Persona Authoring

🪪 Personas for Authors

How your world meets the player's persona: playable entities, the Allowed Personas and Starts On controls, the Persona chip, and the two Built-in chips that carry names into your text.

Players read Personas. This page covers the World Editor side. Everything here except the Player Name and Character Name chips is Advanced mode only.

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How to Make an Entity Playable

1. Switch the World Editor to Advanced mode.
2. Open the Entities tab, and select the entity.
3. On the Profile tab, find the Persona control and select Playable.
4. Optional: in Starting Location, pick where the player starts as this persona. Automatic uses the entity's first starting location.
5. Read the entity's descriptions, and the descriptions that mention it. Make sure each one is still correct when the player is this entity. See Playable Entities.

For an entity that exists only when the player picks it, select Persona-Only in step 3.

How to Make a Custom Persona

1. Switch the World Editor to Advanced mode.
2. Open the Entities tab, and add or select the entity. Name it, such as Wanderer.
3. On the Profile tab, select Custom Persona in the Persona control.
4. Open the Traits tab. The entity shows as a node at the top level.
5. Give it traits. Drag a top-level trait onto its node, or select a Blueprints trait or group and use Link To… in the footer.
6. Optional: give the entity Self Openings. They draw for a player with no world persona.

How to Choose Who the Player Can Be

1. Switch the World Editor to Advanced mode.
2. Open the Overview tab.
3. In Allowed Personas, select Any or World Only.
4. In Starts On, pick the persona a new player starts on.

See Persona Rules for each choice.

How to Put a Name in Your Text

1. Select a prose field, such as an entity's AI-Facing Description or an opening.
2. Type {. The menu opens with Built-in at the top.
3. Pick Player Name for the player's name, or Character Name for the name of the entity that owns the text.

The menu offers Character Name only in an entity's own fields. You can also type {{user}} or {{char}} in any prose field, and the field turns it into the chip.

The Short Version

You want	Use
The player to play as one of your entities	Playable in the entity's Persona control
An entity that exists only when the player picks it	Persona-Only in the Persona control
Traits for a player with no world persona	Custom Persona in the Persona control
To decide who the player can be	Allowed Personas and Starts On on the Overview tab
Your own prompt to know the persona	The Persona chip
Your text to say the player's name	The Player Name chip
An entity's text to say its own name	The Character Name chip

Playable Entities

Persona on the entity's Profile tab is a control with four choices:

Choice	The entity
Cast	Appears in the world as a regular entity. This is the default.
Playable	The player can play as it, or meet it in the world
Persona-Only	Appears only when the player picks it as their persona
Custom Persona	Becomes the persona the player creates. See Custom Persona.

The library entity editor offers Cast and Playable only.

A Playable entity shows under From This World when a player enters your world. When a player picks it:

What	Effect
The cast	The entity leaves it for that game. It returns when the player changes persona, unless it's Persona-Only.
Its traits	They're the player's traits, marked You. See Entity Traits.
The AI	Reads that everyone in the world already knows this person, and that your text about the entity means the player
Starting location	The entity's Starting Location is preselected. With Automatic, its first location that is a starting location is. The player can change it.
Entity Openings	The entity's Others openings leave the draw, so page one never greets the player as themselves. Its Self Openings, if any, replace the whole draw.

Only entities you select are playable. The setting is your statement that the entity reads correctly from the player's side.

⚠️ Check text that names "the player" as someone else. Suppose the blacksmith's description says "She distrusts the player". A player who plays the blacksmith now reads as someone who distrusts herself. The app doesn't rewrite this text. You own it when you make the entity playable. Read the entity's descriptions, and the descriptions that mention it, from the player's side first.

In Simple mode, a Playable or Persona-Only entity puts a dot on the Advanced side of the mode switch, so you know the world uses Advanced features.

Persona-Only Entities

Some entities exist only as a player slot, such as a "Custom Character" with no story of their own. Set Persona to Persona-Only to keep one out of the world unless the player picks it.

