[Basic] Skill of the week: Administration

[Agent]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It's a fairly critical skill to a group of modern spies. It simply doesn't exist when I run fantasy campaigns, though!

Any conceivable fantasy setting, or Dungeon Fantasy in particular? I can understand the last but I would think it believable for large guilds, maybe churches, and such in some low TL settings.

[Kilmore]

I would think it fair to say that the Administration skill has existed in one form or another since the middle Stone Age or so. It's probably been around ever since the chief found that he had to put food into over two hundred hungry mouths, and bring goods from one village to another. Alphabets and numbers were created for the Administration skill. The question is, were they made to make Administration easier, or was Administration born as soon as letters and numbers were created?

[Not]

Watch a troop of chimps at the zoo distribute a pile of bananas and you'll see use of the administration skill.

[Vilobion]

I'd allow Administration rolls to possibly learn/discern weaknesses within a group's hierarchy. (Kill the CFO's head secretary and his work grinds to a halt...)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Not

Watch a troop of chimps at the zoo distribute a pile of bananas and you'll see use of the administration skill.

I think that's more Politics.

Bill Stoddard

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Agent

Any conceivable fantasy setting, or Dungeon Fantasy in particular? I can understand the last but I would think it believable for large guilds, maybe churches, and such in some low TL settings.

Sure, NPCs have it for those reasons . . . but my players are happy enough to play murderhobos, so there's really no need for PCs to have it. However, it would have been clearer had I appended ". . . for PCs."

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Agent

Any conceivable fantasy setting, or Dungeon Fantasy in particular? I can understand the last but I would think it believable for large guilds, maybe churches, and such in some low TL settings.

Cherry Blossom Rain was fantasy and used Administration, but we used Mass Combat regularly, as a major feature of the campaign, and so logistics mattered. I also like games that feature domain management, so I would imagine a game like Birthright would feature Administration. A social/political intrigue, even without domain management, like Game of Thrones, would probably feature it as well.

Murderhobos don't need it though. Merchant, on the other hand... ah, but that's for another week.

[Otaku]

The Administration Skill reminds me that bureaucracies were actually created to be an improvement over what preceded them; often a messy system with an unclear authority hierarchy. As such, it can be a useful Skill when even a murderhobo needs to know who it is most effective to threaten to get things done... and in some (mostly comic relief) situations, if causing them additional paperwork is a more effective threat than resorting to violence and theft. ;)

[Gnome]

I've seen Administration used mostly as one of many "searching a room" skills. If you're searching someone's office for relevant documentation, searching a file cabinet for anything "suspicious," searching a desk for evidence, etc., Administration might be the right skill, along with the ones Kromm listed in this legendary post.

[Not]

Are we going alphabetically? It'll take years to cycle through...