About Squffies |
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Squffies are an intelligent, fun loving race similar in appearance to modern squirrels. They live in large
communities known as dreys, which are then divided into smaller living spaces or sub dreys. Each drey
has its own farm, and they grow their own food in the fields. The main basis of a squffy's diet is the nuts
he helps to grow, but squffies will also eat berries, tomatoes or even candy upon occasion. Treats like
nutcakes are especially popular among younger squffies.
Like platypuses, squffies lay eggs, which are tended in a nursery until they hatch. In the hatchling stage,
they are still adjusting to life around them; they have not even begun to show any appearance traits yet.
Once they are competent in the drey, they are considered children. Children may participate in such
games as apple bobbing, and will show vestigial appearance traits, but they are not considered adults
until they display all their appearance traits. By this point they are old enough to help on the farm and
to choose a mate if they desire.
When adult squffies select a mate, they go through a complex mating ritual beginning with a gift
of a walnut from one squffy to the other. If the other squffy is interested, they will eat the walnut
to demonstrate their acceptance of the courtship. Squffies have been known to mate for life, but it is not
obligatory for squffies as it is for wolves, for example. A female will lay anywhere from one to four eggs,
then she will be able to return to work.
Squffies believe the world was created by Sky and his three daughters, Earth (the elder sister)
and Sun and Moon (the younger twins). Each presides over a season, and has their own special holiday.
Moon oversees the winters with their long nights; Winter Solstice is the winter holiday, with mooncakes
and scavenger hunts in memory of the first winter Moon caused.
Sky has dominion over the windy autumn season, Sun over the hot summer months, and Earth over the
blossom-strewn season of spring.
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How To Play |
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| How To Farm |
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Farm plots must be bartered for, and cost one cashew each. Once you own a farm plot, you need at least
two squffies assigned to plow that field. Once you have at least two squffies assigned, the option to plow
the field will become available. Plowing takes a day with two squffies, but moves faster with extra workers.
Your squffies will need a shovel to plow- they won't work without one- and no other farm can use that
shovel until they are done. After they finish plowing, the next step is fertilizing. Like plowing, you need at
least two squffies assigned to fertilize your field. The time frame for fertilizing is also the same as plowing.
You need a bag of fertilizer to fertilize your field with; these can't be used by other fields while your
squffies are using it, and will run out after four uses. You can win more bags from the farmer who plays
Hangsquffy.
Now it's time to plant your seeds! You'll need to look up the food you are planning to grow in its Farmer's Pamphlet. These pamphlets tell you how many squffies you
need to weed a field growing your food and how many squffies you need to water a field growing your
food. It will also tell you how many bags of that kind of seed a single field can fit (otherwise it would be
overgrown and everything would die), and how long it takes that kind of food to ripen for harvesting.
Assign enough squffies to water and weed your planned crop, and you will be able to plant seeds. This will
take about twelve hours, but will go faster with extra workers.
 Farms take from 5 to 7 days to grow depending on the crop (again, the
Farmer's Pamphlet will tell you how long this will take). They will need to be weeded and watered over
the course of their growth; the type of crop determines how often, and the number of workers you have
weeding or watering will determine how long the chore takes. After your crop is ready to be harvested,
it will take another 12 hours (dependent on your work force) to harvest the field, at which point your food
will automatically go to your inventory and your farm will be ready to be used again. A bag of seeds
yields anywhere from 12 to 18 nuts, so plant as many as you can!
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| What Items Do |
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For a full list of items, click here.
Nuts are the most important part of Squffies. Not only are they food for your Squffies, but they can
increase a squffy's chromosomes and are also used as the main form of currency in the barter system.
Cashews are the most common nut, and are just a light snack. Pistachios are the next most common and
increase your squffy's C8 chromosome. Then comes chestnuts, which affect the C6 chromosome; pecans,
which affect the C5 chromosome; walnuts, which are consumed in the squffies' mating ritual; and finally
almonds, which affect the C7 chromosome. Nuts can be buried in your nut
stash for safekeeping. Moving your nut stash around may lead to fortuitous discoveries, and you can
also exchange one kind of nut for another (3 cashews for 1 pistachio, for example) as needed.
 Berries don't really do anything
yet. You can win strawberries in the games, or create a mooncake (which isn't really a berry but is being
considered one until we the admins decide what we're doing with it) by locating all the ingredients come
Solstice. For right now, they're food.
There are five ingredients to a mooncake: maltose, white mulberries, red almonds, snow
peanuts, and pumpkin seeds. Mulberries grow in the forest, peanuts are in the hills and almonds grow in
the meadows. Maltose and pumpkin seeds must be won or bartered from others, as they are not local
and cannot otherwise be obtained.
 Tomatoes have the unusual
effect of altering the pigmentation of a squffy's fur. The only currently known tomato is a spotted tomato,
which changes a squffy's fur to any random color. Some more adventurous squffies have been known to
eat these tomatoes for fun; most are more cautious, knowing the unpredictable results.
Everyone loves candy! Particularly if you have to trick-or-treat for it. Every year on All Hallow's Eve
squffies of all ages join in the fun and go hunting for candy. Don't be offput by their spooky appearance-
this candy is perfectly harmless. It even has a cool effect on your squffies if they eat it; the next eggs
they lay will all be female! Which, with male-tending genetics, is an awfully nice bonus.
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