At some point in the characters' lives, they’re probably going to need to eat. (Unless your adventuring party is full of Roboticons from Beyond the Moon, in which case, let us know what system you’re using!) Just that one simple need presents a wide variety of ways to customize your worlds and make them memorable. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a mess hall on a starship, in an underground bunker in a post-apocalyptic world controlled by an insane computer or your favorite high fantasy realm, there's going to be some place where characters are likely to eat. Even if you don’t extensively flesh out the details, just giving that place a theme can be helpful. The Khlav Kalash hut serving things the players have never heard of, a Kebab Korner severing all manner of kebabs, or just something simple like a cat cafe will leave a lasting impression on your players. Even just customizing food items like bantha steak, roc eggs, or cream of glowing rigelian mushroom soup is sure to add some of the exotic flavors you’re looking for.
If your players are anything like the ones we’ve known in the past, they’re probably going to want to go shopping and spend their ill-gotten gains earnings. There will be the standard things adventurers will want to acquire: replacement ammo/arrows, healing items, energy cells, etc. Give them enough money, though, and they’ll want some special things as well... which also means there should be a special place to buy them. You don’t need three or four fancy places, just one per location to make each “port of call" an exciting place for your players to go. It doesn’t really matter too much what the shop sells. Spend a little time on it and give it a unique description. Think about the layout, the wall colors, whether it has shelves or display cases, the smells, the lighting. Even just playing a little bit with each of these as the party goes from town to town will provide plenty of variety to fill your worlds. Additionally, and this is something you can do for your payers' eateries as well, provide some sort of NPC that sticks with the players. It might be a shop regular who likes to give the players a hard time, a stockboy who's always making suggestions of “the good stuff” or an eccentric shopkeep. Whomever you put in this place, they’re almost guaranteed to pique your players' curiosity and keep them coming back for more.
Finally, lets take a moment to think about the “streets” of your town. They doesn’t have to actually be literal streets, it could be the corridors of a space port, the town square, or the rooftops of an average city of any era. Don't make them boring and empty! There will be people filling these places, and a wide description can cover a lot of them at once. But also add some exciting events! Thieves can be a temptation, but only you will know how much they might bother your players. Acrobats, con artists, magicians, maintenance crews, and throngs of other NPCs are at your disposal to choose from. Again, as with the shops, You only need one or two of these “random” events to keep your players interested and involved in the downtime of a particular locale.
Tabletop RPGS are unique in the way that settings can be created and populated all through description of the way characters do things as simple as eating, shopping, or simply walking around. Every specific detail opens the possibility for an infinite number more in the imagination. As you add your own, encourage your players to join in as well, by asking what they see or suggesting places they might go or things to look for. Downtime can be just as rich as thrilling adventures, all you've got to do is stop and take a look around. Until next time... get out there and break some dice!
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