Behind the Scenes: Weird Tales of the Mod Slack

Habitica’s Mods! Left to Right, starting from the top: Bailey, deilann, Cantras, Alys, Fox_Town, Blade, Daniel the Bard, shanaqui, Dewines, Megan, and Breadstrings! (Art by Lemoness)

The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!

Hello Habiticans! In this special edition of Behind the Scenes, we’re going to take a dive into the wild and weird world of Habitica’s Moderator Slack channel. This space is where the moderators and a few members of the staff hang out to discuss issues that pop up in the community, talk about feedback and bug reports, and just generally hang out and chat! We thought it might be fun to share some stories of some of the most amusing and weird things that happen there, so buckle up!

Fun Fact #1: There is a channel devoted entirely to bunnies!

Moderator shanaqui is the proud parent of two adorable bunnies, Hulk and Breakfast. There’s a whole channel just for bunny-related pictures and posts because the buns were really dominating the Off-Topic channel!

Hulk and Breakfast. Breakfast is sporting an interesting nose haircut here.

The buns also occasionally commandeer shanaqui’s keyboard to send special messages. These are most often directed at Alys, because Alys is the bunnies’ favorite (and just a fantastic critter whisperer in general).

If you’d like to get in on the bunny fun, check out the buns’ Twitter accounts linked above!

Fun Fact #2: Beffymaroo raises Monarch butterflies.

Beth (AKA Beffymaroo) has always loved animals of all shapes and sizes. As a kid she enjoyed bringing in monarch caterpillars and feeding and caring for them until they became chrysalides and then finally butterflies (which she’d then release so they could start their epic migration!).

Last summer, she bought a milkweed plant on a whim and discovered it already had a butterfly egg! This little egg hatched into a caterpillar named Herbie the Love Bug, and Beth shared lots of photos and stories on the Slack documenting Herbie’s growth and metamorphosis.

Little Herbie!

This summer, Beth is at it again! If you’re interested in learning more or following along, check out Lovers of Lepidopterans, a Habitica Guild Beth started for those interested in butterfly- and pollinator-gardening and/or raising butterflies and moths.

*not shown to scale*

Fun Fact #3: Emoji-a-go-go

We often let the emojis do the talking in our Slack messages! Because users get an alert when their name is mentioned (and we typically try to avoid sending actual alerts unless it’s an urgent matter),  the mods and staff devised “emoji nicknames” for some folks so that there was a way to mention someone without making their phone beep!

Lemoness’s icon is pretty self-explanatory! The Queen of Lemons.
SabreCat’s emoji callsign is also fairly self-explanatory! He is a pointy kitty.

Alys’s emoji nickname is also a fairly straightforward rebus.

Fox_Town’s emojis also are what one might expect. This is only because there is no adequate way to convey “many foxes in a trenchcoat pretending to be a human” in emoji.
Beffymaroo’s emoji nickname refers to an ongoing joke about how some users misread/misspell her Habitica handle as “Beefymaroo.”
The closest thing to a phoenix offered by emoji selection is a Fire Chicken, which Redphoenix found very amusing, and so it stuck!

Care to take a guess whose emoji this is? Perhaps Habitica’s leading contender for Most Enthusiastic Reader, shanaqui!
Cantras is a big fan of dragons. In fact, her mod avatar is a part-dragon!

(emoji images shown are those used in Slack Direct Download 3.2.0 64-bit for Windows 10)

 

We also make a lot of use of Totoro-based emoji (thanks pixel-soup.tumblr.com!), especially :

  for “Thank you”

and

  for a complex set of feelings Cantras described as “gleeful agreement”!

Fun Fact #4: Dream Titles

Weird dreams are a fun topic we sometimes chat about. shanaqui recently had a dream where they came up with exciting (and maybe slightly odd) titles for some of the staff and mods. In fact, if you go to the Hall of Heroes right now (see Beffymaroo, SabreCat, Fox_Town, Alys, and Cantras) you can see some titles Alys changed to match shanaqui’s dream.

Well, Habiticans, seems like it’s time to get back to our tasks…

We’ll let you imagine the context in which this may have occurred.

