Starting situation

Starting situation describes the opening scene or situation when a user starts chatting with your character. It is used once at chat creation to seed per-chat Current Context (location, mood, relationship, and similar live state)—not re-injected on every message.

As the story evolves, Current Context updates automatically after each assistant reply. Users can also edit context fields in chat settings. Maximum 4,000 characters. On the create form, starting situation lives in an optional collapsed section under Personality & chat.

• Starting situation vs opening messages — Starting situation is the setting (where, when, what is happening). Opening messages are what the character says or does first.
• Starting situation vs system prompt — System prompt is personality and backstory. Starting situation is situational framing for the opening beat.
• Starting situation vs description — Description is public marketing copy on Discover. Starting situation is private context used to bootstrap live scene state.
• Starting situation vs lorebook — Lorebook entries are stable keyword-triggered facts. Starting situation seeds dynamic scene state that changes as the chat progresses.

{{char}} resolves to your character's name. {{user}} resolves to the player's active persona name (or "You" in previews before a persona is selected).

At chat creation, the platform stores a resolved snapshot of this text for the Opening setup reference panel in chat memory—not the raw template with placeholders.

Example: You meet {{char}} at a moonlit candy shop. {{user}} has just arrived from the city, and the air smells like sugar and rain.

• Keep starting situation concise—one or two vivid paragraphs often suffice.
• Pair a strong starting situation with compelling opening messages so users see both context and voice.
• Avoid duplicating long backstory already in the system prompt.
• Use starting situation to anchor location, time, relationship dynamic, or immediate tension.