FAQ

Ask a Question

General Riff-Raff

 * How do I switch from Facebook authentication to using my own username/password?
 * Which browsers does HabitRPG support?
 * I saw something called User ID under Settings. What is it?

Character Above All
"You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans." - Ronald Reagan
 * What happens when my character dies?
 * I failed! How do I restart my character?
 * What's the difference between a re-roll and a reset?
 * How does HabitRPG know that I really did my tasks?
 * I want my avatar to be pink polka-dotted. How do I do that?

Habits, Dailies, & Todos, Oh, my!

 * What is habit tracking?
 * Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or Todo?
 * What do the Task Colors Represent?
 * How do I customize a task's value?
 * I'm going on vacation, how can I disable my Dailies?
 * I'm missing some, or all, of my tasks! Where did they go?

Gimme!  Pets and Rewards

 * What are gems?
 * How do you pay the local ice cream store for my reward?
 * I haven't received my backer gems yet - where are they?
 * What are the benefits of wearing armor?
 * Why do I need a new weapon?
 * I want a pet.  How do I get one?
 * I haven't gotten a drop yet!

Assorted and Sundry

 * Guilds vs Parties
 * Why Join a Party?
 * Removing ads if you backed the Kickstarter
 * Why Do I See BrowserQuest Art Here?

Switch from Facebook authentication to Username / Password
Many people are requesting to switch from using Facebook authentication to Local (username / password) authentication. Unfortunately there's not easy way to do this, so I have to do a bit of database surgery. You'll need to do the following:

I'm going to replace your current user's auth property with the new Local user's auth property, then delete the new user, and email you back when that's done. Then you'll need to just log out and log back in. Back to Top
 * Create a new user: Log out > Click Play > Register with the username / password that you desire
 * [mailto:tylerrenelle@gmail.com Email me] (1) your new Local user's UUID, found in Options > Settings, (2) and your  current Facebook user's UUID

Which browsers does HabitRPG support?
Currently, HabitRPG runs on:

 Firefox Chrome Safari Most Mobile Browsers  While the rewrite of HabitRPG.com mostly supports Internet Explorer, there may be some compatibility issues, especially in older versions. For best results, use a different browser, such as Chrome. If you encounter any difficulties, let us know. Back to Top

User ID
Your user ID is a large hex number that represents you in the database (e.g. 2F1E4FC0-81FD-11DA-9156-00036A0F876A). You need this if you want to join a party or if you need a developer to fix your account. Back to Top

What is habit tracking?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Habit tracking is keeping tabs on all your habits to help you improve. It is to life what calorie-counting is to diets (and calorie-counting falls under the habit-tracking umbrella). SeeTrackers vs Lifehackers for more information and website examples.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">There are many habit-tracking apps, but HabitRPG takes a different spin: treating your goals and habits like a Role Playing Game (RPG). If you've played RPGs growing up, this app will make sense to you; otherwise, it may be overwhelming at first. Be sure to follow the tutorial when you first load the website, and if you're still confused watch this video tutorial Back to Top

Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or Todo?
There are three main differences between these types of tasks:
 * Repitition: Habits and dailies are tasks you know will be repeated frequently.  Todo are one-time tasks with little or no repitition, like getting a root canal.
 * Schedule: Dailies happen on a schedule, whether that is every day, weekdays only, weekends only, or specific days of the week.  Habits happen when they happen, sometimes multiple times a day and sometimes skipping a day or two.
 * Penalties:  Habits and todos have no penalty for not doing something in a timely manner.  Dailies automatically penalize you if you don't do it on time.

So, if your task is a one off, make it a todo. If you need to work on a habit, like quitting smoking, put it in the habit column. And scheduled, repeatable tasks, such as taking your dog for its morning walk, put under the daily column. The one caveat to this is for habits or todos that you need to seriously work on. Because dailies are the only tasks with an automatic penalty, I suggest you put difficult habits or todo in the dailies column, to increase the motivation to get it done.

