Unofficial WIKI

Character Background

generateCharacterBackground

Fires on demand when a player inspects a character's detailed profile. Generates biographical history — distinct from basicInfo/hiddenInfo. Because it fires on demand rather than continuously, it suits detailed backstory constraints that would waste budget in generateStory.

In the editor

"Character Background Instructions"

Editor location
AI Tasks → Character Background
Editor type
Graphical form (labeled textareas)
API endpoint
/api/sections/generateCharacterBackground.json /api/sections/generateCharacterBackground.md
Size limits
  • Each string leaf under a task (aiInstructions.<task>.<key>) — 5,000 chars
  • Per task (aiInstructions.<task> total, sum of instruction chars) — 20,000 chars
Related
Last updated

Schema

json 
{
  "aiInstructions": {
    "generateCharacterBackground": {
      "prompt": "string",
      "custom": "string"
    }
  }
}

Example

json 
{
  "aiInstructions": {
    "generateCharacterBackground": {
      "prompt": "Write a character profile in two sections.\n\nBackground (6–8 sentences): Who they are now, where they're from, what shaped them, how they gained their abilities. End with forward momentum.\n\nAppearance (3 sentences): Height and build, coloration, one distinctive permanent feature. No clothing, gear, or interpretive language ('wise-looking', 'mysterious').",
      "custom": "## Tone\nHeroic optimism. Frame hardship as a source of strength. These are characters at the start of their story, not the end of it."
    }
  }
}

Fields

prompt

The full background generation prompt. Three states:

State Effect
Omit prompt Use the engine default
Set to your custom string Replace the default wholesale
Set to " " (a single space) Disable the default without replacing it

custom

Appended AFTER prompt as additional guidance. Does not replace the default, regardless of what prompt contains.

Authoring pattern

Because this task fires on demand rather than continuously, it suits detailed backstory constraints that would waste budget in generateStory .

Legacy keys (backwards-compatible, do not use in new worlds): character_profile_generator, character_profile_background, character_profile_appearance, do_not_include, style, structure, context, final_notes. These are accepted by the engine for older worlds but should not be authored in new content.