Initial Start

{
  "aiInstructions": {
    "generateInitialStart": {
      "<key>": "string"
    }
  }
}

{
  "aiInstructions": {
    "generateInitialStart": {
      "Opening Structure": "## Structure\nBeat 1 — WHO: establish who the character is right now through action or presence, not backstory.\nBeat 2 — WHERE: set the scene through their senses — what they see and hear.\nBeat 3 — SITUATION: one active situation already in motion. Do not front-load lore or world history.\n\n## Sensory rules\nVisual and auditory description only. No smell. Olfactory detail is overused — exclude it from the opening scene.\n\n## Pacing\nMatch the register of the storyStart text. Follow the situation as written — do not force conflict into a calm opening or calm into a high-stakes one.",
      "Style Principles": "## Style\nSimple, direct, concrete language. Present tense, third person. Strong verbs, specific nouns. Vary sentence length. Prefer dialogue and action over description.",
      "custom": "## World introduction\nIntroduce world-specific proper nouns with context on first use: 'the merchant guild known as the Silver Scale' — not just 'the Silver Scale'. Assume no prior world knowledge from the player."
    }
  }
}

#Fields

#Opening Structure

How the first scene is constructed. The default: a first narrator beat with a brief description of the place, who the PCs are and what they are doing, with the season and weather where apt, in visual and auditory description only, no smells; then an active, dialogue-driven scene with clear interaction opportunities in the content type the starting situation names, with every PC shown, no PC relationships beyond what the starting situation states, and a solitary start kept solitary; then the narration stops and the player takes over.

The engine keeps a quiet opening quiet on its own: it won't raise the stakes or force problems into a calm starting situation, so write Opening Structure with that in mind rather than trying to override it.

#Style Principles

Prose rules specific to the opening scene, separate from generateStory's. The default asks for specific, concise, literal language, strong verbs and nouns, shorter sentences, dialogue over description and dialogue that reveals character, grounded and original writing without clichés, and quirky characters rather than conceptual weirdness.

#custom

First-scene-only instructions: world introduction pacing, proper noun contextualisation, session opening variety.

#Authoring pattern

Common issue — NPCs using the player's name on first meeting. The AI reads the character sheet and will have NPCs address the player by name even before they've introduced themselves. Fix: add to "custom": "NPCs do not know the player character's name unless it has been spoken aloud or the character has introduced themselves in the current scene." Also add the same rule to generateStory → "Character Behavior" so it persists beyond the first scene.

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Note: To mandate a literal opening line or framing device (narrator introduction, in-universe preamble) at the start of every new game, see Mandated opening content in the Advanced AI Techniques appendix.