There's nothing particularly magic about the cables themselves, it's all about the port chipset.
When I plug the USB OTG cable (nothing attached to the other end) into the S3 it detects it and gives a notification "USB connector connected". So given the info in Wikipedia article I conclude that the USB OTG cable that I have has a resistor to signal it's presence and the phone goes into host mode. Frankly Frankie's experience suggests that other devices may behave differently (or that he has a OTG cable without knowing it).
I found that my old Nexus One charged at different rates depending on which of my usb cables I used, in that case I found that the cable that came with one of my chargers had a resistor between the data lines (if I remember correctly) which controlled the charge rate - probably this resistor should have been in the charger, not the cable. The point being that manufacturers may implement the spec differently resulting in different cables.
Bugger - lost my edit
You need both chipset support and driver support - driver support depends on what the vendor has pulled into it's android release - and just because it may be kitkat a.b.c it may be no guarantee it has it AFAIA, and possibly not consistent between phones for the same notional android release.
On mini USB there's the addition of an ID pin - grounded on the mini-A plug, left floating on the mini-B plug (and pulled up within the controller chipset/circuitry). The OTG spec actually species how a B device gains control of the bus from the A device, your phone (etc) may support operation as a host or as a device at different times( according to the ID pin/which has the mini-A plugged into their mini-AB receptable/socket), tho' it may not actually support the OTG-swappy part or the spec.
Re charging - until relatively recently when the Battery Charging Spec (and another whose name escapes me) arrived, charging/power supply other than by a host wasn't addressed, so is a bit of a kludge - shorting d+/d- is a common one I gather.
A compliant cable should have all 4 conductors from one end to t'other - Vbus (5v), gnd, d+, d- - for mini/micro A<>B there are no exceptions AFAIA. I think compliant cables are supposed to have some appropriate ident on the plugs, and possibly packaging - can't remember the details (tho' it's in the spec). But IME, good luck in picking one up that has this !