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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7858017" data-attributes="member: 996">Favoritism is a negative spin (that is, it's presented as strictly a flaw of the DM, as a person) that implies unfair advantage granted to a given person.&nbsp; But DMs can have 'favorites' in other senses, as well, like a favored kind of scene, class, system artifact, situation, player reaction, etc, etc...&nbsp; Players who become familiar with the DM's preferences, style, &amp;c lean can position themselves (or &quot;fictionally position&quot; their characters, I guess) to benefit from it more often than not.&nbsp; When spinning that negatively we call it 'gaming the DM,' when spinning the other way, 'skilled play.'Taking away the spin, there's not a very clear line between 'favoritism' and 'judgement.'&nbsp; A good DM exercises judgement, a bad DM shows favoritism.&nbsp; Which is which?&nbsp; Well, it could be one of those I/you/they things: &quot;I make impartial rulings&quot; &quot;you make judgement calls&quot; &quot;they show favoritism.&quot;&nbsp; They're really all the same thing, the DM making a decision based on his feelings, just with varying levels of self-awareness and different connotations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7858017, member: 996"] Favoritism is a negative spin (that is, it's presented as strictly a flaw of the DM, as a person) that implies unfair advantage granted to a given person. But DMs can have 'favorites' in other senses, as well, like a favored kind of scene, class, system artifact, situation, player reaction, etc, etc... Players who become familiar with the DM's preferences, style, &c lean can position themselves (or "fictionally position" their characters, I guess) to benefit from it more often than not. When spinning that negatively we call it 'gaming the DM,' when spinning the other way, 'skilled play.' Taking away the spin, there's not a very clear line between 'favoritism' and 'judgement.' A good DM exercises judgement, a bad DM shows favoritism. Which is which? Well, it could be one of those I/you/they things: "I make impartial rulings" "you make judgement calls" "they show favoritism." They're really all the same thing, the DM making a decision based on his feelings, just with varying levels of self-awareness and different connotations. [/QUOTE]

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