Back to Top

How do I customize a task's value?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Some tasks are more valuable to you than others. Finishing your research paper, for example, should be worth more points than flossing your teeth. Instead of customizing value upon task-creation, HabitRPG calculates a task's value automatically over time. The longer something sits without being completed (Dailies and Todos), the more valuable it becomes; and the more frequently you complete Dailies, the less valuable they become. Trust in the system's machine-learning of task-values.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">If you absolutely must customize a task's value, there's a "difficulty" setting under the Advanced section of task-editing.

Back to Top

Why Join a Party?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Joining a party increases accountability, and promotes shared ideas and experiences. You're more likely to stick to your goals when someone can see you dying - it's embarrassing, especially when your friends start giving you grief (speaking from personal experience in Habit).

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Past that, we have many party-specific features in the pipeline, being worked on quite rigorously as we speak. First, we have Challenges - party members can share in a challenge (eg, "Bike to work every day"). Next we have Quests - you collect drops while on a quest (think WoW) to cash in for a special prize. The more in your party, the faster the collection process (eg, 10 feathers for 1 player becomes 15 feathers shared for 2 players). Finally, we have the Class System which gives users abilities to interact with party members (healing, buffing, etc). None of these are implemented yet, but they're right around the corner.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">All this party-promotion is for one purpose: accountability. We want your friends to hold you to your goals ("dude, I've already collected 10 feathers - get your crap together"), and to pick you up when you're down ("I healed you, you're good now - finish your dailies :)"). Playing solo will only last so long, it's the social accountability that will make your self-improvement soar. Back to Top

I'm going on vacation, how can I disable my Dailies?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Sometimes life interevenes, and it's actually healthier NOT to be working. If you're zipping off for a tropical getaway or coughing up a lung, feel free to Rest in the Inn!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Resting in the Inn freezes your entire account, so that you can enjoy your sunshine or chicken soup in peace. There's a minimum stay of 24 hours, but after that you can check out any time you like! The Inn is located in the Tavern. To access it, click on your picture, and then click on on the "Tavern" tab. There's a green button to the left that says "Rest in the Inn." Click it, and you're home free!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">What if you'd rather just disable a specific Daily? Dailies have a "Repeat" field, which specifies which week days this item is due. This is useful if you don't use Habit on the weekends, or you want to exercise only every other day, etc. To disable a single Daily, just set its repeats such that it isn't due on any week days at all. &amp;width=832 See this screenshot.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Back to Top

What are the benefits of wearing armor?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Armor, such as the helmet, shield or chain mail, protects against health point loss from incomplete daily tasks. Wearing armor will not defend you from health point loss for taking rewards you have not earned. You get the benefit of the item you are wearing, plus the benefit of any other items. <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Back to Top

<h2 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">What happens when my character dies? <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Like old school RPGs, if and when your health points are reduced zero, your character "dies", and you lose a level and a piece of equipment.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;"> It's time to take a deep breath, and work on your tasks and habits. You may want to pick an easy habit or task to do, or one you have been neglecting and see your experience points and gold start building back up. If you find yourself facing death frequently, you may find it helpful to Reroll to clean your slate, resetting tasks and habits back to yellow.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">You may also want to weigh in on the Death Mechanic enhancements which are under consideration, or join discussions on the subject on the forums. Back to Top

How do I reset?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Many people have requested the ability to start completely from scratch. This is highly discouraged because you'll lose historical data, which is useful for graphing your progress over time. However, some people find it useful in the beginning after playing with the app for a while - once they've become accustomed to how things work, they want to start playing "for real". To do this, make sure you're logged in and click the profile drop-down in the top-right corner, then click Settings and scroll down to the Reset button. Back to Top

What are gems?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Gems are an in-game currency that can be purchased with real currency. If you love us, this is the easiest way to help us out!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">HabitRPG has no wish to drain your pocket change, but those who use and appreciate the project can support us by turning real-world quarters into gems. In return for your generosity, you'll get to do many fun things - like buying eggs to complement all those potion drops, food to grow a nice strong mount, and eventually specialty hairstyles and armor to impress friend and foe alike!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">While we do this no longer, in the past we called them tokens. Back to Top

How do you pay the local ice cream store for my reward?
We don't. HabitRPG asked merchants to accept our gold coins, but no one agreed. (sigh) So when you claim a custom reward, you first pay for it in HabitRPG; then you go into the real world and pay for it.

