Today, March 4th, is GM’s Day. Today, you’re supposed to get your GM a give in appreciation of the work put into running a game for a bunch of generally ungrateful time-leeches. The whole thing got started with a single ENWorld post, and had been continuing annually.

I’m currently without a game, so I have neither players or a GM. So, instead, I would like to give a gift to all of those new GMs that probably haven’t even heard of GM’s Day: advice.

Each week we answer a question from our loyal audience. Our question for this week is:

Dear Apathy,

My game sucks. I’ve got all this really awesome stuff, and my NPC’s rock, but none of my players seem to care. I’ve already had to evict one player from my game for lack of attention, and I have to shout at my players to pay attention at least twice a session. What can I do to make them more interested in my story?

–Jeffrey Carlsen | Apathy Games, Seattle, WA

Sometimes, despite our best efforts and due diligence, we GM’s aren’t ready to run the game. Whatever the case may be, when these situations occur we have no choice left but to tapdance.

When we develop worlds what do we remember most? The sprawling landscapes, the epic adventure, or the great bartender in the tavern where the adventure started who retold his adventure from his younger days?

A friend of mine this week was lamenting about another player that just couldn’t seem to let go of past characters. He wished she’d be able to let the past go and go on playing a new character.

I am terrible at roleplaying NPCs. I get too much of a kick out of watching my player’s roleplaying their characters.

Let’s face it as GM, or a player, you only have so many characters in our arsenal and not all of them need to be a beautiful and unique snowflake. And that’s OK.