SillyTavern group chats: setup, turn order and muting

Build the group

A group chat in SillyTavern is several separate cards taking turns in one conversation, each written by the model as itself. That differs from one card voicing a whole cast, which multiple characters in one chat covers.

In the Characters panel, use the button for creating a new group, give it a name, and add members from your card list. You can set a group avatar and a scenario that replaces each card's own scenario while they share this chat, which matters when three cards come from three different worlds. Save, start the chat, and the first message comes from whichever member speaks first.

A worked example: a heist crew made of a planner, a safecracker and a getaway driver, each on its own card, with a group scenario that reads: [The three of them are in a rented van across from the Halden Museum at 2 a.m. {{user}} is the inside contact who just walked out of the staff door.]

Who speaks next: the reply strategies

Talkativeness is a slider in each card's advanced definitions. Set the planner high so she drives the talk, the driver low so he only speaks when named. Saying a name in your own message is the cheapest steering there is: "Rook, can you open it or not?" all but guarantees Rook answers. A setting that allows self-responses decides whether one character may speak twice in a row; leave it off unless a single card is dominating by design.

Muting, forcing and auto mode

Each member in the group's list has small controls. Muting keeps a character in the group, and in the prompt if you choose, but skips them when picking a speaker: mute the driver while the other two are inside the vault, unmute him for the chase. Forcing a reply makes one member speak right now regardless of strategy, and the /trigger slash command followed by a name does the same thing from the input box.

Auto mode makes characters keep replying to each other on a timer without waiting for you. It is fun for a short argument and runs off the rails fast in a long one, so set a delay you can interrupt and switch it off once the scene has momentum. On UnsavedAI, Free writes one reply at a time and Priority two, so either way each member's turn finishes before the next arrives.

Swap or join the cards

The group's generation setting decides how cards enter the prompt. Swapping sends only the current speaker's card each turn. Joining sends every member's card every turn, with an option to include or leave out muted members, so each character knows who the others are.

Joining costs more tokens: four cards of 1,500 tokens is 6,000 tokens on every reply, which a context of about 61,000 tokens on UnsavedAI absorbs easily. It also keeps the top of the prompt the same from turn to turn, while swapping changes it whenever the speaker changes. UnsavedAI reuses an unchanged prompt start between replies, so joined cards tend to answer faster in long group chats.

Cards that behave in a crowd

• Write example dialogue with only that character speaking. Examples with other named people invite the model to write their lines too.
• Remember {{char}} becomes whoever is speaking now, so shared lore can say {{char}} safely.
• Give every member one verbal habit so their voices stay apart: the planner counts down, the safecracker swears in another language, the driver answers in three words.
• If one card keeps writing for the others, add a short line to your prompt such as [Write only {{char}}'s next reply. Do not write for other characters or {{user}}.] Chat Completion presets usually include a group nudge prompt for this.

To feel how a crew dynamic plays before building three cards, a single caper character like Kat Rourke or Ines Marlowe shows what each role needs to carry.

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