Archivist builds a database. Threadfall publishes the book. Updated August 2026.
Archivist records your campaign into a searchable knowledge base. Threadfall sits at the table with you during the game, catching beats live, and hands back a chapter-by-chapter book you would read. One is a filing cabinet you can query. The other is at the table, keeping the record as it happens. Read the proof: an entire campaign published as prose at thread-fall.com/c/voidwalkers.
The difference between Threadfall and Archivist: Archivist records your campaign into a searchable knowledge base, built after each session, with a Discord command for mid-session questions. Threadfall is a live session companion with a full at-the-table screen: it transcribes the game as it is played and automatically writes a chapter-by-chapter campaign chronicle plus a cross-linked codex of NPCs, locations, items, and factions. In short: Archivist is a database you search; Threadfall is a book, written as you play.
| Threadfall | Archivist | |
|---|---|---|
| Captures the game | Live as you play: in person, online, or a Discord bot that knows who is speaking. Uploading audio or pasting notes after works too | Live Discord bot, or upload audio / notes after |
| Live at-the-table command deck | Yes (beats, context cards, party vitals, broadcast) | No live screen; a /asklive Discord command answers from the in-progress transcript |
| What you get back | A finished chapter-by-chapter chronicle, generated automatically | Session recaps with tone, format, and length dials; two-page handouts; a wiki |
| Recap, codex, quest log, public page | Yes | Yes |
| Catches dropped threads and continuity | Yes (Loose Threads to Weave to Fates) | No automatic detection; on-demand search plus a quest compile the GM runs and approves |
| System depth (D&D and Daggerheart) | Yes | System-agnostic; no D&D or Daggerheart mechanics, no character import |
| Atlas and travel maps | Yes, with routes | No map |
| GM-hidden content and staged reveals | Staged NPC reveals (hide a character now, unveil it at the table) and GM-sealed Behind-the-Screen notes | Journal permissions only |
| Campaign Q&A chatbot | Bardic Companion: in-character Q&A that pulls from your real campaign records, not guesswork | More surfaces: in-app, Discord, Foundry VTT |
| Cast analytics, relationship graph | Faction, origin & item provenance in the codex; no talk-share or sentiment graph | Yes |
| Foundry VTT, MCP, Obsidian export, 35+ languages | No | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes, permanent. Players are always free, and tracking a campaign by hand (codex, quests, log entries, your own summaries) is free forever. The subscription buys the AI; your first 2 full sessions include it free | Players are free, riding the GM's subscription. The GM gets one 30-day trial, no card, capped at 2 sessions; then AI features freeze until you subscribe |
| Pricing | Free for 2 full sessions; paid from $10/mo | 30-day free trial, then $10 (4 sessions) to $60 (40 sessions) per month, with $2 extra-session add-ons |
Archivist details as of August 2026; verify current details on each product's site. The highlighted cell marks the stronger tool for that row; both highlighted means both are strong. Both ship trading cards: Threadfall's are quote cards, Archivist's are entity cards.
Credit where it is due: Archivist is the stronger post-game analyst. Its campaign Q&A chatbot is more central and lives inside Foundry VTT and Discord, where a /asklive command answers from the in-progress transcript while a live recording runs. It ships Cast Analysis (talk-share and sentiment), a relationship graph, an MCP connector, Obsidian export, 35-plus languages, tone, format, and length dials on its recaps, and at most tiers it is cheaper per session. If what you want is a richly queryable archive of a finished campaign and a VTT-native assistant, Archivist is a serious tool. Threadfall has an AI chat too; the difference is reach and where it lives. Where Archivist stops is the live screen and the finished artifact: a slash-command lookup is not a command deck watching the session with you, and a per-session recap, however well tuned, is not a book.
Archivist turns your campaign into a database you query after the session. Threadfall runs beside you during the session and turns the real game into a book you can read. See a real chronicle at thread-fall.com/c/voidwalkers, then start your own, free.
Threadfall runs live at the table during play, with a full GM screen, and turns each session into a chapter of a readable chronicle. Archivist builds a searchable knowledge base from each session after it ends; its Discord bot transcribes in real time and a /asklive command answers mid-session questions, but there is no live screen. Threadfall is built for the game itself; Archivist is built for querying the archive.
Threadfall. It records the room live on a single device with nothing to upload, and it goes deep on both D&D (item rarity, Save DCs, party assessment, D&D Beyond import) and Daggerheart (traits, Evasion, thresholds, Experiences, domain cards, a GM Fear tracker). Archivist supports in-person play only by recording on a phone and uploading the audio afterward, and it is system-agnostic with no D&D or Daggerheart mechanics.
Archivist's campaign Q&A chatbot reaches more surfaces: in-app, Discord (including /asklive during a live recording), and inside Foundry VTT. It also offers tone, format, and length controls on its recaps, cast and sentiment analytics, a relationship graph, an MCP connector, Obsidian export, and more languages. It is the stronger choice if you mainly want to query and analyze a finished campaign.
Yes. Export your campaign from Archivist and upload the file; Threadfall rebuilds the record automatically, turning each session into a full Chronicle chapter in its own Bardic narrative voice and extracting every NPC, location, item, and faction into a cross-linked codex. Your archive becomes a readable Chronicle you can hand your players, not just a database you query.
Usually, per session. Both start at $10 a month, where Archivist's Casual tier includes 4 sessions to Threadfall Hobby's 3, and its mid tiers stay ahead: Seasoned is $20 for 10 sessions, while Threadfall Standard is $25 for 6, and Archivist sells $2 extra-session add-ons. At the top end the math flips: both charge $60, where Archivist's Legend covers 40 sessions a month and Threadfall's Pro removes session caps. What the Threadfall subscription buys instead of volume is the live table: real-time transcription, the GM command deck, and the chronicle.
Years of sessions. One Chronicle.
Archivist gave you the archive. Threadfall turns it into the book. Export your campaign, upload the file, and Threadfall rebuilds it automatically, turning each session into a Chronicle chapter in a Bardic narrative voice and pulling every NPC, location, item, and faction into a cross-linked codex. Your campaign’s history becomes something you can hand your players and say: here’s the legend we made.
Bring your campaign over, free to start →More: all Threadfall comparisons · What is Threadfall? · read a real published chronicle
Comparison last updated August 2026. Archivist feature and capability details are a snapshot of myarchivist.ai (homepage, /features, /pricing, /faq, /documentation, and blog posts including the Discord live-play and Session Handout 2.0 announcements) captured 27 June 2026 and re-verified 25 August 2026; check their site for current details. Threadfall details reflect the shipped product at thread-fall.com.