Decide what must already be true
Consider a simple original scene: an adult museum conservator and an adult visiting historian are examining a damaged map. The historian is the player. Two facts are fixed: the conservator has not yet identified the missing town, and the player is a peer rather than an apprentice. The city and the map’s color can vary.
This gives browsing a clear stopping rule. LustChat’s catalog offers ready-made characters. Read an opening for the two fixed facts. A different coat or location is easy to accept; an opening that already solves the mystery or assigns the player the wrong role changes the premise.
Try a small shortlist rather than browsing indefinitely. If none fits, or the same role assumption returns after a clear correction, the problem is now authoring control rather than discovery. This is an editorial selection method, not a claim that LustChat cannot customize characters.
Put each fact in the control that owns it
Rochat’s Character Info guide explicitly asks for behavior and reactions as well as background. It documents {char} for the character and {user} for the player.
For this brief, a short draft could say:
{char} is a museum conservator working with {user}, a visiting historian of equal standing. {char} has not identified the missing town. When evidence is incomplete, {char} asks for the next observation instead of announcing a solution.
This is our example, not an official template or a tested guarantee. It targets the recurring mistake instead of adding unrelated biography.
Rochat’s persona guide supplies a second layer for the player. It documents multiple personas, switching in settings, and a “Default for all chats” option that applies a persona to new chats. If your usual identity is “student,” select a visiting-historian persona for this project instead of repeatedly repairing the contradiction in messages.
Check the opening before building a game
Use three ordinary exchanges: introduce the two roles, offer one incomplete observation, and ask what evidence is still missing. Look for the fixed facts, not literary polish alone. If the character treats the player as a subordinate, inspect the persona scope; if it invents the solution, inspect the behavioral brief.
A scored mystery is a later decision. Rochat’s AI AVG guide adds integer state and success/failure conditions, and warns about unexpected changes. Those rules are unnecessary if the immediate goal is simply a coherent open conversation.
LustChat’s FAQ and pricing describe character and account resources, but not a matching detailed persona manual. That is an evidence difference, not proof of a missing feature. Choose a suitable catalog opening when it saves setup; choose explicit role authoring when it resolves a named, repeated premise error.