Totte - game masters

When and where to play

Agree up front with your players where and when the game will be played. Some play short sessions of a few hours, others hole themselves up in kind of real world dungeon for one or two days. Some groups prefer recurring sessions on a fixed day of the week, while others play the game only occasionally.
Also agree on who provides some drinks and snacks.

Adventures

Some groups prefer short adventures that have a well-rounded beginning and end, and possibly a preset goal to achieve. As a GM these are especially challenging as you must ensure that the players progress neither too fast nor too slow through the adventure. You may want to throw up extra barriers if they race ahead too much, or subtly nudge them in the right direction if they get stuck. Also build optional components into your adventure that you can add or remove as needed. Treat them a bit like short short stories, with little character development but a strong plot and a clear goal at the end. Players can use one-time 'throw away' characters, or re-use their favorite characters across multiple adventures.

Campaigns

Campaigns are long adventures that span multiple game sessions. They can also consist of a whole series of adventures and plot lines, all interweaving without clear beginning or end. This type of games is most suitable for a dedicated group of players that is willing to come together regularly. Agree up front on how unavoidable player absences are to be handled. A character may hobble along without doing much, or the GM may take over the character for a while. An alternative is to temporarily 'park' the character somewhere outside the adventure, so he can indulge in some rest and relaxation, repair equipment, work to earn some money, study and train to improve skills or work on maintaining social contacts with non player characters. This makes the game more realistic than an adventure-all-the-time mode.
Like the players, the characters should probably stick to campaigns too. Throughout the campaign they will slowly grow more and more powerful. This will have strong effects on their adventures and position in the game world. While a group of chivalrous but low-level characters may start out saving small villages from robber bandits, they may end up saving the world from the machinations of an evil lich - a drastic change of magnitude! Together with skill and power they will gain wealth and fame (or notoriety) and their position in the game world will become more prominent. They will start to attract followers and become advisers and commanders. All this can be highly satisfactory for both players and GM, allowing a sense of 'building' the characters and the story. You as a GM must make sure that the challenge of the adventures keeps pace with the advancement of the player characters.

Players as a group

"Where there is a dispute, there are as many different opinions as there are people". This is all but true for roleplaying games. Players come in many different personalities, yet they somehow have to work together. This leads to interesting psychological experiments, but roleplaying games are not solely psychology.
As a GM, you are the final arbiter in disputes, along with bearing the burden of presenting your players a game where everyone can have a share of the fun. This is quite a challenging task. Try to put something in for everyone, or if that is not possible, vary the setting and atmosphere of the campaign from time to time. If a group consists of people with perpetually different and conflicting interests, consider banning some players (and getting others in). To prevent frustrations and disputes, make clear from the start what kind of game you want to play, so that every potential player can decide whether he wants to join and in what role.
Players by nature assume different roles in a group. Some want to be leaders, others helpers. Some drive change and pace, others bring up new ideas. Try to get a mixed group where members can complement each other. If one or two players are too dominant or start to bully others, cut them short at excesses. On the positive side, try to coach your players a bit, give them hints when needed and acclaim (possibly reward) actions that strengthen the group spirit.
It will be easier to handle an experienced group because the players know how a roleplaying game goes. Often it is a good idea to supplement a group of newcomers with one or two experienced players. On the other hand 'greenhorns' can rekindle enthusiasm, sense of wonder and creativity in an older group. However beware the veterans overrunning the newbies.

Player types

Every player is different, but in roleplaying games a few main types can be discerned. As a GM, you should learn the interests of each player and try to suit the game to the wishes of all (including yourself), while keeping a balance.

• Powergamer: The powergamer wants to be the best. Maybe she is unsuccessful in real life and tries to compensate for that in the game world; maybe she is successful in real life too and trying to be on top is just how she is. Powergamers want the best talent and skill scores, the most powerful magical artifacts and the highest experience levels. They will explore the game rules to find ways to use them to maximum advantage and some will even exploit holes in the rules.
  As a GM, you should apply gentle but firm resistance to prevent powergamers waltz over other players. But you should also allow them to reach goals through good game play. If you keep them hungry, right between starved and satiated, they will keep returning for more.
• Brawler: Brawlers like to use the game to blow off some steam that they cannot do in real life. They are in it for combat. They like to kill, be it monsters, villains or even less evil characters. Some are power gamers, others are happy to play with whatever they have got and charge into battle. For many you do not even need to bother with making combat thrilling or tactically challenging; winning often is enough reward.
• Problem solver: This type of player likes to solves puzzles and other problems, for the intellectual challenge of them. Traditionally, every adventure has turning points where might is useless and wit prevails. Traps or locks must be puzzled out, strategies devised and disputes resolved. Problem solvers relish these. They like puzzling games just as much as RPGs, or probably more. To keep them happy, stack your adventures with puzzles, logical, strategical and/or political.
• Explorer: Explorers are not overly concerned with 'playing' a roleplaying game, i.e. following the story line. They are just fascinated by the strange and eerie worlds that some GMs create. They like to just walk around in these, see and explore and enrich their personal experience with it. Some enjoy the layout of the land, some the people and creatures that inhabit it, some like the wonders of magic. To satisfy them, you should be a good storyteller. If they tax your capacities heavily, try to engage the more creative explorers in building part of the game world themselves.
• Socializer: Social people like to interact with other people. The setting is irrelevant. They socialize at home, at work, on the internet, in a roleplaying game, or just everywhere. They do not like computer games, but relish roleplaying games with good player interaction, so stimulate that. Make sure there is room for enough human interaction between the player characters and non-player character and among the player characters themselves.
• Casual gamer: These people like to play games of any kind because they are fun, but they do not attach much value to them. Some may try to make a big joke out of it all, others are a little more involved. Casual gamers like short sessions the most and do not care about long campaigns. A subgroup are players who tend to stay in the background and at first sight do not seem to be very interested, but may just silently enjoy the experience. They have fun by watching the game unfold and sometimes help out by smoothing conflicts among more assertive players. Care for these players by supporting their own supporting actions.
• Rules lawyer: These are the opposite of the casual gamers, immersing themselves deeply in the game. They are obsessive about the rules, explore every part of them and can spend endless hours fussing over details. Keep them happy by letting them help out with some of the interpretation of the rules, but do not let them dominate the game at the expense of others.
• Griefer: Griefers play the game only to piss other people off. They obstruct, harm, lie and do anything else to provoke, irritate and anger both players and you. Some are a kind of casual gamers who like to tax the game to its limits, just to see how far they can go. These may be held in check by a firm GM, though they add little to the group. Others don't care about anybody else and should simply be kicked out.
• Specialist: These type of players want to play a specific role or type of character. The type of characters varies from player to player, but they all stick to their preference. If the character dies, they just return with a new but similar one. Make sure there is some room in the game for that type of character to do her thing.
• Roleplayer: The last in the list is not the least, especially considering the name of the game. Roleplayers like to get into the role of another person, to experience what their character experiences and react like their character would, not like themselves. They make roleplaying games like a play being acted, though without a fixed script. A subtype of roleplayers are storytellers, who care as much about the about how the 'script' or story turns out as they do about the role of their character. Relish this kind of players, for they can bring your game alive.

