play it."
• A grain mill (Wind, Water, Construct...) Millers are almost always involved in shady stuff.
• A sage's domicile - or maybe two, which might constantly debate about a certain topic, but also know a lot of other stuff.
• A Brewery/Distillery/Winery (might have got some of their casks second hand - from the estate of a deceased alchemist, might be that a competitor sabotages them.)
• Slums. (A good place to disappear, voluntarily or unvoluntarily.)
• Statues and/or monuments of important townsfolk, local rulers, heroes or saints. (Good for legends and mysteries aka lost or hidden loot)
• Pawnshops. Look at all those oddities...
• Exchange offices. Trade gems and precious metals for coin. (Especially in mining-towns)
• Moneylenders. (Profiteer or loan shark?)
• A citadel or fortress (might contain/replace town hall, guard house/barracks, jail, treasury, stable, chapel and utility buildings)
• a town hall (Multi purpose from courtroom to banquet hall, offices for the bureaucrats that keep the town running)
• Guard houses/Watchtowers (might be combined with jail or cells)
• Pillories (at the town or market square)
• A type of jail (tower, dungeon, cages...)
• A gallow or a block.
• A fairground with biannual fairs (Cattle and horses, agricultural products, stuff that would be sold/bought in bulk) Also a place for tournaments, town carnivals, or circuses to make camp.
• Docks (if there's water)
• A Shipyard (if there's lots of water)
• A lighthouse (see above, hope the lighthouse keeper isn't a drunkard or has a pact with The Fathomless)
• a warehouse district (busy at day, at night there's only guards and criminals - wait isn't that a child's game?)
• Basic houses of worship (at least for agriculture and trade deities, plus something that fits the region)
• An amphitheatre, size depending on the town's size. (Bards will love it.)
• A herbalist (There's always one, at least a settlement's midwife will always know the basics.)
• A graveyard with crypts.(I don't know who's weirder -  The Graveyard Keeper or the Undertaker)
• An esoteric shop (Sells lucky charms, crystals, incense, essential oils etc., most offer special services in their backroom.)

Quote from IamSposta >>

Conflict. Any kinds of conflict reasonable for the setting. Farm town? Land dispute. Ranch town? Water dispute. Mining town? Claim dispute. Gambling town? Debt disputes. Conflicts are interesting and interesting things are memorable.

I second this.  Adding some adventure hooks to towns, cities, and even villages can definitely spice things up. The characters don't always have to go on any of these adventures, but presenting them as options can make things more interesting. You can hook your characters via rumors and quest requests in taverns, or papers on billboards offering gold for certain jobs. Things get even better if you can somehow find a way to connect the quest to a character's backstory or to an upcoming part of the campaign. The adventure can be in or outside of the settlement, because, as Sposta points out, there is bound to be something going on in both of those places and the characters can easily get sucked into a conflict between citizens (Especially important, kind, or rich ones for various reasons).

P.S. I'm shocked that no one has mentioned a magic item shop. For me, this is a must have.

I didn't include a general magic shop, because it's either standard for some DMs, like a tavern, smithy etc. or, like my personal preference when creating towns, magic shops are a thing for far larger cities, or items are created by the related crafters only. ^^