That’s all for now! If you’d like to know more about what’s going on Behind the Scenes in Habitica, feel free to suggest topics for posts you’d like to see! Thanks for reading ❤

 

Advertisements

Use Case Spotlight: Parenting and Family Life

Illustration by UncommonCriminal

Hello Habiticans! Last month we looked at ideas from your fellow players for using Habitica to manage mental health and wellness. This month we’re exploring ideas for enhancing your parenting strategy with the help of Habitica’s Tasks, Challenges, and social spaces. These great tips come from your fellow players in the Use Case Spotlights Guild!

Stephonee starts us out with a great way to take advantage of the times when you can be productive (and take a break!):

My main use of Habitica for parenting is my “Nap Checklist” Daily. I find that my brain goes kinda haywire when changing gears from “kid-time” to “nap-time ohmigorsh I have time to do things what?” Rather than trying to mentally make that shift and remember what I need to do during every nap, I have the Daily with the checklist!

It includes self-care things (drink a glass of water, hungry? then eat!, tired? then nap!, etc.), mundane have-to-get-done-before-baby-wakes things (clean off the high chair for next feeding), work things (check work email, check blog for new comments) and I can add things to it temporarily if there’s something special I need to get done during the nap on a certain day.

I check the daily off at the end of the nap (or at the end of the day), regardless of whether I got through the whole checklist or not, because it’s not meant to be a “do everything single thing on the list every single day” thing. It’s just a way to reduce the mental load of remembering ALL those things, and a reminder of what they are and in what order they should be considered. Sometimes I’ll check off an item just to say “I considered whether I should do that, and I shouldn’t so… check it off to cross it out!”

Dan O’Dea reminds parents to model the behavior they’d like to see:

If you make this a daily, put a description of the ONE behavior you want to model (if you have more than one, make separate dailies for each). I’ve deliberately left this unspecified as you will have your own ideas on what behavior you want your kids to demonstrate. A simple example: washing dishes right after supper is done. I hate it when dishes accumulate over several days, and I want my kids to help with that chore if they’re old enough. When they were too young to wash effectively, I made them dry and put away the dishes as I washed them. When they were old enough (and tall enough to reach!) I made them wash while I dried. Then I made them both do it without me and gave them a “schedule” (that is, they alternated washing and drying from day to day). Note: obviously, this does not have to be every day. They’re kids, it’s OK to give them weekends off .

If you make this a habit, put a plus and minus on it. This will be more general (i.e., not a specific behavior, just “a behavior”) and works equally well as a plan for you to create better behaviors (or more consistently doing the task) and for them. Check the plus if you did model the desired behavior(s) and check the minus if you didn’t. In a way, this is like the proverbial “quarter in the swear jar”.

sagestacy notes the importance of maintaining your relationship with your partner when parenting can seem all-consuming:

Habitica and the Parents’ Guild have been helpful for me to maintain my relationship with my husband after the birth of our child. Taking care of an infant is exhausting for both of us–physically, mentally, and emotionally–and so having those dailies and habits to check off reminds me to do little things to preserve our connection, like holding hands, talking about our day, and scheduling a date night.

peach pip gives us great tips for remembering to keep taking care of ourselves even as we devote ourselves to the care of others!

With the birth of my daughter, I transitioned into a new role of a full time mom. I found it much more difficult than employment, particularly because infants don’t provide a lot of positive feedback at first, and tasks that used to be simple had become really challenging, such as eating a decent meal or showering. Additionally, it was much more difficult to stay in touch with loved ones. Habitica helped me celebrate little accomplishments and remember my self-care, as well as stay in touch with loved ones by creating a party together!

There were so many helpful and exciting tips we couldn’t feature them all here! You can see them all and join in the discussion in the Use Case Spotlights Guild – one of your ideas could be featured next month! Look for an announcement of next month’s theme from Bailey soon.

And lastly, be sure to take a look at our most recent Guild Spotlight, where we’ve highlighted groups that can provide further support and motivation as you manage parenting and family life!

Guilds for Parenting and Family Life

Illustration by UncommonCriminal

Happy June, Habiticans! Summer is nearly here, and it’s a great time to catch up and bond with your family. This month’s Spotlight focuses on Guilds in Habitica where you can find fellow players to support you as you take care of family business as well as family fun.

Parents’ Guild

This large and active Guild is full of fellow Habitican parents, sharing stories and ideas in the chat! It’s a supportive space for discussing other family-related issues as well. The Parents’ Guild also offers a number of Challenges for managing family life and making sure you take care of yourself.

