Q&A: Loose Canon

The rules and history of the world of No Nut November have a lot of flexibility, but someone playing a campaign may have questions about the world and want “right answers.” So, I’ve imagined some questions people might have and I’m giving the answers to them as I would in games I play with my tables. You might have different answers for your tables and that’s fine, but for anyone who wants to get into the nutty-grutty, er, nitty-gritty, here you go! 

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Q: What caused the apocalypse?

A: The Oheys. Next question.

Q: No, but like, what happened? What did the Oheys do to the world?

A: Oh, right. Well, it’s intentionally left ambiguous because no real force that I know of is going to do to squirrels and world what the Oheys’ Earth-killing shenanigans did. The earliest community content has referenced radiation and heavy metals, and that’s probably (definitely) in the mix! But maybe there are also experimental viruses, extra-dimensional overflow energy, or lingering dark magics (probably not the last one, cause I’m leaning more sci-fi, but maybe). Whatever the Oheys did, it made fruitful plant life less abundant, killed most of the Oheys, and changed the creatures of the Earth, but a lot of buildings are still standing in not-awful condition.

Q: When did the apocalypse happen?

A: Like a long time before your game begins. Like, several squirrel lifetimes before that. Or, compared to our own present, somewhere between 25-50 years into our future. Enough of the stuff lying around should be familiar to players (e.g. cars with flammable fuel inside, offices and department stores that look like what we expect), but there are also things like experimental weapons, cyber-animals, and relatively advanced robots called buzzclacks around.

Q: So… are the squirrels (and other animals), like, super smart?

A: Some of them definitely are! As far as the rest, maybe they do the things that they don’t do in our present day because the Oheys left a vacuum to be filled. Maybe they were that smart before but just didn’t bother to show it (or the Oheys didn’t bother to look), or maybe lots of creatures changed because of what the Oheys did and became something more advanced.

Q: Do the squirrels speak English?

A: No, they speak Squirrel.

Q: But, why do they have a word for humans based on English phonemes (Ohey derived from the human greeting of “Oh, hey)?

A: Don’t worry about it.

Q: Can different kinds of animals talk to each other?

A: Sure, if they speak the same animal language. Rodent languages translate over pretty easily. Crows know most languages. Dogs only speak dog, but they are really good at body language and generally really social, so a lot of animals figure out their language. Cats speak whatever the hell they feel like.

Q: Do bugs talk? Fish?

A: Bugs don’t speak a language any mammals, birds, or reptiles speak and are treated the same way humans treat animals. Fish probably have some rich lives including complex communication, but exist in such a separate space from land creatures that most squirrels would never know. Maybe a frog could tell you. Fish are also good eating in a world where that’s hard to come by.

Q: Wait… do these animals eat each other?

A: Yes. Animals that can talk to each other also might eat each other in this world. Unless at your table you really don’t want to eat something you can have a conversation with. But classic rules about predators and prey still apply, even if they are sometimes subverted for the sake of surviving in the wasteland. Cats and snakes, for instance, would happily eat a mouse, but might see more profit in working with the mouse or a community of rodents.

Q: Are other creatures mutated?

A: Sure, some of them.

Q: Are all squirrels mutated?

A: Nah. There are more mundane squirrels. Or maybe they’re just lightly mutated. Mutations like the ones players have are generally rare …unless they’re not rare in your games.

Q: How big are the squirrels?

A: Squirrel-sized. Maybe a little bigger if they have super-strength.

Q: How big are the snapper sticks? They’re guns, right?

A: Yeah, they’re based on Ohey guns, but the intention was they’re built by rodents with rodents being the intended users. They’re reversed engineered by some very smart, very sketchy types. But if a squirrel picks up a human gun and manages to fire it, they’d probably call it a snapper stick still, or maybe a super snapper stick.

Q: Shiny? See-through? Tree?

A: Shiny is the squirrel term for metal. See-through is glass. Tree can be used to refer to all sorts of things made from trees, usually stuff like wood, paper, and cardboard. Synthetic versions of this kind of stuff also gets lumped in the same category. Leather would be called skin or hide. If it gets tiresome, most squirrels know the squirrel-language words for metal, glass, wood, and other materials so you could just use the real names in dialogue. It’s just considered a bit formal in squirrel society.

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If you have other questions, feel free to comment on this devlog and I’ll answer them when I get the chance!