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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 2166083" data-attributes="member: 30001">IME it's player style, like Rel says. In my current campaign the bulk of the players are focused on going up levels and getting magic items.  The spend hours in email debating which feat their character should take next.  My personal preference would be to run a game where the players spent hours debating the actions of my NPCs and what action they should take to influence the politics of the region.  I used to have players that were interested in such things.  Change is part of getting old I guess.  I handle the problem by focusing on the things the PCs like (that doesn't mean I make it easy).  They like going to new cities and seeing what magic items are for sale.  So I spend some effort to develop interesting markets, NPCs selling magic items, and scenarios revolving around those activities.  It's not the kind of political game that I'd want to play, but someone has to comprimise and I pride myself on being a flexible DM. If I set up some scenario where failure to be politically aware meant death, I'd just wind up with 5 dead characters thinking that they picked the wrong feats (as another poster has alluded to).  It's classic old-school to think that killing PCs is a way to modify player behavior, but IME this is not recommended.  If you agree that the problem is a difference in styles, then I think the possible solutions are fairly obvious.</blockquote>