Game Master Preset
Tested With: Mistral Small Instruct 2501
I think the mention of "roleplaying" creates bias for the LLMs. Roleplaying can mean a lot of things, there are different ways to roleplay and different styles. So, inspired by pixi's jailbreaks, the idea behind this prompt is to instead frame the session as a simulation and have the LLM act as the narrator/game master rather than playing a specific character.
There are a few advantages to this approach that I have found, such as it being naturally detached from the character and introducing more NPCs into your RP when the situation calls for it, and being able to handle any scenario or multi-character card as smoothly as any single character card, without any additional prompting.
So this system prompt and instruct template is the result of multiple sessions trying to smooth out the idea and find the right words that fix my annoyances, while keeping it scenario agnostic and the token count efficient.
I'm starting to be satisfied with how it plays my cards, that's why I'm sharing it, but consider it a work in progress, I'm constantly testing and tweaking things to make it better — and sometimes worse, so I'll have to roll back some revisions from time to time.
There’s a Catch! This approach won't work as you expect with SillyTavern's Group Chat feature. It has no concept of separate characters, and it will play as the Game Master every turn, controlling all the characters at once. It's not a bug, it's a feature... Or a consequence of how I wrote it.
If you want to chat with multiple characters, your best bet is to make a new card that combines them or use the Group Chat feature withJoin character cardsenabled and only one card unmuted, so it can play for all of them — trust me, it works way better than wrestling with the Group function.
If having one character speaking for all of them confuses you, or breaks your immersion or something, make an empty card to be the Narrator, add it to the group, and leave only it unmuted.
Important: My template uses Example Messages in the way SillyTavern intended, by making the AI think it's writing them. While Example Messages are not required for any character to work with my prompt, make sure that
Example Messages Behavioris set toAlways include examplesorGradual push-outin your settings, or they won't be sent even for those who have them. Some templates will tell you to disable it, so keep an eye on that.
The system prompt is universal, any model can use it. Then pick the instruct template appropriate for your model. Import both.