Parents of Under-Threes

If you’re the parent or guardian of an extra-small adventurer, be sure to check out Parents of Under-Threes! The chat is a great place to discuss the special challenges of parenting young children, share ideas, and find support when you’re exhausted or frustrated in your toddler-care quests!

Loved Ones of those with Depression and Anxiety

If you have loved ones who are living with a mental health condition, this Guild can offer a supportive and understanding chat where you can discuss your experiences. In this active group, you can also talk with others about the importance of taking care of yourself so you can be a healthy support to folks in your life who are managing mental illness.

Pet Owners and Lovers

This is a Guild for chatting about the care and keeping of the furry, scaly, and winged members of your family. Pet Owners and Lovers also has a number of great Challenges to help you be an even better pet parent.

These Guilds and many, many others are here to give you helpful information and community support as you and your family work together to keep your household running, take care of each other, and have fun!! Until next time, take care. ❤

Perfect Day

Illustration by riithewordsmith

It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post from the Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!

The first time a Habitican completes each and every task on their list for the day, they receive the Perfect Day badge. Every time you complete all your tasks, you get +1 on that achievement — but that’s not all! This month’s highlighted Wiki post is all about that elusive Perfect Day, what it does for you, and how exactly you can make sure to get it every day (or nearly: even the most motivated Habitican needs a break now and then).

The Perfect Day achievement is awarded when a player completes all Dailies that are due that day. In addition to the normal rewards (gold, XP, and taking no damage) the player receives an achievement on their profile and a special bufffor the following day (+level / 2 to all attributes, capped at a buff of 50 points at level 100). If the player’s level is an odd number, their level will be rounded up to the nearest even number before the buff is applied.

And of course, a Perfect Day means you’ve done everything you needed to do, so the achievement and the boost you get for the next day are only what you deserve. So if that shiny badge tempts you (and who wouldn’t be tempted by that?), you should definitely take a look at the Perfect Day page to get all the info, and tips on setting up your tasks to make it more possible to achieve. You can find it here!

User Spotlight: Dr. B of Take This!

Welcome to the User Spotlight Series, where we talk with Habitica users who are experts in their fields. First up is DoctorB, the Clinical Director of TakeThis, who’s chatting with us as part of our continuing post series for Mental Health Awareness Month!

Hey DoctorB! Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a doctor of clinical psychology and the clinical director (Arch Psychomancer) of TakeThis.org, a mental health nonprofit that champions the message “It’s dangerous to go alone!” and spends our time educating on and destigmatizing mental health matters. Take This is also the creator of the world’s first staffed, mental health space at conventions – the AFK Room. Aside from my work with Take This, I also have a private practice in the Seattle area, I lead social skills groups using Dungeons & Dragons, and I’m an avid home chef.

How did you start using Habitica?

In 2016, I was at the Game Developers Conference for the first time, and I met Leslie [AKA: Lemoness] after a panel. We got to talking about what we respectively did, and she told me about this cool app she works on that allows you to turn your to-do lists and habits in to an RPG. I’ve seen a few things that tried to do this in the past (poorly), so I probably expressed some incredulity, but she really sold me on it. I downloaded it almost immediately and fell in love. It was so cool seeing someone finally do gamification of behaviors right. When I saw other things like this in the past, they often left out the “game” part, but seeing this as a real game which also happened to help keep me on task was a revelation. A few months later, Take This wrote a series of community challenges for Habitica that have been used by thousands over the last two years.

What some things you’re tracking in Habitica?

I have a few big projects Take This has in the works that Habitica is helping me keep on task for. I also like to use it to remind me to work out. It’s great for reminding me to keep a balance between passion projects and my own health. It’s really easy to overdo effort on passion projects.

What projects are you working on right now?

Aside from all the stuff we do at Take This (most notably building a streaming ambassador program), I’m building a day-long workshop for mental health professionals to train on how to use tabletop RPGs therapeutically. A lot of people underestimate the complexity of these types of projects, and they’re complicated to build. Habitica is helping me build it all a little at a time.  Take This is also writing a new series of 12 community challenges for Habitica.

Where do you like to hang out in Habitica?

Mostly with my own guild which is comprised almost entirely of the Take This staff and volunteers. That said, I love the community at large. Whenever I pop my head in to the forums, I love how supportive everyone is of everyone else.

