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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5144190" data-attributes="member: 3586">Ah, yes... trying to get the players to pay attention to the rest of the world.There's a couple of issues here. The first one to deal with is the mindset that hacking and slashing solve everything. The solution to this is quite obvious: have threats that straightforward H&S play can't solve.* Monsters they can't kill* Doors and portals they can't open* Threats from personalities in their home baseThe first two lead onto puzzles, quests and the like. If they meet a big giant who regenerates from any damage, always makes saves and can't be stunned... unless they do "A", then either you'll get a TPK or they'll wise up and move elsewhere. If the giant then has more relevance - it starts hurting them further - then hopefully they'll start paying attention to what else is going on with the world.The home base is more subtle: If they're ignoring what is going on back home, they might be slightly surprised to find their excess equipment and gold (which I assume has been left home) is gone. Explain about the new lord of the town and his archmage advisor (both Evil, of course) who have confiscated excess treasure to help build a new aqueduct or whatever...These solutions are the "bash their head with a rock" version of getting their attention. There are subtler approaches.The other aspect of this is building a campaign world that permits them to interact it beyond H&S play; this is not trivial. I use two approaches here.The first is by use of personalities, especially patrons. When the group is always hired by the same NPC to go on adventures, they begin to form a relationship with that NPC. As the campaign progresses, that NPC brings in other NPCs so you have a set of relationships going on and the home base becomes a more vibrant place.The second is by seeding interesting descriptions into dungeons and encounters that build up, over time, to reveal more of the campaign world. If you ever read Gygax's early D&D adventures, there are several which include a strange altar which seems quite out of place in the adventure; this (in some ways) foreshadows the "big reveal" in the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. Using some theme over and over again can spur investigation by the players. Scraps of history, foreshadowing of impending doom, that sort of thing.One more aspect to consider is how do your group interact with the world when they need to restock for adventures. Do they get everything they need on the adventures, or do they need to buy potions of healing, craft magic items, that sort of thing? Injecting roleplaying or research requirements into those game elements can also help with the world-building. In 4E, you might be able to craft any magic item if you have the feat using the RAW, but what happens if you need to research the item first? Do you need to interact with the Mage's Guild - or the lone Archmage in his tower - to find the proper formula for that Bag of Holding you want?Consider also if the Gods have any relationship with the priests in your group; in all honesty, it's an element I underuse, but having divine messengers turn up to guide and advise the clerics and paladins would seem to be an excellent idea (and it keeps them from being "just" another magic-user).Cheers!</blockquote>

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