Set up Discord publishing & recording

2 minutes · one-time setup per campaign

Step 1 — Invite the Threadfall bot to your server

In Threadfall, open your campaign → Manage tab → Discord section → click + Invite Threadfall bot. Discord asks which server to add the bot to; pick your table's server and leave the pre-selected permissions as they are. When you started from the Manage tab, the server you pick is linked to your campaign automatically — nothing to copy.

→ Or open the plain install link (works too — the first /tf-setup you run links the server instead).

The permissions Threadfall asks for:

• View Channel + Send Messages — to post the recap in your chosen channel
• Embed Links — to render the “Read full recap” link button on the parent post
• Create Public Threads + Send Messages in Threads — so the per-beat messages fan out into a thread instead of cluttering the channel
• Mention Everyone — for the optional @here ping when a recap or live-session announce posts (you control it per publish)
• Connect + Speak — to join your voice channel for session recording
• Change Nickname — so the bot can wear your campaign’s Bardic Companion name at the table

If you only want the bot in one specific channel rather than the whole server, you can scope its permissions to a single channel via that channel's Edit Channel → Permissions after the install — Threadfall only ever posts where you tell it to.

Step 2 — Bind your channels with /tf-setup

Stand in the channel you want to bind and run the command — that's the whole step. The bot already knows which server and channel you're in.

• /tf-setup recap — run it in your recap channel (e.g. #recaps). Session recaps and the “Last time on…” reminder post here.
• /tf-setup voice — open your table's voice channel, click its text chat, and run it there. This is where the bot joins to record.
• /tf-setup announce / /tf-setup reveal — optional; live-session announces and /tf-reveal player posts. Skip them and both fall back to your recap channel.

The bot replies (only you see it) confirming what got bound to which campaign. GM or co-GM only — you'll need your Discord linked to Threadfall once (Profile → Link Discord). If the server hosts more than one of your campaigns, add campaign:<name> and the bot will tell you the exact names if you get it wrong.

Step 3 — Publish a recap

• Open any session that has a recap (it shows the bardic blurb at the top)
• Click 🔗 Publish to Discord next to Edit / Delete
• Confirm the dialog
• Switch to Discord — your post is in the channel, with a link back to the full recap

Prefer to do it by hand?

The Manage → Discord section still accepts raw IDs: enable Developer Mode in Discord's User Settings → Advanced, right-click your server icon → Copy Server ID and the target channel → Copy Channel ID, paste them into the fields, Save. Threadfall verifies each ID by reading it as the bot and shows the resolved name beside the field — if you see “the bot can't see that channel”, grant the Threadfall role View Channel, Send Messages, and Create Public Threads on that channel. /tf-setup does all of this for you; the fields remain for fixing a binding by hand.

Step 4 — Schedule the next session (optional)

If you set Next session in Manage → Next Session, Threadfall will post a "Last time on…" reminder to your recap channel 24 hours before the session starts. The bot pulls the most recent session's blurb so your players walk in with the story already in their heads.

• Manual: Manage → Next Session → pick date & time → Save
• Auto-sync from Discord events: tick Auto-sync from Discord scheduled events. The bot pulls the next upcoming event in your server every hour. Create the event via Discord's Server → Events → Create Event and it'll show up in Threadfall within an hour (or click Sync now → for an immediate pull).

Record your sessions

The bot can record your table right in Discord — it joins your voice channel, transcribes live, and hears every player on their own track, so each line of the transcript is attributed to the person who actually said it. No more per-session “Speaker A = who?” labeling.

• Bind the voice channel: open the voice channel your table talks in, click its text chat, and run /tf-setup voice. (Or paste its ID into the Voice channel ID field in Manage → Discord.)
• Record: on the Live screen, select the Discord Bot mode and hit record. The bot joins wearing your campaign’s Bardic Companion name (set it in Campaign Settings) and posts a visible recording notice in the channel — your players always know.
• The nickname trick: a server nickname that includes your character’s name (Trav | Thalen) auto-labels your transcript lines as Thalen — set once, remembered for the whole campaign. Corrections live in the Live screen’s Speakers tab.
• Walk away freely: the recording runs on Threadfall’s servers, not your browser — navigate anywhere, close the laptop, it keeps going. Stop it from the Live screen when the session ends (or kick the bot from the channel; it takes the hint and saves everything).
• One rule: each player needs their own device and mic — two people sharing one mic are heard as one voice. Bluetooth headphones and any browser are fine in this mode; the wired-mic advice only applies to in-person and browser recordings.

