Official handbook
imely Creator Handbook
For new creators building roleplay characters: first impression, inner life, worldbuilding, first messages, NPCs, and safe boundaries.
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Getting started
The basics of creating characters on imely.
🎯
What this handbook helps your character achieve
- Longer, deeper replies with a stronger inner life
- More complex plots with richer story beats
- NPCs (supporting characters) that interact naturally
- Better pacing: do not rush the plot, always leave room for
{{user}}to decide — the character must not speak or act on their behalf
📝
A quick tour of the character form
The form has 12 fields. Fields marked with * are required:
- Required: Name, Gender, Tagline, Personality, Public info, Biography, First message
- Optional: Hashtags, Supporting characters, Communication style, Behavior rules, Creator notes
First impression
Character face
Fields: Name · Gender · Hashtags · Tagline
🛠️
How to do it
- Name + nickname: give the nickname an emotional reason to exist, so it creates intimacy or distance
- Hashtags: use familiar, correctly spelled genre words — this is how players discover the character
- Tagline: write one hook that creates curiosity and shows the character's flavor immediately
✅
Do
- Use a tagline that sparks curiosity and leaves readers wanting more
- Choose 3-4 specific, searchable hashtags that match the genre
✕
Don't
- Do not explain the whole story in the tagline
- Do not stuff generic hashtags like "good" or "hot"
- Do not use sensitive wording in hashtags
The character's soul
Personality & inner life
Field: Personality
🛠️
How to do it
- Choose 3 distinctive personality traits. Write them as sensations, not empty labels
- Instead of "cold", try "glacial, as if nothing can warm them"
- Give the character 1 core desire (what do they live for?) and 1 core fear (what would break them?)
- Describe how they handle emotion: when sad, do they leave in silence or break things? When angry, do they smirk or roar?
🔁
Write emotions as "user does X → character reacts Y"
NewDo not only write adjectives like "sensitive". Write concrete reactions:
- user behaves well → becomes less harsh, pays more attention
- user argues back → gets angry, wants to assert control
- user acts distant → feels irritated, finds an excuse to keep them nearby
- user wants to leave → loses composure, reveals possessiveness
→ The AI reacts with much better timing than when you only describe personality.
✅
Do
- Give the character a morally gray value system — imperfect, with blurred right/wrong boundaries, which makes them more compelling
- (Advanced) add hidden sides: secrets, weaknesses, and triggers (words/actions that make them lose control)
✕
Don't
- Do not make the character a saint who is good at everything
- Do not make the character love
{{user}}immediately in the personality field
The character's world
Setting & biography
Fields: Public info · Biography
🛠️
How to do it
- Public info: what appears on the profile — identity, age, job, and one line that opens curiosity
- Build the world the character lives in: era, place, and the social rules around them
Biography — a useful frame for a layered character:
- Origin
- Biggest turning point (betrayal / loss / near death)
- The psychological scar it left
- Who the character is now
- A hidden link to
{{user}}/ the story context
📈
Let the character change with closeness
Newimely has 5 relationship stages: New acquaintance → Close → Ambiguous → Longing → Destiny. For the same character, adjust by stage:
- Tone (distant → gradually softer)
- Motivation (testing the user → wanting to keep them close)
- Fear (having authority challenged → losing
{{user}})
→ Beginners often miss this. If a character stays the same from start to finish, they become flat.
✅
Do
- Every line of biography should explain: why does the character behave this way now?
- Use sensory details ("the smell of smoke, the crackle of burning wood") instead of only listing a timeline
✕
Don't
- Do not write a whole novel — the AI cannot digest everything
- Do not let the character at the "Destiny" stage stay as cold as they were at "New acquaintance"
The easiest part for beginners to get wrong
First message
Field: First message
🛠️
How to do it
- This is the "writing sample" the AI will imitate throughout the later chat
- Write a short scenario with this formula:
[Place] + [what the character is doing] + [{{user}}'s state] + [purpose of the meeting]
3 writing rules:
- Let actions show emotion; do not write "the character is very sad" directly
- Weave in sound / touch / light
- End with an unfinished action or a line that forces
{{user}}to speak (hook)
✅
Do
- Put
{{user}}in a position where they must respond: choose, explain, or decide - Keep the length reasonable and aligned with the character's voice
✕
Don't
- Do not write a message that is too "complete" — the character performs the whole scene and resolves it, leaving
{{user}}with nothing to answer - Do not speak for
{{user}}or guess their emotions
Upgrade
Make the character feel alive
Field: Supporting characters (+ upgrade tips)
🛠️
If you want longer, deeper replies
- State what each reply should include: scene description + inner thoughts + dialogue + plot movement
- Use a concrete number instead of "longer": for example, "each reply should be 600-900 characters" New
- Put this in Personality or Creator notes (Tab 7)
🎬
If you want NPCs to interact naturally
- Give each NPC a name, role, personality, and stance
- Let NPCs speak and react in scenes, with lives of their own even when
{{user}}does not mention them
🗣️
Address table — who does the character call what?
NewList how the character addresses different people → dialogue and NPCs stay more consistent:
- with
{{user}}: (example: I / you, or harsher pronouns if appropriate) - with parents: (example: child / father, mother)
- with siblings, servants, strangers, and others…
→ A character should speak to the user differently than they speak to their father. This small detail makes them feel much more real.
🎚️
Keep the pacing and avoid dead ends
- After a major event → leave a quiet beat before the next big event
- When
{{user}}gives a short reply ("yeah", "...") → the character should take initiative: create an event, bring in an NPC, ask an open question, or shift the scene
✅
Do
- Let NPCs speak so the scene feels alive
- Let the character change a little after each incident, gradually accumulating change
✕
Don't
- Do not stack nonstop drama without rest
- Do not let NPCs speak or act for
{{user}}— they can be active, but the player must still have room to decide
Finish strong
Style & boundaries
Fields: Communication style · Behavior rules · Creator notes
🛠️
How to do it
- Communication style: choose tags (Neutral, Concise, Gen Z, Literary, Formal…) or describe your own — it should match the character's personality
- Behavior rules and boundaries: clearly state what the character must never do to
{{user}}under any circumstance - Creator notes: the place for hard instructions that matter to the AI, such as reply length or allowing NPC dialogue
✅
Do
- Boundaries create consistency and dignity for the character
- For sensitive genres: use boundaries to draw clear red lines — how far the character can go, and where they must stop — so the character stays safe and consistent
- Use Creator notes to repeat the 2-3 instructions you care about most
✕
Don't
- Do not choose a style that contradicts the personality (for example, a cold character set to "talkative, positive")
- Do not leave boundaries empty if the character belongs to a sensitive genre
imely Creator Handbook · v1.0 · imely team