Practical guide
How to Roleplay With AI: A Practical Start
To roleplay with AI, pick a character with a clear personality and send an opening that sets the scene, says who you are, and ends with one thing your character does. After that, play only your own character, keep replies short, and move the story with choices that have consequences. When the character drifts, fix it with a one-line note out of character.
Reviewed by tempteo Editorial. Updated
Choose a character with a clear personality
A roleplay partner is easier to write with when you can roughly predict how they'll react. "Friendly" doesn't tell you much. "A ferry captain who has worked the same crossing for twenty years, talks in short sentences and hates fuss" gives you a voice to expect and a way to notice when it slips. Look for a description that tells you how the character talks and what they want right now.
If nothing fits, build your own. Write down a name, two or three habits you could spot in dialogue, and a goal for the first scene. Leave the long backstory for later, once you know what the story needs.
tempteo has a catalog of AI characters, each with her own personality, and a five-step creator if you'd rather make your own.
Write an opening with a setting, your role, and one decision
Your first message is all the model has to go on, so put the setup there. Say where and when the scene happens, who you are playing, and what the other character's role is if it isn't obvious. Then end on one concrete action your character takes. An action gives the character something to react to, which works better than closing with "What do you do?"
One short paragraph is plenty. Add a physical detail or two, like rain on the windows, so the place feels real, and leave the plot open for the character to push on.
If you'd rather adapt a ready-made start, the roleplay page on tempteo offers three opening scenes you can edit and save as a draft, and nothing is sent until you press send.
The last ferry across the lake, a little after nine at night. Rain on the windows, a few passengers dozing in the cabin. I'm Jonah, a delivery driver heading home with my empty van on the car deck. You're Odile, the captain: dry, unhurried, twenty years on this crossing and no patience for fuss. Halfway across, the engine coughs twice and goes quiet, though the lights stay on. Odile comes down from the wheelhouse and looks around the cabin. I grab the flashlight from my van, switch it on and hold it up. "Need a light?"
Play your character and let the AI play theirs
A roleplay goes flat quickly when one side starts writing for both. You decide what your character says, does, and feels, and the AI decides the same for its character. Putting Odile in the scene is fine, but don't write her reply inside your own message, and don't accept a reply where Jonah suddenly agrees to something you never chose.
If a reply takes over your character, say so plainly in a note marked OOC (out of character): "OOC: Please don't write Jonah's actions or thoughts. Stop after Odile's reply." You can put the same line in your opening if you want it clear from the first turn.
Move the story with choices and consequences
If every message ends with "What do you think?", the story stalls while both sides wait for the other to decide. Push it forward instead. Make a choice that costs your character something, or add a small complication for the other character to handle. Then let the consequences land: if Jonah tells the passengers a half-truth, someone should notice.
Short replies make steering easier. Aim for two to five sentences with one action and, if it fits, one line of dialogue. A long message that settles three events at once leaves the model little to do except agree, and it makes mistakes harder to catch.
In the ferry scene, a few short turns might look like this, with each one changing something:
Odile takes the flashlight without a word and heads for the engine room. Down there she frowns at the fuel filter. "Clogged. Ten minutes to clear it. Someone has to go up and tell the passengers we're drifting, and they'll ask questions I don't want to answer."
"I'll handle them." I leave her the flashlight and head for the stairs.
"Tell them it's routine," Odile calls after you. "And if anyone asks why we're drifting toward the old pier, you don't know." She turns back to the filter without explaining the pier.
Upstairs, I tell the cabin it's a routine stop and pass around the cookies from my van. One passenger stays at the window, watching the pier lights get closer. I go and stand next to her.
Fix drift in one line and keep a fact note
In a longer chat, the character may slip. The voice softens, a detail changes, or something they were told goes missing. Correct it out of character in one line and ask for the reply again, for example: "OOC: Odile is brief and dry, not apologetic. Please redo her last reply." Then carry on as if nothing happened. If the same drift keeps coming back, the guide on keeping AI in character during long roleplay goes further.
Keep a short note outside the chat with the facts that must survive: names, promises, who knows what, and any object the plot depends on. When a reply contradicts one of them, you'll notice right away and can quote the exact fact in your correction.
Jonah told the passengers it's a routine stop. Odile hasn't explained the old pier. The flashlight is Jonah's. Clearing the fuel filter takes about ten minutes.
End or pause a scene cleanly
Stop at a natural beat rather than halfway through an action. A decision made, or the ferry finally bumping against the pier, gives you a clean place to pick up from. To end the story for good, write a closing line for your character and let the other character answer once.
If you're only pausing, add a short OOC note with where things stand and the last line spoken, and copy it into your fact note. That note becomes the recap you send first when you come back, and the guide on continuing an AI roleplay after a break walks through it step by step.
