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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7219485" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I would agree with all of that. Here's my take on each of these:* Bounded Accuracy- this is the math of the game, so I think it is more science than art.* Scaling a setting map (specifically for a hexcrawl)- do you mean the scale of a map in the traditional cartographical sense? That would be a bit more science than art, if we were talking about real places and needed to make sure that scales were accurate. However, given that the maps we're talking about are almost always for fictional places, I think that this falls into art. I don't think we can say that Mike Schley's work is of a scientific nature. * The Proficiency System- I'd say science given that this is part of the math of the system, and that it's uniform across classes and how it's applied.* Adventuring Day-based design rather than Encounter-based design - I think this is one that will vary a lot from person to person. For me, this is almost entirely art; I design my encounters and locations and so on by judgment, with little to no regard for XP budgets and the like. There is no target number I want to achieve, or anything like that. For others, this may be more of a science because they adhear to XP budgets or similar formulae, but even then, I'd still say there is a lot of art involved (i.e. you can get the numbers to work with wholly unfitting monsters/NPCs for the story). * Stocking a dungeon- Art, for the same reasons as the Adventuring Day above.* Deciding a DC- I'll give science the edge on this if I had to pick one because this again relies heavily on the math of the game, but really there's such a variance in teh judgment calls from one DM to the next that it's kind of hard to consider it science. Science is exact. Words like "Hard" or "Easy" are all very subjective. But I'll throw science a bone on this one. * Evaluating CR and then using the Encounter Budget rules- I should kind of abstain from commenting since I don't do this ever....but at the same time, I don't see much distintion between this and the "Stocking a Dungeon" or "Adventure Day design" mentioned above. I suppose this is the scientific expression of those things, so I would say this is more science based....but like I said, I don't use it at all. * Deploying the Social Interaction (DMG 244-246) conflict resolution mechanics, including playing the NPC coherently with integrity- Art. This is like acting, which is pretty universally considered an art.Honestly, I think it's even more Art than Science after seeing your list than I would have considered before. I think there are some scientific tools that the DM can use to work his art....perhaps that's the best way to summarize it for me.</blockquote>

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