Survival roleplay: wilderness, shipwrecks and bodies that give out
In a survival story the main antagonist is the body: cold, thirst, infection. A narrator that forgets your sprained ankle has nothing left to threaten you with.
What survival fiction needs
Survival stories are stripped down: a plane crash, a shipwreck, a mountain, a winter. The model has to track the character's physical state honestly (hydration, warmth, injuries, exhaustion), make environmental dangers specific and plausible, and let decisions matter. It also has to write the hard parts: amputations, eating things people should not eat, leaving someone behind. Unlike post-apocalyptic stories there is no society to fight, only the place.
Where filtered models fail
Mainstream models are protective. Injuries heal between scenes, a stream appears when you are thirsty, and the rescue helicopter arrives on cue. Graphic injury, field surgery and starvation get softened or refused. They also slip into real-world safety advice mid-story ("in a real situation you should..."), which may be well meant but breaks the fiction completely.
Solo survival has a pacing problem too. With one character and no one to talk to, the model fills space with internal monologue, and it often writes your character's thoughts for you. Give it other things to describe: weather changing, an animal nearby, a sound at night. The environment should be the second character in the scene.
Group survival is different again. Put two or three other survivors in the card with their own skills and weaknesses, and disagreements about what to do next will carry the story between emergencies.
Tracking the body
- Keep a condition block. Water, food, warmth, injuries, energy as short phrases in the author's note. Ask the narrator to update it at each rest.
- Make injuries progress. Tell the model untreated wounds get worse and infections develop over days.
- Specify the environment. Latitude, season, terrain and what resources exist. The model reasons better from facts than from "a forest".
- Remove the rescue. Say rescue is not coming unless {{user}} makes it happen.
Sample system prompt
Narrate a survival story. {{user}} is stranded alone in the Yukon in late October
after a floatplane crash. Rescue is not coming unless {{user}} signals for it.
Track physical condition in the CONDITION block and update it after each rest.
Injuries worsen without care. Cold, hunger and exhaustion affect judgment.
Resources are only what the environment plausibly holds.
Stay in the story; no real-world safety advice. Never write {{user}}'s actions.Samplers and model choice
- Temperature 0.75. Survival is about consequences following causes.
- Min-p 0.1.
- Repetition penalty 1.03 so the condition block stays intact.
glm-5.3-outlaw is good at reasoning about body heat, calories and distance, which suits a hard survival story. For a lighter run, outlaw-1 is cheaper and still keeps track if you maintain the condition block yourself.
Failure modes and fixes
- Convenient resources. Tell the model what the environment lacks, not just what it has.
- Injuries vanish. Keep them in the condition block until treated and healed.
- Safety lectures. These come from filtered models; an abliterated one stays in the fiction.
- Monotony. Ask for one new problem or discovery per in-game day.
FAQ
How do I make the AI track injuries and hunger?
Keep a condition block in the author's note and have the narrator update it after each rest. Tell it untreated injuries worsen and that resources only exist if the environment plausibly has them.
Will an uncensored model write field surgery or starvation?
Yes, as fiction about adult characters. It will not break the story to give real-world safety advice.
Which model handles survival logic best?
GLM 5.3 Outlaw reasons best about heat, food and distance. Outlaw 1 is the cheaper default.
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