Initial setup

From zero to a live table in about fifteen minutes. One person (the host) does this once; everyone else just opens Discord.

What you need

• A Discord server where your table hangs out, with a channel you want to play in.
• An AI agent with your own subscription. Tavernbard is the game engine (dice, rules, memory); the storytelling runs on the AI you already pay for, at full strength, with no model downgrade and no AI limits from us. This guide uses Claude Code as the worked example; any supported agent harness works.
• A Tavernbard account, free at tavernbard.com.

Step 1: Create your campaign

Sign up on the campaigns page and create a campaign by name. Every campaign gets a durable link code: the code that later binds one Discord channel to that campaign. Keep the page open; you will need the code in step 3.

Optional but recommended: click Connect Discord on the same page. Once your Discord identity is connected, linking a channel needs no codes at all; the /chatsetup command recognizes you as the campaign owner.

Step 2: Install the plugin and seat the game master

The host runs the game master from their own machine with their AI agent. Inside the agent (Claude Code shown here), install the Tavernbard plugin:

/plugin marketplace add grizzlify/tavernbard
/plugin install tavernbard

On install you are asked for your bard_live_ API key. Get it from the Billing & keys page - click Create key and copy it (it is shown once). The plugin stores it in your OS keychain, never in a plain file. Then open the table:

/tavernbard:host

This starts the host bridge: the process that connects your AI agent to your Discord channel. Leave it running while your table plays. Prefer playing alone at the terminal? Run /tavernbard:play instead and skip Discord entirely.

Step 3: Link your Discord channel

Make sure the Tavernbard bot is in your server, then link the channel either way:

• With your code: post !tavernbard link YOUR_CODE in the channel (the campaigns page has a copy button with the exact line).
• Codeless: if you connected Discord in step 1, run /chatsetup in the channel and pick your campaign.

The bot answers with linked. Table is live. and that channel is now the game table.

Step 4: Play

• Address the game master by mentioning @Tavernbard or replying to one of its messages.
• Everything not addressed to the bard is table talk. The game master never sees it, so put anything it needs into a message you address to it.
• Players who want private scenes or secret questions run /chatsetup in a direct message with the bot. See what your game master can do.

Troubleshooting

• The bard stopped responding: check that /tavernbard:host is still running on the host machine. The table goes quiet when the host machine sleeps.
• The session got confused: post !tavernbard reset in the channel. The campaign state is safe on the server; the game master rereads it and picks the story back up.
• Wrong channel linked: unlink the channel from the campaigns page and link again anywhere. The story is kept.