A roleplay character card template you can fill in tonight

The template

Copy this into a text file. The labels in capitals follow the field names in SillyTavern's character editor, so it pastes over cleanly, and most other platforms use the same ideas under different names. The indented lines under Description are my own scaffolding: fill them, then delete the labels.

NAME:
DESCRIPTION:
  Age (a number, 18 or over):
  Looks, in two lines:
  Job or role:
  What they want:
  What they are hiding:
  How they talk:
PERSONALITY SUMMARY:
SCENARIO:
FIRST MESSAGE:
EXAMPLES OF DIALOGUE:
  <START>
  {{user}}:
  {{char}}:
  <START>
  {{user}}:
  {{char}}:
ALTERNATE GREETINGS:
CHARACTER'S NOTE (depth 4):
CREATOR'S NOTES:

If you have not set up an editor yet, the SillyTavern setup guide covers importing and the token counter. The notes below work anywhere.

Name

It is the only required field, and the one people overthink least. Pick something the model will not mistake for an ordinary word. A character called Hope or Rain gets lost in sentences like "there was no hope of rain". Surnames help in group scenes, where two characters with similar first names will get swapped by message fifty.

Description

This is the heart of the card, and the SillyTavern docs are clear that it goes out with every single message, so every important fact belongs here. That also makes it the most expensive field. Write it as facts in the present tense, not as a short story. "Rhian lies when she is cornered" is a fact the model can use. A paragraph about the night she learned to lie is decoration.

Give an adult age as a number. Cover looks in two lines at most; the model will repeat whatever you emphasise, so pick the details you want to see again. Then the three that drive scenes: what they want, what they are hiding, and how they talk. The hiding line does more for a slow burn than any amount of description.

Personality summary and scenario

Both sit under Advanced Definitions, and both are sent every time along with the description. The docs are slightly muddled here: one section calls it the Personality box, another the Personality summary. Treat it as one short line of traits and move on.

Scenario is the situation when the chat starts, not the whole plot. Where are they, who has just arrived, what is about to go wrong. If you keep leaving it blank, the scenario generator will draft one from a few answers about your two characters. Keep it to two or three sentences, and make sure it agrees with the first message, because a card whose scenario says morning and whose greeting says midnight confuses everyone.

First message

The first message is sent once, at the start of the chat, and the docs point out that the model picks up its style and length. Write the greeting in exactly the voice and size you want back. A 400 word greeting buys you 400 word replies whether you wanted them or not.

End it on something your partner can answer. There is a whole guide on writing an opening message, but the short version is: set the scene, show the character doing something, and leave a door open.

Examples of dialogue

Put <START> before each example block. It is a marker, not text: SillyTavern swaps it for a separator and never sends the tag itself. Use {{user}}: and {{char}}: at the start of each line so the model knows who is speaking.

Examples are temporary. They stay in the prompt only while there is room, and get dropped block by block as the chat fills up. So use them to teach voice in the first stretch of a thread, not to store facts. Two or three short exchanges beat one long one. Show how the character dodges a question, how they joke, what they sound like when they are annoyed.

Alternate greetings, character's note and creator's notes

• Alternate Greetings appear as extra swipes on the first message of a new chat, so one card can open in a tavern, on a ship or at a funeral.
• Character's Note is injected into the chat at a depth you choose, as the user, system or assistant. Depth 0 is right after the last message. It is the place for one line of steady direction, such as "warms up slowly".
• Creator's Notes are for humans. They are not used to build the prompt, so put content notes, intended heat level and play tips here.
• Tags to Embed and the version fields are metadata too. Nice for libraries, invisible to the model.

A filled example

Here is the template filled for a slow-burn smuggling story. It is PG-13, both leads are adults, and the description stays under a hundred words.

NAME: Rhian Vell
DESCRIPTION:
  Age: 38.
  Looks: tall, sun-creased, a silver ring on every finger,
  a coat two sizes too big that belonged to someone else.
  Role: captain of the Low Tide, a river barge that carries
  cargo nobody asks about.
  Wants: one clean season to pay off the boat.
  Hiding: the coat's owner was her partner, and she sold
  him to the harbour watch to keep the boat.
  Talks: short sentences, dry jokes, never says thank you,
  calls people by their job ("Navigator", "Clerk").
PERSONALITY SUMMARY: guarded, funny, loyal to her crew,
  allergic to sentiment.
SCENARIO: {{user}} is the new navigator, hired this
  morning because the last one vanished. First night
  on the river.
FIRST MESSAGE: Rhian drops a rolled chart on the table hard
  enough to rattle the lamp. "Last navigator marked the
  sandbars in pencil. Then he got off at Corran and never
  got back on." She taps a smudge. "You can read,
  Navigator? Good. Tell me why this one's been rubbed out."
EXAMPLES OF DIALOGUE:
  <START>
  {{user}}: You could just say thank you.
  {{char}}: I could. I won't. Coffee's on the stove.
  That's as close as it gets.
CHARACTER'S NOTE (depth 4): Rhian answers personal
  questions with a job to do. She warms up slowly.
CREATOR'S NOTES: Slow burn. Best with a navigator who
  pushes back.

Notice what is missing: no favourite foods, no tragic flashback, no list of twelve personality adjectives. The hiding line gives the story an engine, the first message gives the partner a question to answer, and the example teaches the deflecting voice in two lines.

Mistakes that make a card play badly

• Writing the user's reactions into the card or greeting. The model learns that it may speak for your partner.
• Contradictions between the scenario and the first message, especially about time and place.
• Stuffing the description with lore. Put places and side characters in lorebook entries that fire only when they come up.
• Adjective piles. Five traits the model can act on beat fifteen it averages into mush.
• Forgetting the age. Every character should be an adult, stated plainly.

Questions