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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3309741" data-attributes="member: 18280">Really?  How big of a sample set did you use?   <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> "Well, I know this one crappy DM...." isn't really a telling point.  OTOH, if you are trying to claim that anyone who differs from your stated opinion is therefore a crappy DM....sorry, an "old school DM who loves to play favorites" then you need a bit more evidence to back up such a claim.The game revolves around several interlinked skillsets:  Combat, Magic Use, Exploration, Information Gathering, Deduction, and Social Interaction.In the case of Combat, a plethora of options exist to challenge the players as well as the characters -- everything from weapon/armor choice, through attacks of opportunity, and onto combat options such as grappling and sundering.  You can build a good Fighter and still suck in combat.  This is an area in which the mechanics and the playing options mesh well to allow both the player and the character to be important.  I would hazard to say that this is probably why players and DMs alike find combat to be so satisfying in D&D.Magic Use likewise has an aspect of player challenge to it:  Knowing what your spells do, and what spell is best based upon the circumstances.  Metamagic and item creation feats, like combat-oriented feats, add another layer of player choice (and hence player challenge).  Admittedly, in earlier editions, without spontaneous casting, players had to rely upon Information Gathering more to know what spells to choose.  Moreover, the less codified spells meant that there was a greater element of creativity in terms of getting the spell to do something unexpected.  Even so, the designers of 3.X made certain to include both challenges to player and character in the magic system.  You can create a good Wizard build, and still suck in game play.Exploration is likewise guided by player choice, and includes obstacles that can be overcome in various ways using either player input and/or character skills/feats/magic.  The Rogue who uses the Search and Disable Device skill to find/remove traps must still have the player determine where to look.  You can build a great Rogue and still suck at exploration.Information Gathering challenges both the player (What questions to ask, what spells to use to gain further information) and the character (Gather Information skill, Knowledge skills, Profession skills, access to spells).  It is also partially paying attention to descriptive elements.  This is, prehaps, the hardest part of the game to suck at because the DM absolutely needs to feed you information.  Again, this is both a challenge to the players and a challenge to the characters.Information Gathering leads directly to Deduction, which is taking the information available to you and determining, on that basis, what might be true even though it has not been revealed.  If that's the third Efreeti you've seen today, you might might deduce that this is important.  In D&D, there is no standard game mechanic to challenge the characters with Deduction (although a kind DM might allow an Intelligence check in some cases).  This is all about challenging the players.Take away player input in Social Interaction, though, and it becomes unique in D&D as the only thing that challenges the character without challenging the player.  As it is ultimately the challenges that the players overcome that are exciting (otherwise, you can just as easily read a book or watch a movie), this makes diplomacy et al as dull as dishwater.  IMHO, at least.So, perhaps, the majority of DMs who want to modify social rolls on the basis of role-playing are actually trying to make the game more fun for themselves and their players rather than just "power tripping".   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> The one thing about DMs who play favorites is this -- bad DMing is ultimately self-limiting.  If you only like to DM for Bob and Fred, sooner or later that will be your gaming circle.</blockquote>

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