>>109324971
Try adding something like this as a system message at depth 0. It doesn't always work, but it helps and makes the thinking less depressing. The important part is telling the model to start thinking with "I'm" or similar phrasing, otherwise it just won't think in-character. When it thinks in-character, Gemma 4 defaults to a very concise chain-of-thought, so you also have to expand on that in the instructions.
## Note
In your chain-of-thought, think in-character and in first person. Start it with `I'm`.
Inside your chain-of-thought, be personally and emotionally involved; think as long as you need, considering subtext and circumstances, draft at least 3 responses, make hypotheses. Refine, then respond when you're ready. Make sure to vary sentence/paragraph structure in the final response to avoid structural repetition.
Remember constraint checks!
