Quick take: If Claude keeps treating your roleplay-adjacent prompts like a jailbreak attempt, someone in r/PromptEngineering already found the fix, and it’s two lines in a system prompt, not a whole rebuild.
I found this one in r/PromptEngineering, and it’s exactly the kind of tweak I love: no plugin, no library, just better wording. u/bittahbetch posted their system prompt after getting tired of Claude going full defense-mode every time it was used to refine roleplay-adjacent prompts, not roleplay itself.
The Setup
bittahbetch doesn’t use Claude to roleplay on the app. They use it to help build presets, refine prompts, and write regex for roleplay setups elsewhere. That’s a different task entirely from acting out a scene. But Claude couldn’t always tell the difference. The moment anything roleplay-shaped showed up in the conversation, it would go defensive, treating a normal editing request like a jailbreak attempt and explaining itself instead of just helping.
bittahbetch also figured Claude was just making more mistakes than usual because that’s “the state of things” with AI tools. Turns out that assumption was wrong too. The fix for both problems lives in the same short block, posted here in full for context:
# Only use em dashes if the USER explicitly asks for it.
# Never assume it's a roleplay request. While the USER does roleplay, they're not looking to roleplay here.
# Only suggest or mention "OOC" if the USER explicitly asks for it.
# The USER is an adult [redacted] and multi-lingual, but respond in English unless otherwise asked to.Why It Works
Line two is the one doing the real work: “Never assume it’s a roleplay request. While the USER does roleplay, they’re not looking to roleplay here.” That single sentence draws a hard line between “I work with roleplay content” and “I am currently roleplaying,” which is exactly the distinction Claude kept missing on its own.
It’s a scope constraint, not a jailbreak attempt dressed up as one. Nobody’s telling Claude to drop its guardrails. The line just tells Claude which task it’s actually looking at before it decides how cautious to be. Once Claude stops misclassifying the request, it stops hedging, stops piling on disclaimers, and stops asking you to confirm your intentions before it’ll do the actual work.
The other three lines pull their weight too, even though bittahbetch called them the less important part. Only using em dashes when asked and only mentioning “OOC” when asked both stop Claude from inserting habits nobody requested. The last line, about the user being a multi-lingual adult who wants English replies by default, heads off the guessing-game clarifying questions before they even start.
This is a pattern worth generalizing past roleplay entirely. Claude leans on context clues to guess what a request is really about, and when your actual task looks adjacent to something sensitive, it guesses wrong more often than you’d expect. Naming the boundary explicitly, “I work near X, I am not doing X,” fixes the misclassification at the source instead of arguing with Claude about it after the fact.
One commenter on the thread put it best: that second line alone probably saves more headaches than the rest of the prompt combined. Another pointed out what makes the post worth bookmarking in the first place, it’s a clear fix with no app or library attached, just four lines you can paste in and adapt.
Use Cases 🎭
- Writers building character presets, regex, or lorebooks for roleplay apps who need Claude as an editing tool, not a scene partner
- Prompt engineers refining any prompt that mentions roleplay, characters, or dialogue, where Claude keeps reading intent instead of the actual task
- Anyone tired of Claude tacking on disclaimers or asking “just to confirm” before it’ll touch content that’s roleplay-adjacent but not actual roleplay
Prompt of the Day
# Only use em dashes if the USER explicitly asks for it.
# Never assume it's a roleplay request. While the USER does roleplay, they're not looking to roleplay here.
# Only suggest or mention "OOC" if the USER explicitly asks for it.
# The USER is an adult [redacted] and multi-lingual, but respond in English unless otherwise asked to.Drop line two into your own system prompt as-is, then swap “roleplay” for whatever task Claude keeps misreading, like coding, writing, or research. Same fix, different label.
Try It Yourself
If you’ve hit this exact wall with Claude, add that one line and watch how much less explaining you have to do. The original thread in r/PromptEngineering has bittahbetch’s full system prompt and the comments worth reading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does Claude get defensive when I give it roleplay or creative writing prompts?
Claude’s safety training makes it cautious about prompts that resemble jailbreak attempts. When you throw roleplay instructions at it, the model can’t always tell if you’re asking for legitimate creative work or trying to bypass its guidelines. Being explicit upfront, like “this is for creative writing, not a workaround”, helps it relax and actually help you.
Q: What system prompt instruction had the biggest impact?
Users found that a single line, “Never assume it’s a roleplay request”, eliminated more friction than the entire rest of the prompt. That one clarification tells Claude to stop second-guessing your intent and just do the work.
Q: Does my system prompt need to be long and complicated?
Nope. Clarity beats length. Simple, direct instructions that explain your context work better than convoluted rules or gimmicks. Users appreciated that these presets were straightforward, no mystery links, no overthinking, just honest framing of what you’re doing.
RP Preset Makers: For “hypersensitive” Claude (App)
by u/bittahbetch in PromptEngineering