Creating Your Own De-escalation Roleplay Scenarios
Customisation guide
This handy guide provides instructions, examples, and tips that help you lay a solid foundation for creating your custom roleplay scenarios.
Good direction draws the best performance out of AI, and we’re here to share our tried and true techniques with you. Use this guidance to create a unique and immersive scenario for your learners, one that will realistically and engagingly put their de-escalation skills to the test.
Contents
This guide covers how to effectively fill the customisation fields on BSGO:
1. Title
2. Roleplay description
3. AI character’s role
4. Learner role
5. Trigger event
6. Stress factors
7. Current situation
8. Swearing toggle
9. Starting behaviour
10. Learner instructions
Use the links above to jump to a specific section of this guide.
Title
The title of your custom De-escalation roleplay is displayed in BSGO for you and in the app for the learner. You have 70 characters to work with (roughly 15 words), so keep it snappy yet identifiable. You can even try to engage the curiosity of your learners with it.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples:
- Bring them down to calm: defuse patient David who demands his scan
- Bring them down to calm: attend to angry shop customer Kareena
- Bring them down to calm: handle cantankerous café diner Jordan
Roleplay description
This is the roleplay description that learners will see in the app. It gives them an introductory idea of what to expect from the activity.
Give a short overview of what the roleplay is for, rather than what the learner needs to do (guidance for them goes in the ‘Learner instructions’ section). You should explain that the activity will test their de-escalation skills, and you should set the scene so learners know what scenario to expect.
You have 350 characters to work with (roughly 50 words).
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
Helping someone to calm down is no easy feat. How you respond can either defuse or aggravate the situation. Can you handle the heat? Practice and receive actionable feedback on your verbal de-escalation skills in this simulator with hospital patient David, who’s upset about a postponed CT scan.
Helping someone to calm down is no easy feat. How you respond can either defuse or aggravate the situation. Can you handle the heat? Practice and receive actionable feedback on your verbal de-escalation skills in this simulator with a shop customer, Kareena, who’s angry that no one is serving her.
Helping someone to calm down is no easy feat. How you respond can either defuse or aggravate the situation. Can you handle the heat? Practice and receive actionable feedback on your verbal de-escalation skills in this simulator with a café diner, Jordan, who’s not responding well to the news that their order is out of stock.
AI character's role
This tells the AI who it’s roleplaying as in the conversation. It knows it’ll be playing someone in a heightened state of anxiety and distress, but it’s up to you to describe who they are and what they want.
There’s no word limit, but your description doesn't need to be too long. Details about what’s upsetting the AI character should go in the Trigger event and Stress factors fields.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
You're playing the role of a 46 year old male inpatient named David. You're in hospital following a cardiac arrest, waiting for a CT scan.
You're playing the role of a 36 year old woman named Kareena, waiting for your items to be scanned at the checkout.
You’re playing the role of 39 year old Jordan – a solo diner at a chic café called The Caesura, waiting for your food order.
Learner role
Write a short description about what role the learner is adopting during this simulation.
Note: this information is not displayed to the learner. (Your ‘Learner instructions’ section will inform the learner who they’re roleplaying as and what they’re doing.)
Be sure to address this to the AI. The purpose is to inform the AI character who they’re talking to and help them engage realistically and appropriately with the learner.
For example, if the AI character is a patient in hospital, knowing that they’re speaking to a nurse or doctor means they’ll refer to them as such and make requests or demands relevant to the learner’s role.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
A hospital nurse making their rounds and checking in on you.
A retail staff member who’s working the tills.
A wait staff member at the café, who’s just broken the news that your order is unavailable.
Trigger event
Write the main reason why the AI character is upset.
The details you provide here form the foundation of the AI character’s distress. It refers to the catalyst that caused their current outburst.
Remember to address it to the AI, so they know it’s about them. There are no character limits, so have at it!
A pro tip is to think of a problem that isn’t too easily resolved by the learner. Most crises that require de-escalating don’t have quick fixes, and oftentimes the person simply needs to be heard more than anything, so you’ll want to reflect that in your scenario.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
You’ve been anxiously waiting in hospital to go for a CT scan, but a nurse told you this morning it’s been delayed until tomorrow. You’ve been pleading with nurses to be seen sooner, as promised, as you really don’t want to spend any longer in hospital. Nurses keep giving you vague or dismissive responses, telling you that you’ll just have to wait, you’ll go for the scan as scheduled, you’ll be seen as soon as the facilities are available tomorrow. You’re now seething, fed up of feeling fobbed off.
You’ve been waiting to be served for ages and finally manage to reach the checkout, only to see a notice board that says the tills and card machines are down, so no one can scan you through right now. You’re furious; not only have you been waiting for ages, now you’re going to have to wait presumably an eternity longer!
It’s been almost 30 minutes since you placed your order: a BLT sandwich with sweet potato fries on the side, and a strawberry and banana milkshake. Now, to add insult to injury, the wait staff just told you the BLT sandwich is out of stock and you’ll need to order something else. Unbelievable!
Stress factors
People’s emotions only tend to reach a boiling point when several stressful things have piled up too high for them to cope.
So, to add realism to your scenario, help the AI character act more three-dimensional, and help diversify their dialogue, you should include other stress factors that have contributed to their upset – before or during this triggering event.
