# Roleplay chat

> How Roleva conversations work — masks, suggestions, memory, and keeping long stories consistent.

Every roleplay in Roleva is a chat between you and an AI character defined by its card. The character stays in role; you steer the story.

## Masks: who you are in the story

A **mask** is your in-story identity: a name plus a short description of identity, personality, and background. Characters address you by your mask and react to what it says about you.

- Create and edit masks under **My → Settings → Masks**.
- Set a **default mask** to apply to every new chat automatically.
- You can switch masks in the middle of a conversation; the character adapts from that point on.

## Writing and steering

- Send plain messages to speak or act. Descriptive actions (for example, *"pushes the door open slowly"*) give the character more to react to.
- Use the **suggestions** the character offers when you are unsure where to take the scene next.
- If a reply misses the mark, retry it — the character rewrites its last turn without breaking the story.

## Memory: how characters remember

Long stories only feel real if the character remembers what happened. Roleva has two memory layers, both controlled under **My → Settings → Memory and personalization**:

- **Advanced memory** (membership feature): the character organizes key facts and scene context from your chats, so long conversations stay consistent even after hundreds of turns.
- **Memory across chats** (membership feature): characters remember your preferences and style across different chats and understand you faster in new ones.

When a toggle is off, nothing new is organized or remembered by that layer. You can also keep your own **memory notes** — key moments and details worth remembering — under **My**.

## Managing your threads

- **Chats** lists every open thread. Threads keep their full history, so you can leave a story for weeks and pick it up again.
- Favorite characters from their card page to find them quickly later.
- Message history storage has a quota that grows with membership tier; older threads are preserved within your quota.

## Interactions beyond chat

On card pages you can **like**, **favorite**, **share**, and — once your account level unlocks it — **write reviews** to tell other players what a card feels like. See [Experience and levels](/en/guides/levels/) for how unlocks work.