A Discord-recorded session uses a session from your plan like any other recording. Recording is included on every tier.

Slash commands

Threadfall installs slash commands in any server the bot joins. Type /tf in any channel mapped to a Threadfall campaign (recap, announce, or reveal) and Discord shows the available commands.

/tf-reveal — save an image to your codex from Discord

The mobile-GM workflow: you see a portrait or location image on your phone mid-prep, drop it straight into the campaign's codex without opening Threadfall on a laptop.

• Type /tf-reveal in any mapped channel
• Pick type: NPC, Location, Item, or Faction
• Type name: the entity's name (e.g. Gorym Stonefist)
• Attach the image (≤ 10 MB; JPEG / PNG / GIF / WebP)
• Submit → bot replies with a private confirmation card showing the image preview + a Post for players → button
• Click the button if you want the players to see it — bot posts a clean image embed (just the name + portrait, no GM shop-talk) to your campaign's reveal channel

Permissions: only the campaign's GM or co-GM can use /tf-reveal. Players running it get an error message.

Reveal vs. recap channel: if you've configured a reveal_channel_id the player-facing post goes there; otherwise it falls back to your recap channel. To set up a dedicated reveal channel, contact us — for now we use the recap channel as fallback.

Codex Lookup & /tf-codex — link your codex into the chat

Someone mentions an NPC and half the table has forgotten who that is? Right-click the message (long-press on mobile) → Apps → Codex Lookup and the bot posts the matching codex entries to the channel — type, name, one-line snippet, portrait, and a link straight to their page on Threadfall. Or ask directly with /tf-codex name:Althea; suggestions appear as you type.

• Works in any channel of a server linked to a Threadfall campaign — not just the mapped ones.
• Results post for the whole channel — a lookup answers the table, not just you. Misses and errors stay private to you, so a bad guess never spams the chat.
• Only revealed entries ever appear — on Discord that holds for the GM too, so a hidden NPC can't slip out. GMs see pending entries in the app's codex.
• Any campaign member can use it — link your Discord once via Profile → Link Discord.

/tf-bard — ask the Bard what your party knows

Mid-argument about whether the innkeeper was in on it? /tf-bard question: what do we know about the innkeeper? and the Bard answers from your campaign's own chronicle — recaps, codex, quest log — in his own voice. The same Bardic memory that powers the in-app chat, from any channel of your linked server.

• The Bard performs for the whole channel — everyone watches him leaf through the chronicle and sees the answer. A full answer typically takes 10–30 seconds. On Discord he only ever speaks from what the table is allowed to know — even when the GM asks. (Your secret-aware Bard lives in the app's chat.)
• He answers from what's recorded — sessions, revealed codex entries, quests. What the GM hasn't revealed, he doesn't know (or won't say).
• Any campaign member can ask, a handful of times per hour. Push past that and the Bard will let you know — in character — that even bards need a rest.

Troubleshooting

I clicked Publish but nothing happened

Check the toast at the top of the screen — Threadfall surfaces the actual Discord error. The most common cause is the bot lacking Send Messages permission in the target channel after a channel-permission override.

The recap posted but the thread is empty

The bot was able to post the parent message but couldn't open a thread. Grant it Create Public Threads on that channel and re-publish.

/tf-reveal says "I don't recognise your Discord account"

You need to link your Discord identity to your Threadfall account once. In Threadfall: Profile → Link Discord → authorize. Then try the command again.

/tf-reveal says "Run /tf-reveal in a channel mapped to a Threadfall campaign"

The channel you're in isn't configured as a recap, announce, or reveal channel. Run /tf-setup recap (or announce / reveal) in it, then try again.

A slash command is missing (or one I don't recognise shows up)

Discord caches commands client-side. Press Ctrl+R (Cmd+R on Mac) inside Discord — or quit and relaunch the app — and the command list will refresh.

I want to switch channels

Run /tf-setup recap in the new channel — the binding moves. Past posts aren't moved — only future publishes use the new channel.

I want to disconnect Discord from this campaign

Manage → Discord → Clear. Nothing already posted to Discord is touched; future publishes are disabled until you reconnect.