By skyforbes I've been working on a personal project for the last few weeks, trying to solve the problem of long-term consistency in AI roleplaying/storytelling. We all know the issue: after 30-50 turns, the AI starts forgetting key facts, NPCs act out of character, and the whole narrative falls apart.
Out of frustration, I started building a highly structured "master prompt" that forces the AI (specifically Gemini 2.5 Pro) to follow a strict set of rules. I didn't use any external code, just a very detailed prompt architecture.
A part of my method, which I call the "Guardian Protocol" for now, is based on a few key principles:
- A "Fact Database": A section of the prompt that acts as a locked, unchangeable source of truth for the game world (e.g., character relationships, object states like "car is broken"). The AI is forced to check this before every response.
- A three-step "Pre-Flight Check": Before generating anything, the AI must internally follow a strict process: 1. Retrieve key facts, 2. Lock down the structure and facts for the response, 3. Execute generation within these boundaries.
- A "Self-Correction Gatekeeper": This is the final step. The AI has to ask itself a "Did I follow all my rules?"-type question. If the answer isn't a clear "yes," it has to discard the response and start over.
To my surprise, this has been working way better than I expected. I'm currently in a story that has been running for over 600 turns without a single continuity error or logical mistake. The AI remembers details from hundreds of turns ago, and NPCs follow complex, multi-turn plans.
I'm just a hobbyist and not a professional developer, so I'm wondering:
- Has anyone else tried a similar, purely prompt-based approach to enforce long-term consistency?
- Do you think this kind of rigid structure is a viable way to solve the AI's "memory problem," or am I just getting lucky with a specific model?
I'm hesitant to share the full master prompt as it's very long and contains personal story elements, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the methodology itself. Is this a known technique that I just stumbled upon?
Thanks for reading