[Basic] Skill of the week: Current Affairs

johndallman · 01-11-2015, 07:44 AM

Current Affairs is the IQ/E skill of knowing what's going on now: the "news" and related matters. It's a TL skill because the means of accessing information vary so much by TL, and it requires specialisation because nobody knows about everything. The defaults are IQ-4 and Research-4, and there are modifiers: -1 per day without access to news (this can be per week in places where news travels slowly), -3 if you have only one source, and +1 or more for good access to news, from a job where a lot of it goes by, good contacts, and the like. Collections of old books are no use for Current Affairs, and come under Research.

The specialisations in Basic are Business, Headline News, High Culture, People, Politics, Popular Culture, Regional, Science & Technology, Sports, and Travel. All the specialisations default to each other at -4. The Geographical and Temporal Scope rules on B176 are sometimes applicable, especially at TLs without electronic communications.

Current Affairs is good for gathering intelligence information from the media, which makes it valuable for spies. It's also a vital skill for journalists of any kind, especially commentators, and for bards. Action has it as a skill for finding out things from the media, or other legitimate sources by asking around, and Dungeon Fantasy has it as the skill for accessing the rumour network. Social Engineering uses it for locating prominent experts, as a Complementary Skill in speech-making or debates, for accessing rumours (a news organisation bought as a Contact Group provides a lot of Current Affairs specialisations), and as a default for many forms of Heraldry. More generally, many skills might default to Current Affairs for stuff that's currently in the news, and having History and Current Affairs for the same field can provide useful insights.

While the standard specialisations are very widely applicable, new ones are sometime needed, although less often than with Connoisseur. Horror offers Infernal, Occult Underground, and Supernatural specialisations, although they probably won't all exist in the same campaign. Infinite Worlds has Current Affairs for a historical era, since it allows access to multiple worlds of any era.

Quite a lot of the Talents and Wildcard skills in Power-Ups 3: Talents and Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills include a few specialisations of Current Affairs relevant to the trait, and Trivia Sponge, Bard! and History! have all of them.

Some people may omit sub-fields from their Current Affairs skills. I'd claim Current Affairs (Sports), but only for cricket - I don't take any interest in other sports, and actively shun anything to do with soccer, which is what most people in England regard as the significant sport. In the same way, people with Current Affairs (High Culture) may be dedicated and knowledgeable opera fans without a clue about events in the world of ballet. The great advantage of these subset skills is they take less time to keep up-to-date.

What have you done with Current Affairs in a game?

01-11-2015, 07:44 AM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Basic] Skill of the week: Current Affairs Current Affairs is the IQ/E skill of knowing what's going on now: the "news" and related matters. It's a TL skill because the means of accessing information vary so much by TL, and it requires specialisation because nobody knows about everything. The defaults are IQ-4 and Research-4, and there are modifiers: -1 per day without access to news (this can be per week in places where news travels slowly), -3 if you have only one source, and +1 or more for good access to news, from a job where a lot of it goes by, good contacts, and the like. Collections of old books are no use for Current Affairs, and come under Research. The specialisations in Basic are Business, Headline News, High Culture, People, Politics, Popular Culture, Regional, Science & Technology, Sports, and Travel. All the specialisations default to each other at -4. The Geographical and Temporal Scope rules on B176 are sometimes applicable, especially at TLs without electronic communications. Current Affairs is good for gathering intelligence information from the media, which makes it valuable for spies. It's also a vital skill for journalists of any kind, especially commentators, and for bards. *Action* has it as a skill for finding out things from the media, or other legitimate sources by asking around, and *Dungeon Fantasy* has it as the skill for accessing the rumour network. *Social Engineering* uses it for locating prominent experts, as a Complementary Skill in speech-making or debates, for accessing rumours (a news organisation bought as a Contact Group provides a lot of Current Affairs specialisations), and as a default for many forms of Heraldry. More generally, many skills might default to Current Affairs for stuff that's currently in the news, and having History and Current Affairs for the same field can provide useful insights. While the standard specialisations are very widely applicable, new ones are sometime needed, although less often than with Connoisseur. *Horror* offers Infernal, Occult Underground, and Supernatural specialisations, although they probably won't all exist in the same campaign. *Infinite Worlds* has Current Affairs for a historical era, since it allows access to multiple worlds of any era. Quite a lot of the Talents and Wildcard skills in *Power-Ups 3: Talents* and *Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills* include a few specialisations of Current Affairs relevant to the trait, and Trivia Sponge, Bard! and History! have all of them. Some people may omit sub-fields from their Current Affairs skills. I'd claim Current Affairs (Sports), but only for cricket - I don't take any interest in other sports, and actively shun anything to do with soccer, which is what most people in England regard as the significant sport. In the same way, people with Current Affairs (High Culture) may be dedicated and knowledgeable opera fans without a clue about events in the world of ballet. The great advantage of these subset skills is they take less time to keep up-to-date. What have you done with Current Affairs in a game?