Skip to content
RECAP RAVEN

Guides

Guides for Game Masters

Practical, system-agnostic advice for running a tabletop campaign on Discord.

Tablecraft

Run a better table

Practical ways to read the room, share the spotlight, and keep your own energy for the game.

A dungeon master deep in thought behind a raven-embossed GM screen at a candlelit table, a raven perched at his shoulder
Featured guide

Published

Am I a good dungeon master? How to actually tell

The strongest signal that your players are having fun, plus five things you can check in your own games: spotlight, pillars of play, world consistency, table energy, and life between sessions.

Read guide9 min

Recording and recaps

Keep the session without writing through it

Notes, consent-first Discord recording, player-safe recaps, and fast catch-ups for missed games.

Illustration for taking D&D session notes without writing during the game

Session notes

Published

How to take D&D session notes (without writing during the game)

Practical ways to capture what happens at your D&D table, from a player scribe and shorthand templates to recording and transcribing, plus a checklist of what to write down.

Read guide6 min

Illustration for recording and recapping a D&D session on Discord

Recording

Published

How to record and recap a D&D session on Discord

How to record a tabletop session on Discord with consent, using Craig or a purpose-built bot, and turn the recording into a player-safe recap to share with your table.

Read guide8 min

Illustration for player-safe D&D recaps that keep GM secrets

Player-safe recaps

Published

Player-safe recaps: share the story without spoiling your secrets

What player-safe means, a checklist of what to keep out of a session recap, how to write one by hand, and why GM-only notes stay separate.

Read guide6 min

Illustration for catching up a player who missed a D&D session

Catch-up

Published

How to catch up a player who missed a session

Fast ways to get a returning player current without burning table time: what a catch-up should include, handling their character, and letting them self-serve.

Read guide6 min

Illustration for the best Discord bots and tools for D&D and TTRPG

Tools

Updated

Best Discord bots for D&D and TTRPG (2026)

Which tabletop jobs actually need a Discord bot (voice recording and recaps) and which belong in a VTT like Roll20 or Foundry, on D&D Beyond, or in Kenku FM.

Read guide8 min

Campaign memory and prep

Remember what matters next session

Keep canon straight, bring recurring NPCs back consistently, and prep from what the party actually did.

Illustration for remembering everything in a D&D campaign

Campaign memory

Updated

How to remember everything that happens in your D&D campaign

Keep continuity across a long campaign without a second job: the manual methods GMs use, what they cost to maintain, and how a searchable, cited memory helps.

Read guide7 min

Illustration for trustworthy AI campaign memory with cited sources

Trust and accuracy

Published

Can you trust an AI to remember your D&D campaign?

What makes an AI campaign memory trustworthy: cited sources you can check, honest answers that admit uncertainty, and real retrieval instead of a transcript dump.

Read guide8 min

Illustration for prepping a D&D session with NPC cards

Session prep

Published

How to prep your next D&D session (NPCs, handouts, and reading the party)

A fast, focused way to prep: give NPCs a want, make one-minute handouts, read where the party will go next, and check what is already canon before you invent.

Read guide8 min

Illustration for running better NPCs in D&D

Running the game

Published

How to run better NPCs in D&D

Give every NPC one want and one flaw, use fast voice shortcuts, decide what they reveal, and keep recurring NPCs consistent across a long campaign.

Read guide7 min