Set up Discord publishing & recording

5 minutes · one-time setup per campaign

Step 1 — Invite the Threadfall bot to your server

Open the install link below in a new tab. Discord will ask you which server to add the bot to, and which permissions to grant. Leave the defaults (Threadfall has pre-selected the minimum permissions it needs).

→ Invite Threadfall bot to your server

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
• Attach Files + Mention Everyone — reserved for upcoming features (image reveals, optional @here on live-session announce)
• Connect + Speak — to join your voice channel for session recording (beta)
• 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 — Enable Discord Developer Mode

You need this to copy the IDs Threadfall asks for. It's a setting on Discord itself, not Threadfall.

• Open Discord → click the gear icon next to your name (bottom-left on desktop, or your avatar → User Settings on mobile)
• Scroll to Advanced in the left sidebar
• Toggle Developer Mode on

Step 3 — Copy your Server ID and Channel ID

With Developer Mode on, Discord gives you a Copy ID option on every server and channel.

• Server ID: right-click your server's icon in the left sidebar (or long-press on mobile) → Copy Server ID. It's a 17–20 digit number.
• Channel ID: right-click the channel you want recaps posted to (e.g. #recaps) → Copy Channel ID. Also a 17–20 digit number.

Step 4 — Paste the IDs into Threadfall

• Open your campaign in Threadfall
• Go to the Manage tab
• Scroll to the 🔗 Discord section
• Paste your Server ID and your Channel ID into the two fields
• Click Save

Threadfall checks the channel by trying to read it as the bot. If something's off, you'll get a specific error:

• “Discord channel not found” — the channel ID is wrong, or you're on the wrong server. Recopy it.
• “The Threadfall bot can't see that channel” — the bot is in the server but doesn't have permission for that specific channel. Go to the channel's Edit Channel → Permissions and make sure the Threadfall role has View Channel, Send Messages, and Create Public Threads.

Step 5 — 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 the beats fanned into a thread

Step 6 — 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 (beta)

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.

• Voice channel ID: right-click the voice channel your table talks in → Copy Channel ID, and paste it into the teal 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. Go to Manage → Discord, copy the channel's ID, and paste it into the appropriate field.

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

Go back to Manage → Discord, paste the new channel ID, Save. 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.