What advice do you have for folks in the gaming community for healthy gaming/life balance?

I like to think of my goals and the behaviors that interfere with those goals. Games are fun, no doubt, but there are times when I can play them to the point of not going after my goals. It’s at those times I really have to rely on things like Habitica and put limits on what I do. For example, one of my Habits is “No video games between 10am and 6pm”. Given I often work from home, this is a legitimate temptation.

Any personal tips/tricks for using Habitica to manage mental health and wellness?

Start a guild with people who you personally know and talk to. I love having accountabilibuddies that can actually hold me accountable in a way strangers can’t.

Thanks, Dr. B! To learn more about using Habitica as a tool in your mental health journey, check out this month’s Guild Spotlight and Use Case Spotlight!

Caring for the Mind: Guilds for Mental Health and Wellness

Illustration by Rosemonkey

Hello, dear Habiticans! Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? In honor of this event, this month’s Spotlight focuses on some Guilds in Habitica where you can learn techniques for awareness and mental well-being.

Mentally Ill: https://habitica.com/groups/guild/54846572-9b87-421c-a2f5-11f72ee8ecfc

This Guild is open to all those affected by mental illness and/or looking to improve their mental health. The chat is a supportive and safe space to discuss symptoms and experiences and to share tips and ideas. Mentally Ill also offers a wide variety of Challenges that may offer helpful motivation boosts for learning more about mental health and for managing symptoms.

Mastering Emotions (DBT Skills): https://habitica.com/groups/guild/109d5b3f-661f-49cf-ad1d-53de129ecaf5

Mastering Emotions is a space for Habiticans who are using DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) to manage difficult feelings and the situations around those feelings. Check it out for a welcoming and encouraging chat and a long list of Challenges for learning about DBT methods and for developing skills for emotional management.

ADHDers Guild: https://habitica.com/groups/guild/17848f38-0418-4764-9fe8-91fdc9950e32

This is a large community on Habitica dedicated to creating a supportive and helpful environment for folks with ADD/ADHD. Their Guild description has a tremendous collection of helpful resources, and the chat space there is kind, friendly, and active. ADHDers also hosts a number of Challenges for help, motivation, and for learning more about ADHD and related conditions.

Anxiety Alliance: https://habitica.com/groups/guild/1da5ae22-6659-4600-9951-905f923c9373

This Guild is devoted to those working through anxiety-related mental illness. There’s an active and supportive chat for Guild members to discuss experiences and share tips. There are also a bunch of helpful Challenges–including several that repeat monthly–to help with anxiety management, meditation, and getting out of your comfort zone.

These Guilds and many, many others are here to give you helpful information and community support as you work on improving your mental health and wellness! In fact, there are so many Guilds on Habitica devoted to this topic that we’ll be doing another post (or two!) on this topic in the future.

There’s also a Use Case Spotlight post this week featuring mental health related tips from fellow Habiticans! Until next time, take care. ❤

Use Case Spotlight: Mental Health and Wellness!

Illustration by Rosemonkey

Hello Habiticans! Last month, we looked at ideas from your fellow players for using Habitica as you work to make a positive difference in your community and the world! This time, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re looking at making positive change even closer to home. These great ideas for using Habitica to help manage your mental health and wellness come from your fellow players in the Use Case Spotlights Guild!

sunray notes that a simple Daily reminding us to focus on the good can be an important boost:

I use Habitica to bolster my mental health in the face of chronic illness. Having a Daily to support focusing on the things I’m grateful for has worked really well in helping me stay positive, and the fact that it encourages me to share those things with the people around me strengthens my social connections, too! My Daily is “Express sincere gratitude.” Habitica also helps me meditate daily and make the kind of choices every day that support my best functioning.

Dr_Zoidberg uses the motivation of Challenges to improve their mental and physical health habits:

Habitica has been the most effective tool to date in getting me to change my health and wellness habits for the better. For the last two months I’ve been signing up for challenges that don’t upend my current lifestyle but adjust it enough for the better that each improvement gives a lasting change. I treat my avatar’s life as my own because in the end, that’s what it is. The challenges I choose include physical (steps, exercise, posture, etc.), diet & nutrition, as well as mental well-being/self-confidence. Together the changes have made me happier, more determined, able to recover from “bad days” faster, and I’ve set a long term goal with a specific action plan to get there. I plan to go from little or no exercise weighing ~285lbs to running in a 5K in roughly 13 months time from now. I will adjust every step forward each month based on my progress in the previous, but I’ve set milestones to reach along the way to show exactly how my progress can and will reach that goal. So far I’ve made more progress in the last two months than I have in the last five years. Cheers!