The player	The entity
Picks it	Is the player, the same as any playable entity
Picks someone else, or None	Isn't in the world. It's left out of the cast, scenes, diaries and the side panel.

• Its Others openings never draw. When picked, it's the player. When not picked, it's absent.
• Its Self openings draw when the player picks it. They give a Persona-Only entity its own start.
• The choice is in the World Editor only. A library entity is never in a cast, so the library editor doesn't offer it.

Custom Persona

A player who picks a persona from their own library has no world entity's traits. A player who picks None has none either. The Custom Persona entity gives them traits anyway, such as a race and a class. It also stands in None's place at Enter World.

Open the entity's Profile tab and set Persona to Custom Persona. The mark is the fourth choice, beside Cast, Playable and Persona-Only.

Rule	Detail
One per world	While one entity holds the mark, the choice is disabled on every other entity. A hint names the entity that has it.
Not in the cast	The mark takes the place of Playable and Persona-Only, and the entity acts as Persona-Only. It never joins a scene.
A normal entity	It owns traits, links and copies. You name it.
Stat traits	Its own traits can have Stat Changes and Stat Availability, the same as a Playable or Persona-Only entity's
Self openings	Its Self Openings draw for a player who picks None, or a library persona with no Self openings of its own
At the top level	It stays at the top level of the Traits tab, in the order you set. A drop into a group is refused.
Always an owner	The Traits and Placeholders tabs list it, so you can drag and link to it while it is empty.
Duplicate	A duplicate drops the mark.

Its traits are the player's when the player picks None or a library persona. A world persona keeps its own traits. The picks carry over between None and library personas.

Copies work in the same order. A library persona's own copy wins. The Custom Persona entity's copy fills in where the persona has none. The blueprint itself reads last.

Remove the mark, and the entity keeps its links, traits and copies. Its stat traits keep their stats, but the stats do nothing. A confirmation names the counts of links, traits and copies. Delete the entity, and they go with it. That confirmation names the counts of links, traits and placeholders. An empty entity does neither with a dialog.

A world with no marked entity keeps None as before. A blueprint chip then reads the blueprint's own values.

💡 Enter World shows the entity in place of None. Selecting it shows a Name and a Description field. The name the player enters replaces the entity's name in the story. The player's description follows yours, so the AI reads both your setup and the player's details. Your aliases stay.

See Custom Persona for how its links and pins work in the Traits tab.

Persona Rules

Two controls on the Overview tab decide who the player can be. Both are Advanced mode only.

Allowed Personas decides what the persona list offers:

Value	The player can pick
Any	Your world's personas, their own library personas, and None (or your Custom Persona)
World Only	Your world's personas and your Custom Persona. No library personas.

Starts On decides which persona a new player starts on, at Enter World and in Quick Start:

Value	Starts on
Player's Default	The player's default persona. World Only hides this choice.
None, or your Custom Persona by name	No persona, or your Custom Persona when the world has one
One of your personas	That persona

Use Starts On: None when your world already defines the player. Use World Only when the player must be one of your entities.

• A pick the player made in your world before wins, when the list still offers it. Starts On guides new players. It doesn't lock them.
• World Only with no persona entity works like Any until you give an entity a Persona role other than Cast.
• A start persona you later unmark falls back to Player's Default.
• The side panel's Change list follows Allowed Personas too.
• Worlds saved with the older Persona Choice control load as the same rules. Fixed becomes Starts On: None. Cast becomes World Only, and also Starts On: None when no entity was playable.

Persona Stats

An entity's own stats become the player's stats while the player plays as it. Under None and a library persona, the Custom Persona entity's stats do the same.

