Current Affairs
Defaults: IQ-4 or Research-4.
This is the ability to assimilate quickly whatever qualifies as "news" in your world, and to recall it as needed. You must specialize in one of the following areas:
Current Affairs (Supernatural)
In many horror settings, there are enough people on the fringes of the mundane world to constitute a community of their own: vampires and vampire-hunters, monsters and mad scientists, etc. Such campaigns may feature a new Current Affairs specialty:
Supernatural: Knowledge of what's going on in the shadow realm behind the scenes. This encompasses aspects of other specialties: the occult artifacts trade, which starlet is vampire-hooked, whether the old Whateley place has been burned down yet, who's a rising star in the Cabal, etc. It may go by another name in a specific setting (e.g., Occult Underground, Winterland, or The Scene).
Business: Exchange rates, investment performance, etc.
Headline News: Usually bad news, such as assassinations, plagues, and wars.
High Culture: Information on galleries, operas, symphonies, and so forth.
People: The names of and gossip on celebrities, heads of state, and the like.
Politics: Election results, international treaties, etc.
Popular Culture: Hit songs, cool fashions, and hot products, among other things.
Regional: News of all kinds for a specific region (pick one). This is the definitive "town crier" skill at low TLs.
Science & Technology: New discoveries and inventions.
Sports: Scores for recent matches, names of star athletes, etc.
Travel: Where the "beautiful people" are going this year, and how much it all costs.
These specialties default to one another at -4. It is hard to bone up on one kind of news without learning about all the others!
On a successful Current Affairs roll, the GM will inform you of any news within your specialty that pertains to the current adventure (possibly including clues, on a good roll) or give you a small skill bonus (e.g., a success on Current Affairs (Sports) might give +1 to Gambling skill when betting on a boxing match).
Modifiers: -1 per day that you have been unable to access news media; -3 if you only have one source; +1 or more for "inside" access to the news (a subscription to an ordinary wire service is worth +1, while a job at an intelligence agency might give +3 or more).