Dagger-13 uses Dailies to face and work through intimidating or difficult tasks that need to get done:

I was a bit wary of joining Habitica when I first heard about it last year, as my coping mechanism for anxiety is to set rules for myself and I was concerned that I might end up using Habitica as an extension of that. However, I am at a stage of managing my anxiety where I can use the system responsibly and as a tool for recovery – I just have to be careful that it doesn’t become a crutch.

I use it as part of my ‘exposure therapy’ – once I identify a ‘task’ I need to expose myself to, I will set it as a daily to give myself the incentive to do it and to make myself accountable. Doing this makes me accountable without having to discuss with others exactly what I’m doing, so it enables me to take external confirmation out of the equation (another comfort mechanism I had – asking others if what I was doing is ‘good’), but if I don’t do it, the task will damage the rest of my party. In addition to this, it works as a relatively harmless ‘punishment’ for not doing the task, so if for any reason I don’t do it I get the damage and move on rather than spiralling into negative self-talk or compensatory behaviour to the same degree that I would have before.

Once I’ve gotten used to exposing myself to the task and it becomes easier, I then remove it from Habitica so that it becomes a more natural habit, one which I don’t have to think about or reward myself for doing. This method gives me the initial push to face my anxiety, and then healthily allows me to let it go.

chikadee provides us with a multitude of awesome examples of ways to use tasks to manage mental health and wellness!

I created an imgur album of screenshots with some explanations here. I have ADHD and some other mental health problems and Habitica has helped me with my self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-care. The Clean Every Day challenge has helped me realize that any progress, even the tiniest bit, is okay. I struggle with cleaning a lot with my ADHD and cleaning the house is one of the most upsetting and stressful things for me. Habits help me view my progress and see the progress I’ve made even when it doesn’t seem like it. Habitica has helped me find a way to work within my limitations (which sounds bad but I can’t think of a better word). By creating habits and dailies and wording them in a fun RPG way or participating in challenges I’m able to frame what I struggle with and the tools I use to help myself in a fun and positive light. It makes every day living and everyday boring self-care tasks fun. There’s been a marked difference in my ADHD as I’ve gotten better at cleaning and I’ve made considerable progress with my nail biting with help from the BFRB guild (I even created my first challenge!)

There were so many helpful and exciting tips we couldn’t feature them all here! You can see them all and join in the discussion in the Use Case Spotlights Guild. One of your ideas could be featured next month! Look for an announcement of next month’s theme from Bailey soon.

And lastly, if you missed it you may want to take a look at our most recent Guild Spotlight, where we’ve highlighted groups that can provide further support and motivation in your mental health journey!

Keeping Parties Motivated

Illustration by James Danger

It’s Wiki Wednesday! Once a month we highlight a helpful post from the Wiki with tips about productivity, wellness, and optimizing your use of Habitica!

Greetings, denizens of Habitica! One of the key features of Habitica which makes it work as an accountability tool is the Party system. It’s easier to force yourself to get up and do that last load of laundry if you know the boss is going to attack your friends far too hard if you don’t, right? Parties can be more motivating when they’re active, friendly and fun, and this can be especially important to pay attention to if you’re partying up with people you only know from Habitica. This month’s featured Wiki article is on Keeping Parties Motivated:

Parties are one of the primary social features of Habitica. Players in a party have their own chat. They can cooperate on quests, send letters, and use unique items on each other. Quests are a primary means to earn unique rewards. Only players aligned in a party may participate in quests together. They can be a fun way of interacting with the game. Quests also help with accountability, and can provide support and encouragement. It is recommended that a party have no less than four members before engaging in all but the most basic quests.

Over time, even large parties or powerful party members may lose interest or experience burnout. Challenges are one of the many ways of motivating your party. This page is about other methods to keep your party engaged or entertained.

Want to read more on how to spice up your Party life? Head over to the Wiki and check out the full article.

