PC's changing the world

[Dagger75]

I have seen posted on more than one occasion that some players complain that there DM won't let them effect the world they are in.
What do you mean?
What exatly do you want to change??
Are you talking plitical, or just letting you rampage through the world killing anything that moves?

 

[Jeremy]

PC's as they gain power and prestige often want to impact the world they live in.

They want to know that all the work and risks they are taking are having some effect, positive or negative, on the world they live in.

They want to see reprocussions and consequences, good and bad, of things they've done or failed to do.

Gives a sense of meaning to their struggles. If nothing they do matters, and the world would be precisely the same everywhere if they never existed, then they've got no true feeling of accomplishment.

Check out the Story Hour forum's threads for examples of how adventuring can affect the world around your PC's. Look at the view count on the thread and give a shot to a couple threads that have the most views. Chances are, the more people that like it, the more likely you'll like it and be able to draw some inspiration from it.

 

[Andor]

As an example of the perfect opposite of affecting the world watch the D&D movie. I left commenting "So let me get this straight. That outcome was exactly the same as it would have been if they burned the map in the first scene, except that they are all dead now."

-Andor

 

[Reprisal]

Check out the Story Hour forum's threads for examples of how adventuring can affect the world around your PC's. Look at the view count on the thread and give a shot to a couple threads that have the most views. Chances are, the more people that like it, the more likely you'll like it and be able to draw some inspiration from it.

Hehe, that doesn't sound like much help, to be honest, man.

"You see here, this is the Library of Congress, it has perhaps the largest collection of human knowledge in North America. I'm sure there's something here that you can find to help you out."



I think you've hit it on the nose with the repercussions and consequences of their actions affecting the "world" around them. Note that I place the term "world" in quotes since you could easily replace it with "town" or "nation" or "continent." Basically, what I believe players want is acknowledgement for their actions through consistent description (The Whining Kobold Inn is still being rebuilt from that errant fireball...), or how NPCs approach them, or how they've effected things like the balance of power, the rules of the game, or what-not in their "world."

If they do something grand and noble, award them with more than loot... Have the King/Duke/Baron/General reward them with medals and induction into "The Radiant Order of the Kingdom of Eldor" or something. If they've done something terrible, have "Wanted: This Guy" posters every once in a while. If they destroy a bridge, have it effect the area's economy for a such a time until someone finds the money to have it rebuilt.

If they cleared out a cavern complex of the vile Drow, how does that effect the balance of power in the area? Now that the dark elves are gone, the goblin population could skyrocket and a new crop of problems could come up.

Most of all, ask your players, or try to understand just what it is that they want their Player-Characters to do... I'd almost demand some semblance of a higher cause from all of my players. Sure, gaining money and levels is important, but at the same time, I believe having a higher cause, be it good or ill, is always a good thing...