Using a Job Board in Your Campaign and Why It Rules

I use a job board in pretty much every campaign I run. It’s one of those tools that just works—simple, versatile, and packed with storytelling potential. A job board feels grounded in the world, like something that would naturally exist in any settlement where folks need problems solved and someone’s got the coin to pay for it. It's also a fantastic way to hand the reins over to the players without throwing them into full sandbox paralysis.

Agency, not Overwhelm

The biggest strength of the job board is the agency it gives your players. Instead of handing them a single shiny quest and saying “This is the adventure,” you’re laying out a buffet of hooks and letting them choose what matters to them. Maybe it’s a missing child. Maybe it’s a bounty on a bandit lord. Maybe it’s a scribbled note from a desperate farmer about strange lights in the woods. They get to say “We care about this one.”

A World in Motion

But here's where it gets even better: a good job board makes the world feel alive. I don’t let it sit stagnant. Every time my players complete a quest, I add two or three new postings—but I also make sure to remove at least one, or dramatically update it to reflect how the situation has worsened in their absence. That missing child? Maybe now it’s a memorial. That bandit lord bounty? The payout just doubled, because now they’ve burned a village.

The board becomes a kind of low-key moral clock. Players can’t do everything. They shouldn’t be able to. So they start to realize their choices have real weight—not just in what they do, but in what they ignore.

Flavor and Foreshadowing

Another fun trick is slipping in postings that tie into long-term plot threads or upcoming threats. A one-liner about "strange static noises out by the water tower" might not mean much now, but six sessions later when they're knee-deep in a conspiracy involving rogue tech, it clicks. Players start to see that the board isn’t just busywork—it’s how the world talks to them.

Final Tip: Keep It Diegetic

Make the board something they can actually interact with in-game. Let them visit it, see locals reading it, notice new notices going up. Maybe even let them leave a posting themselves. That way, it doesn’t feel like a quest log—it feels like part of the setting, a hub of community and desperation and commerce all wrapped into one wooden board nailed to a crooked beam.