Back to Top

I haven't received my backer gems
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Gems (previously tokens) are visible in the upper right-hand corner of all of the RPG pages (accessed by clicking on your avatar). If you see that you still haven't received your gems, see this post. Back to Top

Removing ads if you backed the Kickstarter
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">If you backed the Kickstarter, ads will be removed for you automatically. However, you have to have filled out the survey, correctly inputing your user id (see these instructions). If you haven't done that yet, go do it now and I'll be taking another database migration pass in the near future. If you incorrectly entered your user id (aka, you remember filling out the survey, the ads are still there) - get in touch with me. Back to Top

I haven't gotten a drop yet!
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">The drop mechanic is thus:  task.value * 1% chance. This means that the red tasks have a much higher chance of dropping an item than the green or blue tasks (task devaluation is exponential, so "much higher" is right). This rewards focusing on your shortcomings more than your championed habits. However, the higher your streak on a Daily, the greater your drop chance gets, so you are also rewarded for consistency! Back to Top

I'm missing some, or all, of my tasks!
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">It's very likely you have a filter activated (see this screenshot), and few or none of your tasks tagged with that filter. Simply deactivate the filter. This is a common mistake, and we'll work on making things more obvious in the rewrite. Back to Top

Why Do I See BrowserQuest Art Here?
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Our original art was modified from the pixel art from Mozilla BrowserQuest. Some have been opposed because they've played BQ themselves, and don't like design recycling, but here's my reasoning:

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">It is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 (so we can use it). Fortunately for us (but sadly for Mozilla), BQ is mothballed. That has two implications. First, only those in-the-know will recognize it - which is mostly developers & designers who have been keeping abreast HTML5's progress. Second, it's absolutely superb in design and nostalgia - it does an excellent job of bringing back SNES, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste. Also, it's free. Back to Top

What's the difference between a re-roll and a reset?
A re-roll merely takes all of your tasks and sets them to neutral (the color yellow).

A reset keeps your character's name and user ID, but changes everything else back to level 1. So, no experience points, only 50/50 health points, no gold, only level 1, no silver, no armor, only a training sword, and no eggs, hatching potions, or pets.

Back to Top

How does HabitRPG know that I really did my tasks?
HabitRPG does not really know that you did any of the tasks you set up and then check. We have not set up cameras to watch you day and night, nor have we bribed your family to tell us if you're following your task lists.

We believe in the honor system, because in the end you only hurt yourself if you lie.

Back to Top

I want my avatar to be pink polka-dotted.  How do I do that?
Good question. At the moment, HabitRPG uses art from BrowserQuest for the avatars. But if you want a custom look, feel free to head over to github and volunteer as a pixel artist.

Back to the Top

What do the Task Colors Represent?


The hue of each of your tasks (i.e. habits, dailies, and todos) will change based how well you currently are accomplishing that task. Each new goal starts out at yellow, or neutral. Perform dailies or positive habits more frequently and they move toward green. Miss a daily or give in to a bad Habit and the goal moves toward Red. Progress in any red goals will gain you more points. Setbacks with red habits or missed red dailies will cause higher health damage. (Note: Todos do not inflict damage.) The aim is to encourage you to make extra effort to make progress in your neglected goals. Note that any habits or dailies you begin to neglect will move toward red. Dailies have an extra color - grey. Refer to Grey Days (or Dailies) for more information on this. Back to the Top

Guilds vs Parties
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Guilds and parties are similar, but different in an important way. Your party members show up in the header to the right of your avatar, and are thus a bit more personal - you can see how they're doing on a day-to-day basis, and they you. This often leads to peer pressure to get your act together (accountability partnerships, the whole point of HabitRPG!). Additionally, once Quests are added to Habit, you'll be able to quest with your party (but not with guilds).

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.2em;">Guilds have some of the benefits of parties (chat-room, the up-coming Challenges feature, etc) - but are less personal, less visual, and you can't quest with them. Think of parties as your close friends, and guilds as interest groups. Scenario: you'd be in a party with your close friends, and you may join the "Stop Smoking", "Get Fit", "Scholars", etc guilds. You could also use private guilds as faux parties when you're already in a party but also want to check in with your coworkers. Back to Top