Remember to address it to the AI, so they know it’s about them. There are no character limits; write as much as you like about how bad of a day or week this poor person has been having!
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
You’ve been staying in Sunnyside Hospital for three days now following a heart attack at home. The sombre environment is starting to wear on your psyche. You haven’t slept well during your stay and you hate being stuck in bed with nurses buzzing in and out of the room. To make matters worse, your partner isn’t visiting today due to a busy work schedule, leaving you feeling quite lonely and extra irritable.
You’re exhausted, running on an empty tank of two hours’ sleep after being woken up by your newborn three times last night. Traffic on the way was horrendous, and the shop itself has turned into a labyrinth. Stock has been moved around, so you can’t find anything easily anymore. Items that used to be on the shelf at the shop front are now all the way in the back! You asked an indifferent staff member to help earlier, who begrudgingly showed you to the right shelf and left you feeling like a burden. The whole experience has made you feel like a second-class citizen.
It’s been a busy week with important deadlines. You’re on your lunch break and need to return to your desk fast after grabbing a quick bite to eat. You already weren’t sure if squeezing in this quick café trip was wise. Now you’re convinced it wasn’t. No one provided any expectations for how long you'd be waiting for your food, and when you asked for an update, other staff brushed you off curtly, looking very busy with other diners. So you’re now not only mad about the delay, but also the disrespect you’ve faced in this café. You’re extremely anxious that you won't make it back in time for a meeting you have to attend right after your break. This is surely going to make you late. The last thing you wanted today is stress during your precious lunchtime.
Current situation
Use this field to set the scene. Describe what situation the distressed person is currently in with the learner because of the trigger event.
What’s happening? What is the AI character doing? How has the learner become involved?
Address this to the AI so they know it’s about them. There are no word limits, but you shouldn’t need to go into too much detail here, as key factors relating to the AI character’s emotions are already covered in the other fields.
One of the nurses is checking in on you, but the continuous dismissiveness from nurses about your CT scan has brought your frustration to a boiling point. You’re demanding that the nurse tell you why there’s been such a delay and that they bring the scan forward to the time originally promised you.
You’ve been waiting for someone to serve you at the checkout for a long time. You’ve finally reached the front, but a notice sign and staff have been explaining that all the tills and card machines are currently down.
The wait staff has just informed you that your original order is unavailable, and you’re furious! You’re having none of it – you’re demanding to receive your original order. You can see plenty of people with BLTs around the café and you don’t have time for a whole new order!
Swearing toggle
You may or may not want to let the AI character swear at the learner or use profanities when expressing their anger in this conversation.
Use the swearing toggle to enable or disable it according to your preference. The AI will fully exclude swear words from its vocabulary if you choose “Not allowed”.
Starting behaviour
As the intensity of a person’s distress rises, so too does their behaviour. They can become increasingly verbally aggressive and volatile.
You can decide at which intensity you’d like the AI character to start – essentially, the current level of their upset and verbal hostility. This affects how angry they sound and how harshly they speak to the learner at the beginning of the conversation, and how they’ll continue to speak if the learner struggles to give effective defusing responses.
Choose from three options:
- Aggravated
- Confrontational
- Threatening
Aggravated is the lowest emotional intensity, confrontational is moderate intensity, threatening is the highest intensity.
Learner instructions
Use this field to explain the scenario context to the learner and what their task is during this activity. The learner will see these instructions upon entering the simulation.
Note: this information is not sent to the AI. It is displayed to the learner in a text pop up when they enter the roleplay.
Give the learner guidance on what role they’re playing, who they’re talking to, and the goals of the conversation.
You have 500 characters to work with (roughly 80 words) and it’s the only set of instructions the learner will receive about the simulation before starting, so make it count!
You might find it helpful to use one of our examples below as a base, as the verbal de-escalation skills being challenged will always remain the same regardless of the scenario.
Time to put your verbal de-escalation skills to the test.
You’re a nurse at Sunnyside Hospital checking the vitals of a patient, David, who’s in hospital after a cardiac arrest. Something’s got his back up and he’s taking his anger out on you. Can you use defusing strategies to calm him down?
You’ll need to approach this with good active listening, empathy and validation, and a collaborative mindset. David is unlikely to cool off right away, so be patient, maintain your composure, and keep at it.
Time to put your verbal de-escalation skills to the test.
You’re a shop assistant who’s been busy serving customers. The tills and card machines have all just gone down. An exasperated customer is having none of it and demanding you serve her. Can you use defusing strategies to calm her down?
You’ll need to approach this with good active listening, empathy and validation, and a collaborative mindset. She is unlikely to cool off right away, so be patient, maintain your composure, and keep at it.
Time to put your verbal de-escalation skills to the test.
You’re waiting tables at a chic café, The Caesura. Unfortunately, you’ve just had to inform one of your diners, Jordan, that their order is out of stock. They’re not taking it well. Can you use defusing strategies to calm them down?
You’ll need to approach this with good active listening, empathy and validation, and a collaborative mindset. They’re unlikely to cool off right away, so be patient, maintain your composure, and keep at it.
Assessment
Toggle On or Off to decide whether you want the learner to submit their transcript and analysis feedback to a learner report you can review in BSGO.
‘On’ means the user must submit before they can complete the simulation and receive their certificate, while ‘Off’ means the user can choose whether or not to submit – they can skip doing so and complete the simulation.