User blog:Drpf33/Difficulty Modifier, Part 1

Greetings, Scribes of the realm!

I have been toying with the idea of using what I call a "Difficulty Modifier" (which is really just a Habit). I'll describe how it works and how it is helping me (or not) in future installments.

Some tasks are, well, hard. I mean super tough. For me, this is waking up. I've never been a morning person, although hope springs eternal on that count. On most days, due in large part to a medical history of sleep disorders (and the resulting side effects of prescribed medications), waking up is an unreasonable demand, like yelling at a tomato in your garden to stop being green and just turn red already.

Can Habitica accommodate this situation? Of course it can!

We have the following default Difficulty levels to work with:


 * 1) Trivial
 * 2) Easy
 * 3) Medium
 * 4) Hard

Here we propose the following:


 * 1) Trivial
 * 2) Easy
 * 3) Medium
 * 4) Hard
 * 5) Very Hard
 * 6) Significant

It would perhaps be more symmetrical to add one additional level, instead of two; however, Habitica's focus on self-improvement and challenging oneself justifies two levels, I think. Also, dying a thousand deaths when the alarm goes off seems like a two level sort of thing.

The word Significant is meant to be the antipode of Trivial. Further gamification is possible, of course! Words like Brutal, Inferno or Nightmare are often used in games to denote the hardest setting. I find them discouraging, but other Habiticans might enjoy them.

Stay tuned for Part 2, wherein the tomato either explodes or becomes sentient.