Behind the Scenes: What We’re Playing

Illustration by eyenne

The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!

Hello Habiticans! It probably won’t come as a big surprise to you all that many of the Habitica Staff are huge video game fans. Today we’re sharing some of the (non-Habitica) games we’re currently playing.

Vicky (AKA Redphoenix):

“I Love Hue (iOS and Android) is a soothing mobile game where you put colors in order. I find it just hard enough to be interesting, but not so engaging so as to suck me away from work I need to be doing and thereby cause more stress. When decisionmaking can get reduced to “is this a purple-y grey or a blue-y grey”, I’m in a comforting kind of zone.

Bastion:  Oldie but goodie! I’m on my first play through (rather than watching someone else play it) and I’m enjoying a lot about the game—particularly the narration performance and art direction. Did you know it was made by a seven person team?”

Leslie (AKA Lemoness):

“Minit:
A snappy, fun pixel adventure where, thanks to a cursed sword, you have only 60 seconds at a time to run around the world, accomplish tasks, and solve puzzles. I thought this game handled its unique constraint in a very clever way.

Gorogoa:
A beautiful, contemplative, wordless game that uses unique perspectives to drive its thoughtful puzzles as you slowly unfold the plot. Dream-like and fascinating, this mobile game has become one of my recent favorites.

Guildlings (Beta Testing):
Technically this comes out in the summer, but I enjoyed the build that I tested enough to mention it! Fun character banter, great art, and an enjoyable “wizards and wifi” premise… but I probably shouldn’t say too much about it yet. I will note that I particularly loved Syb the Upstart and her various “startups” — a word that has a slightly different meaning in the fantasy world of Guildlings… ;)”

Beth (AKA Beffymaroo):

“Like many out there, I’m playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch right now. I’m shamefully behind and haven’t had a chance to play in a while, so I definitely need to get back to it! It’s a beautiful game with a gorgeous landscape and soundtrack, and I love all the many many things to do and explore. As far as I’m concerned it lives up to the hype!

On mobile, I’m playing Flutter: Starlight (available on iOS and Android). It’s a moth collecting game, pretty much. I love lepidopterans generally, and I chose the “Starlight” moth version over the original with butterflies because I find the color scheme and music more soothing. I also love learning more about all the beautiful and strange moths out there! Vicky is also playing and we like to compare notes on our strategies for collecting moths during their special events.”

Keith (AKA TheHollidayInn):

“Final Fantasy 14 – my default stress relief. I’m a big Final Fantasy fan and this game has been create since the release of A Realm Reborn

Monster Hunter World – A very nice sequel to the ongoing franchise. My friends pushed me to get in to this grind with them, but it is pretty great.

Mafia III – I’m just starting this game because it is on my Humble Bundle Monthly (which I highly recommend getting). So far so good!”

Tressley (AKA Apollo):

“Alien: Isolation
A dark, stealthy survival horror game based on the Alien film series. The game’s plot is set 15 years after the events of the original Alien film. You play Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, while you try to investigate the disappearance of your mother. I’ve really been enjoying this installment in the Alien game series as the stealth/survival horror aspect evokes the original 1979 film’s feeling and tone.

Golf It
A fun mini-golf game focused primarily on the multiplayer experience. The map editor makes for some frustrating, but exciting games with friends. Best paired with a fun group on Discord.”

Sabe (AKA SabreCat):

“Current game: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Isometric RPG from the early 00’s with a fantasy-steampunk milieu. Has a lot of variety in how you can build a character, from gunslingers to necromancers to diplomats!

Also using Tabletop Simulator to play the dungeon-fantasy campaign board game Gloomhaven. Explore the world, level up, fulfill your personal quests, opening sealed envelopes and boxes as you unlock new characters and expand the town!”

Nikki (AKA shanaqui):

“I’m usually playing too many casual games at once, while neglecting a plotty behemoth I should be keeping track of. Right now I’m ignoring my replay of Final Fantasy XIII — I love the whole FF series, but this is not a fave! I do really enjoy strategising with the different class combinations, but I haven’t got to that stage in my replay yet. Casually, I’m playing Kingdom Rush Frontiers, which is a tower defence game with fun Easter eggs now and then. Perpetually, I’m playing Faster Than Light, which I’ve played nearly 200 hours of and won only eight times. I enjoy the mix of luck and strategy, though, and I have some fun mods which make things even more strategic.