Where	What happens
Stat panel	The persona's stats show under its name, below your world's own stats. Pick "name (You)" in the entity picker, and no entity section shows.
AI stat updates	The AI updates a persona's own stats under Player Character. Under a library persona, the Custom Persona's stats read under Other Stats, after your world's. A stat with the same name as a world stat stays a separate stat. See How the AI Tracks Stat Changes.
AI prompts	The narrator, choice writer and storyboard planner read the persona's own stats in its Persona block. Under a library persona, the Custom Persona entity's stats come after your world's stats under Other Stats. A stat with the same name as an earlier stat reads as "name (2)".
Persona switch	Each entity keeps its values. Switch back, and they are as you left them.
Library persona edits	A stat you add to a library persona joins the playthrough at its starting value, in a saved game too

A persona's stat and a world stat can share an id. On a trait the persona owns, pick the stat from the persona's own list to change its own stat. Pick it from the Player list to change the world stat.

The Persona Chip

The Persona chip sends the persona to the AI. The built-in prompt presets already carry it.

⚠️ Your own prompt gets no persona until you add the chip. A prompt in Custom Prompts replaces the player's prompt, and nothing is added to it. Without the chip, the AI never sees the player's name or description. The same is true of a player's own custom preset.

Select the placed chip to open Chip Options and set Content:

Content	Sends	Use it for
Full	Name, aliases, pronouns, full description, active traits and stats	Prompts that write or plan the scene
Summary	The short AI summary, or the full description when there is none, the names of its active traits, and its stats	A shorter prompt
Name	The name and pronouns only, as plain text	Inside a sentence

These rows work with Content:

Row	What it does
Only With	Check Stats or Traits to send the persona only when it owns one of them. Otherwise the chip sends what it sends with no persona.
Include	Clear Traits or Stats to leave them out of Full and Summary. Both are on by default.
Stat Detail	Pick Range, Descriptor and Description for each stat. At least one stays checked.
Format	Simple, Markdown or XML, as on the other list chips

Name sends plain text. It turns off Include and Stat Detail, and it locks Format. Only With still works. Clearing Include → Stats turns off Stat Detail.

Detail	What to do
The heading	Write it in the chip's Header field. With no persona, the chip and its heading both send nothing, so no empty section is left. Prepend and Append text goes with the value the same way. A chip with no Header, Prepend or Append text sends N/A.
Placement	Put the chip beside the Traits chip, above Location. The persona rarely changes mid-game, and a stable top helps the AI server reuse its work.
A world persona	Full and Summary add the line that says the world knows this person. Name stays bare.

Narration stays in second person, and entities say the player's name only after they learn it. Your prompt can state otherwise, for example that one entity already knows the player.

The Player Name Chip

Type { in a prose field and pick Player Name under Built-in. It needs no placeholder of its own.

The player has	In an opening	In world, entity and dictionary text
A persona	The persona's name	The persona's name
No persona	"you"	"the player"

Both fallbacks take a capital at the start of a sentence. A possessive follows: "your", "the player's".

• The chip works in both modes, in every prose field with the { menu. Name and keyword fields don't offer it, and neither do the fields of Custom Prompts.
• SillyTavern imports write it for you. A card's or lorebook's {{user}} becomes this chip. See SillyTavern cards.
• Text imported before the chip existed keeps its plain "the player". Replace it by hand where you want the name.

💡 For what the chip does to page one, see Openings.

The Character Name Chip

Type { in one of an entity's own fields and pick Character Name under Built-in. It reads as the name of the entity that owns the text. Write one description that names its owner, and it stays right after a rename.

• The menu offers it only in an entity's own fields, such as its descriptions and its openings. A book, a location or a world field doesn't offer it.
• In trait text, type {{char}}. It becomes the chip and names the trait's owner. See Entity Traits.
• In trait text the player carries, it reads as Player Name. A Paladin text then names each Paladin, the player included.
• SillyTavern imports write it for you. A card's {{char}} becomes this chip. In a card's embedded lorebook, {{char}} becomes the card's name as plain text.

Related

• 🪪 Personas — the player's side
• 🛠️ World Editor — Openings, Entities and Placeholders
• 📐 World Format — the fields behind these controls