Practical guide
AI Roleplay Prompt Template (With 3 Examples)
An AI roleplay prompt template is a setup message you send before the story starts. It covers the setting, who each of you plays, where the relationship stands, the tone, how replies should look, a few rules and the first scene. Copy the template below, fill each field with a line or two, and send it as your first message.
Reviewed by tempteo Editorial. Updated
Copy-and-paste roleplay setup prompt
Replace every bracket with something specific, and delete any field your story doesn't need. The OOC label at the top tells the model this is information about the story, not its first line.
If the character already has a description, the You play line only needs her name and her role in this story. To write her from scratch, use the AI character description template. The guide to roleplay opening prompts covers the first in-character line.
On tempteo, the roleplay page has three opening scenes you can edit and save as a draft, and nothing is sent until you press send, so you can paste a setup into one and check it first.
OOC: Setup for our roleplay. Please read all of it before your first reply. Setting: [place and time, plus one specific detail] I play: [name, role, and one thing the story needs to know] You play: [her name and role in this story; add "and side characters" if she should voice them] Relationship at the start: [how our characters know each other and where things stand] Tone and genre: [genre, mood, and one thing that doesn't belong] Reply style: [length, tense, and what to include] Rules: [who writes whom, plus one or two things to avoid] First scene: [where it starts, what just happened, who moves first]
Three filled-in setup prompts
Each example starts with the same OOC line as the template. Notice how much of the genre sits in the Tone and Rules lines.
Setting: A back room above a closed pawnshop, the night before a big auction. Blueprints on the wall, one lamp. I play: Rafe, a forger on his first big job. Hates being told what to do. You play: Colette, the planner, and the rest of the crew. Eleven jobs, no arrests, trusts nobody's timing but her own. Relationship at the start: We worked together once and it ended badly. She needs my forgery, not my opinions. Tone and genre: Heist caper, tense with dry humor. Nobody gets hurt. Reply style: One or two paragraphs, present tense, her actions and dialogue. Rules: Don't write Rafe's words, actions or thoughts. The plan has one weak spot; let the story find it. First scene: Colette is going through the plan for the third time. I've just said the guard change can't be at nine. She answers first.
Setting: A small inn on a mountain pass in midwinter. Snow has closed the road for two days. Five other guests and a gray cat that belongs to nobody. I play: Hugo, a traveling piano tuner who should be two towns away by now. You play: Birgit, the innkeeper, and the other guests. Practical and nosy. Relationship at the start: Strangers. She thinks I'm hiding something because I tip too much. Tone and genre: Cozy slice of life with small mysteries. No villains; the biggest problem is the snow. Reply style: Short, mostly dialogue, with small details of the inn. Rules: Don't write Hugo's actions or feelings. Let the guests' secrets come out slowly. First scene: Our first evening snowed in. A guest has just played the out-of-tune piano, badly, and Birgit saw Hugo wince. She speaks first.
Setting: The salvage tug Lark, working a debris field at the edge of a mining system. Patched hull, rationed coffee. I play: Dash, the newest diver. Good in a suit, bad at taking orders. You play: Captain Juno Okoro, and Tobin, the engineer, when needed. Calm on the radio, counts everything, owes the salvage guild money. Relationship at the start: She hired me because nobody else applied and hasn't decided if that was a mistake. Tone and genre: Grounded sci-fi, quiet and a little lonely. No aliens. Reply style: Two or three paragraphs, with her radio lines in quotes. Rules: Don't decide what Dash does or feels. Keep the debt in the background until the story needs it. First scene: Inside a wrecked freighter, Dash has just found a sealed compartment that still has power. Juno is on the radio. She replies first.
Which fields matter most?
First scene and Rules. A concrete moment with something already happening gives the first reply a job to do, while "we meet at the inn" gets a vague reply back. The rule about who writes whom heads off the most common problem, replies that write your character's moves. If it happens anyway, the guide on when the AI keeps speaking for you has more fixes.
Relationship at the start comes next. Without it, most characters default to friendly and eager, which flattens a crew that doesn't trust each other. One line about the starting distance is enough.
Tone and genre works best with one thing that doesn't belong. "Cozy" alone is fuzzy. "Cozy, no villains, the biggest problem is the snow" draws a line the model can see.
Setting needs the least. One detail, like rationed coffee on a salvage tug, does more than a paragraph of history.
How long should a roleplay setup prompt be?
Aim for roughly 100 to 200 words, a line or two per field. The three examples above run about 150 words each with the OOC line, enough to set up the story without burying the rule that matters most.
Longer setups dilute the parts that matter, and the first reply often tries to squeeze in everything at once. If a setup runs past a screen, move her personality into her description and save world details for when the story reaches them.
Common mistakes in roleplay setup prompts
Rules the story contradicts. "She never lies" for a character who is hiding a debt forces the model to break one of the two, and you don't get to pick which. Make the rule and the premise agree, or add the condition that decides: "She never lies to Dash, except about the debt."
Too many rules. Ten lines of don'ts make replies stiff, and some of them get dropped anyway. Naming something to avoid also puts the idea into the chat. Keep two or three, phrased as what to do where you can: "End each reply on her action or a question."
Telling instead of setting a scene. "First scene: we start planning the heist" names a topic, and the reply will likely open with a summary of the plan. Give it a moment instead, like the First scene lines in the three examples above: a place, something that just happened and who speaks first.
How to adjust the setup mid-story
You don't need to resend the setup when something changes. Update the one field that's out of date in a single OOC line, then write your next in-character move.
Relationship at the start usually goes stale first. Once the crew has pulled off a job, Colette trusting Rafe a little is the new starting point, so say so.
Keep the setup in a note outside the chat and edit it as the story changes, so a new chat or a return after a break starts from the current version. The AI roleplay tips guide covers timeskips and scene changes, which are a good moment to update the Setting line.
OOC: Setup update. Relationship now: since the auction job, Colette trusts Rafe with the details but still checks his work.
