Aides to administrators

[DM B]

Aides add a +2 bonus to the skill of the primary administrator (do NOT use the skill of the aide, even if its better!).

You can't remove administrators except by making a Decree or something similar to get them out of the way; most of them won't be very pleased by the degradation (may well leave your service).

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

Last I checked, the administrators are people. It must be possible to talk to them, prior to the domain level action, and ask on what terms they would accept the change?

I mean, in a case where an administrator picked up an additional mantle of an area not his specialty (only "skilled" in that area), to alleviate that need.

Now the Aide, a high level military person, is probably expert or even master, and they add a flat +2?

So, I have to blindly demote the current administrator, and risk losing him from all his current jobs, and gamble that the skill of the aid actually turns out to be better?

This can't be true.

There must be a way to divine more knowledge of the way it will turn out.

1. It must be possible to ask an administrator if he will be troubled if one of his areas are revoked.

2. If the admin seems troubled, surely its possible to give some other bone to alleviate that affront?

3. How on earth do we know the skill level of an aide before firing the old admin?

[DM B]

Nieles...pleeease...you're making a big issue out of something very small; in RoE you can ALWAYS talk to your NPCs/interact with the game world. So do interpret the ruling as a guideline only - one that can be modified by other actions and events in the game (just like everything else can).

But the basic rule is still there:

The AA which has the position uses HIS skill. The aide adds a +2 bonus. That's final.

You can't grant an already filled-up position to a new AA. That's also final.

...but if you want to get rid of an AA administrator you can go about it in 1 million different ways, but the default reaction is - not very happy about it. If you bribe...or offer another position...have him assassinated...whatever...that might work better. But you can't just decide to fire one and put in another without using some actions on it.

[X-Haelyn's Aegis/RK (Andy)]

The traditional approach to keeping the mover happy is horizontal promotion, the traditional way of keeping their supporters loyal - is promotion to failure which can then justify removal.

If there isn't a big skill gap between administrator and aide then forced change is fairly pointless - leave it to natural wastage to solve the issue.  If there is a big skill gap (top deficient) then any boss with an ounce of sense will ask for a new job 'more in suiting with their skills' to avoid being pushed out, or will start stomping their ambitious underling - both actions are likely to be obvious to everyone and both can be resolved as above.

Having had first hand experience of seeing it done badly I can assure people that keeping down a better underling, or defensively removing someone loved/respected can cripple morale and internal efficiency if done badly - and those who leave are usually those you least wish to go.  Any aide is going to be sufficiently senior for people to notice and care so I'd expect any problem to be fairly obvious.

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

I shall worry not my pretty little head any more about it.