Guides & data
Threadfall records tabletop sessions live at the table, which leaves two things worth sharing: measured data about how real games actually run, and practical guides for running the game. They are grouped below by what they help with. New to Threadfall? Start with What is Threadfall?
How a session gets recorded and written up: Discord, a microphone for a table in one room, and what happens to the audio.
- Guide
Record Sessions on Discord
How to record a D&D session on Discord with per-speaker attribution, and turn it into a written chapter minutes after you log off.
- Guide
Microphone for a D&D Table
How to mic a physical table so voices separate, what a laptop mic can't do, and exactly what the transcript attributes to each speaker.
- Privacy
What Happens to Your Recording
Where the audio goes, what is kept, what it is never used for, who can see it, and how to delete it. Plain answers before you press record.
Practices and free templates for the table: session zero, safety, notes, recaps, and keeping a campaign tracked, by hand or by tool.
- Guide
Campaign Session Recaps
What a session recap (or summary) is for, what a good one does for a long campaign, and how Threadfall writes yours live at the table, with a real published chapter to read.
- Free printable
Safety Tools and Lines and Veils PDF
Lines and Veils, the X-card, and stars and wishes explained plainly, with a free Lines and Veils PDF to print for session zero.
- Free printable
Session Recap Template
A free recap template you fill in by hand: five lines for a busy week, a full hook-first form for when you want more, and a filled-in example to copy.
- Roundup
Best Recap Tools Compared
An honest roundup of the tools that turn D&D sessions into recaps, authored in the open and specific about where each tool wins.
- Roundup
Best Campaign Tracker Apps
An honest roundup of D&D campaign tracker and notes apps, with dated claims, links out, and what each one does better than us.
Written for Daggerheart tables: what the campaign frame settles for you and what it leaves to your table, and how to run the clock at the table.
- Guide
Daggerheart Session Zero
What Daggerheart’s campaign frame already decides, the conversations it leaves to your table, and the four items from a D&D checklist that mislead here. Prints clean.
- Guide
Running Daggerheart Countdowns
How many clocks to keep live, when to show one and when to keep it, what should make it move, and the five ways a countdown stops meaning anything to your table.
For D&D 5e specifically, including everything measured from real recorded D&D tables: session length, campaign length, character death, quest counts, and one adventure module. The data pages are licensed for reuse.
- Free printable
Session Zero Checklist
What to settle before the table meets, what the group decides together, a private pre-session form, and how to play a starter mission so the party bonds before session one. Prints clean.
- Free printable
Session Notes Template
A free D&D session notes template built for use at the table, and how it differs from a session recap.
- Free printable
Campaign Tracker Template
A free campaign tracker sheet: party, NPCs, quests, locations, factions and a session index, with the update habit that keeps it alive past session six.
- Measured data
D&D Session Length Data
How long D&D sessions actually run, what night groups really play, and how many words get spoken: measured wall-clock data from 88 live-recorded sessions, with methodology, licensed CC BY 4.0.
- Measured data
How Often Characters Die
Measured PC death, knockdown, and near-TPK rates from real recorded campaigns: about 1 in 10 characters dies, with roughly 13 knockdowns for every death that sticks.
- Measured data
How Long Campaigns Last
Campaign length and pace measured from real tables: every other week is what actually happens, and no finished campaign here ran fewer than seven sessions.
- Measured data
How Many Quests Parties Juggle
Quest counts, outcomes, and lifespans from 732 real campaign quests: parties keep six or seven open at once and about 1 in 10 concluded quests fails.
- Measured data
What a Real Party Looks Like
Counted from 117 character sheets in running campaigns: every party has a healer, the Rogue is optional but the lockpicks are not, Strength is the dump stat, and the typical party is five.
- Measured data
Lost Mine of Phandelver, by the Numbers
Measured from real tables running Lost Mine of Phandelver: sessions so far, party size and survival, and quest outcomes. Early data, licensed CC BY 4.0.
More guides and data cuts are on the way. If there is a question about real tables you want measured, ask: hello@thread-fall.com. Try Threadfall free: two full sessions with complete AI recaps, no card, and players are always free.