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I'm a big fan of Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics, particularly those that involve the Junior Woodchucks, Huey, Louie, and Dewey. As any Duck fan knows, the Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook is a near-mystical tome that contains knowledge heretofore unknown to man and is so well indexed that finding just the right bit of knowledge is infinitely simple. If you are unfamiliar with it, think of it as a pocket-sized written combination of Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Anyway, I've been toying with the idea of running a scenario starring those lovable Ducks, just for fun, and that would, of course, include the JWGB. But how to treat it?
One the one hand, I could just make the blanket statement that it grants a +4 bonus to any Knowledge check. That's probably the simplest solution, but that really isn't how the book works. Rather than just providing the answer outright, the book instead pushes the reader in the right direction. For example, it doesn't pinpoint the location of the Golden Fleece, but rather relates an unknown legend about the Fleece that suggests where the characters should look next.
The other thought that I had was to allow the book to be used, essentially, as a limitless Ancestral Memory spell with a 90% chance of success.
Is there another, better way that you could see simulating the power this humble volume holds?