Huh, apparently I’m into strategising and tactics? Good to know…”

Sara (AKA piyorii):

“I’m playing Nier: Automata. The game has an existential, calm post-apocalyptic atmosphere to it that I really enjoy exploring. Its one of those games that sticks with you after you turn it off, and I find myself talking with friends about our interpretations. It also has a very in-depth combat and upgrade system that has you learning slick combos and new strategies long into the game. I’m on my third playthrough, but unlike most games, each playthrough is like a sequel built into intended experience of the game as a whole. the first time you beat it, you don’t get all the story! I’m having a lot of fun exploring the world and uncovering all the secrets it’s hiding, and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes third person action RPGs.”

What games are you playing right now? We’d love to hear your recommendations! Feel free to share them in the comments, or pop into the Tavern chat to discuss there! ❤

Use Case Spotlight: Making a Difference!

Illustration by Katy133

In last month’s Use Case Spotlight, we looked at ideas for upping your Spring Cleaning game and getting your home in order. This April, in honor of National Volunteer Month, we’re focusing on tips to help motivate you and keep you on track when you’re working for positive change in your world. These great ideas for using Habitica to make a difference come from your fellow players in the Use Case Spotlights Guild!

Dagger-13 starts us off with some ideas for tasks for making a difference, as well as a great method for keeping track of all your hard work:

I’ve got a number of habits in the theme of ‘making a difference’ – I volunteer at a local arts venue, so that’s on there (I ‘plus’ it each time I help out), and I also attend and help out at a meditation centre (again, a plus each time I attend). I take part in a monthly challenge to pick up and throw away/recycle rubbish I see outside (one plus for every three pieces I pick up) and I have a ‘donate to charity’ positive habit. I’ve also recently set a ‘did a good deed’ habit to encompass other things which I do which don’t have their own habit.

I set all of these to reset weekly, so at the end of the week I can have a look at my total and see how much I’ve managed to do. Doing it this way gives me the motivation to keep going, or to buck up my ideas I don’t put a negative on these as I don’t feel like we have to do these things (there’s too much ‘should’ing in the world!), but I choose to do them and therefore they’re a positive contribution to others.

Shutzie27 uses tasks and tags to help organize their civic activism:

I’m a very civically active person and Habitica is a huge part of helping me keep different ongoing projects going. For example, at the moment I’m trying to make my street safer by getting sidewalks, so I have an “Operation: Sidewalks for ALL” tag and whenever I need to call the city to ask a question a prospective signer may have I put that on my To Do list.

I’m also on my Legislative District’s communications committee and a precinct committee person so whenever I have a task for that it goes on the To Do list with my “LD24” tag. Finally, I have some Habits and Dailies I use as well. One plus-only habit I have is “Protect democracy through civic engagement.” I give myself a plus whenever I attend a meeting of a civic or advocacy organization (for example, today I went to a Phoenix Spokes People meeting) so I plus’d myself.

SweetenedPoison points us to another Guild you can join for tips and support for volunteering (and for fun manga discussions!):

My guild, The Magical Girls is focused on “saving the world” through volunteering, community service, being generally helpful/friendly, and so on. The challenge that highlights volunteering is the Become a Magical Girl! challenge. It’s helped me get started in the volunteering process, as well as a bunch of other Habiticans who are out fighting the good fight or working on their way to getting there 🙂

Scea reminds us that even making a difference for one person is important!

Since I heard how [little] service workers earn, I learned to appreciate their work. Every time I meet one of these persons, I remember how important they are for my every day life, and I try to give them at least an encouraging smile – even if I had a not so funny day. Perhaps I am the only person in a good mood the cashier has seen this day – so I try to be polite and cheer them up with some chit-chat or simply brighten their day by being a happy person. And sometimes my own day wasn’t this bad, too.

Perhaps this is not a big difference I make, but I know that even the tiniest things can make a big difference for another person.

You can see more tips and join in the discussion in the Use Case Spotlights Guild– one of your ideas could be featured next month! Look for an announcement of next month’s theme from Bailey soon.

And lastly, if you missed it you may want to take a look at our most recent Guild Spotlight, where we’ve highlighted more groups that can help give you even more motivation and support as you volunteer and work for causes that matter to you!