Multiple characters

You can allow players to play more than one character. While this can add variety and strength to a strong party, it is usually undesirable. Players most go schizophrenic to play multiple characters at the same time well and this is a very demanding job, beyond the ability of most. Also some players tend to have their characters cooperate on a level that far exceeds what one would expect from their personalities, thus creating a kind 'private company'. In most circumstances, multiple characters should simply be prohibited by the GM.
One situation where multiple characters are desirable is a long campaign with a fixed base of operation. Here some characters may team up to go on adventure, while other stay 'at home' to study, work, relax and engage in other activities. This allows for parties of varying composition.

Character death and level difference

Adventures are dangerous business and sometimes a character may die. Though in the world of magic little is permanent and dead characters may sometimes be raised, more often death still means the end of a character.
This can be very frustrating for a player, especially when the character has a long history. As a GM you must take care to keep you player characters from suffering an unlucky death. That may require you to bend the rules or rolls of the dice a little. However downright stupid actions of the player should probably result in death. If the players know that the Grim Reaper is real, suspension is kept high, adding to the thrill of the game. When a character dies, if possible try to make it meaningful, so that the demise of the character may even be remembered fondly.

If a player character dies without creating too much frustration, the player will probably wish to re-enter the game, preferably quickly. To this end he should create a new character. When playing in a campaign that has been running for some time, existing characters may have risen to considerable levels of skill, while the new character is forced to start again from the beginning. Even though skill progression in Totte is not linear, this leads to discrepancies, as the new character will not be able to contribute much in skill and runs more risk of damage in dangerous situations. In this case you may consider granting the player some bonus skill points to make up a little for the difference. Another option is to have the player take over an existing non-player character who is more or less on par with the other player characters.

Storytelling

As a GM, it is up to you to create the adventure. You must think of a plot to play out, a problem to solve, a place to explore. You must also create non-player characters and roleplay them when they are encountered. Finally you must create a background fantasy world where everything takes place and describe it to your characters. This is can be an immense job if you want to do it well. Prepare well in advance; flesh out only the things that you need and leave others vague; detail them further only when the need arises. Use color and sound, facial expressions and gestures to describe your game world. Supplement verbal explanation with figurines, maps, handouts and the like. Do everything that you can to make the world come alive. Stimulate the imagination of your players and if they are supportive, allow them to flesh out some parts of the world too, either small or large. This way you engage them and bind their interest.
Beware that players will in all likelihood stray from the path that you had in mind for them. Unless your story has a very tight plot, allow them some freedom, as it will give them some control, which almost all players like. Ideally you have a vast and flexible game world ready for them that they can explore in any direction, but this can be a lot of work. Try to find the right balance between preparation and improvisation.

Game rules versus roleplay

In theory you could play a roleplaying game without rules. Just let your imagination run free! However, GM and players will have different opinions on the state and logic of the game world and the characters in it, which can lead to frequent arguments that slow down game play and decrease the fun that you get out of it. The rules of systems like Totte are there to provide both GM and players with hand- and footholds. The rules are never absolute and are open to interpretation, but clear away some of the fog nonetheless.
This is especially so with physical phenomena. Questions like "How far can my character jump under these circumstances?" or "How much time does it take these goblins to fill this basin?" can often be answered quite easily using the rules. These questions are so simple because they belong almost completely in the game world.
For psychological matters things are not so easy. These tend to interfere with the personality and mental capabilities of the player. Can a character convince the gate guard that he has urgent business inside and must be allowed through? There are two approaches to this problem. (1) Rules: You can make a check on some persuasion feat. If successful, the character is allowed to pass, otherwise not. (2) Roleplay: The GM assumes the role of the guard and embarks on a discussion with the player, in the role of his character. The player character has to convince the GM-guard.
The difficulty here is that player characters may very well be much more charismatic, or a lot more stupid than the players themselves. They may possess skills that the players do not possess, or the other way around. There is no single best solution to this problem. In general 'playing it out' is more fun than rolling some dice. However playing every little detail out will drag the game down to a boring slow pace. The GM must find a proper balance between tempo and detail. It also helps when players can roleplay very well, actually behaving more stupid than they are, or being allowed extra time to think when they play a character beyond their intellectual capabilities. Charisma, knowledge of organizing things, etc. are harder to transform but this can be done too.