Towns & Land Claiming

A town is a player-made group that owns land, protects builds, and organizes residents under a mayor, and most of a normal player’s gameplay happens inside towns.

Joining or starting a town

From a player perspective, the first “town decision” is whether to join an existing town or create one. Both choices change where you can build safely and how much land you can control.

• To start a town, you use a command like /town new <name> while having enough money; the chunk you stand in becomes the home block and town spawn.

• To join a town, you either accept an invite (/town add <yourname>) or use /town join <townname> if that town is open to anyone.

• Joining a town increases that town’s available claimable chunks (“townblocks”), meaning more land the mayor can expand into.

Town growth and claiming land

Towns grow by claiming townblocks, which are fixed-size chunks of land on a grid (by default 16×16 from bedrock to build height). Claims must usually touch existing town land unless they are special “outposts.”

• The main command is /town claim, with variants for shapes like squares or circles, or automatic filling/auto-claim around you.

• How many townblocks a town can have depends on resident count and/or configured town levels; each new resident usually unlocks more claims.

• Towns can also buy extra townblocks beyond the normal limit using /town buy bonus <amount> if the special events allows it, paying an increasing cost per extra block.

Home block, spawn and outposts

The home block is the central chunk where the town was created, and it defines the main spawn and distance rules. Outposts are separate claimed chunks far away from the main town area.

• The mayor can move the spawn inside the home block with /town set spawn, or move the home block to another claimed tile with /town set homeblock.

• Outposts let towns claim land far out in the wilderness or other worlds if outposts are enabled and you have the right permission node.

• Players can teleport to outposts with /town outpost <number/name>, and outpost limits are controlled by town size.

Personal plots inside the town

Every townblock can be public land (owned by the town) or a personal plot owned by a resident. Mayors control what goes on sale; residents choose what to buy and own.

• Mayors set plot prices with /town set plotprice and put specific chunks for sale using /plot fs [cost] while standing in them.

• Residents buy land with /plot claim and can later give it up using /plot unclaim if they no longer want it.

• There are plot groups (multiple plots managed as one) and districts (named areas of town for organization and map labels).

Plot types (what a plot is “for”)

A plot’s type changes what players can do on it and how taxes/costs work. Basic players mostly care about what each type allows or restricts.

• Default: Normal house/build plot; no special rules beyond permissions.

• Shop (/plot set shop): Used for player shops; mayors can set default shop price and extra shop tax.

• Embassy (/plot set embassy): Can be owned by anyone, even players without a town, and keeps ownership if they leave their home town.

• Wilds (/plot set wilds): Allows breaking certain “resource” blocks like trees and ores without tearing up terrain; good for farms/quarries.

• Inn (/plot set inn): Lets any player use beds here as spawn even if they don’t own the plot; often used as public hotels.

• Jail (/plot set jail): Used when towns have jailing/bail systems; dying as an outlaw/enemy in that town can send you here.

• Farm (/plot set farm): Only allows placing/breaking configured crop/plant blocks, plus killing configured farm animals.

• Arena (/plot set arena): Always has PVP and friendly fire enabled, with options to prevent gear durability loss.

• Bank (/plot set bank): Used where banking is restricted to these plots; deposits/withdrawals might only work here during economic crisis events.

🛠️ Plot permissions and protection

Protection is mainly handled per-plot through perm lines which control who can build, break, use switches, or use items. This is what stops griefing and unauthorized access.

• The four actions are Build, Destroy, Switch (chests, doors, buttons, etc.), and Itemuse (pearls, boats, minecarts, etc.)

• The four groups are Friend/Resident, Town, Ally, and Outsider; each can be allowed or denied for each action.

• Mayors set defaults for unowned town plots with /town set perm ..., residents set defaults for their own plots with /resident set perm ....

• Any specific plot can override defaults using /plot set perm ..., and there are toggles per-plot for pvp, mobs, explosion, and fire via /plot set ... flags.

Trusted players and advanced access

Beyond the normal permission groups, towns and plot owners can trust specific players to act like co-owners on land. This is useful for shared bases or building teams.

• Towns can trust a player in all town-owned plots with /town trust add <name>, giving them full build/destroy/switch/itemuse there.

• Individual plot owners can trust per-plot with /plot trust add <name>, which lets that player act like the owner on that chunk.

• There are also fine-grained per-plot overrides (e.g., allowing someone only to Switch but not Build) using the /plot set perm commands.

Taxes, upkeep, and town money

From a player’s perspective, the main money concerns are daily taxes, plot taxes, and what happens if the town cannot pay upkeep.

• Town mayors set resident tax with /town set taxes (flat amount or percentage of balance) and plot tax with /town set plottax per plot.

• If you cannot pay flat resident tax, you are kicked from the town; if you cannot pay plottax, you lose your plots back to the town.

• Towns pay upkeep from the town bank each “Towny day”; if they cannot pay, they can be removed or go bankrupt depending on settings.

Bank usage for players

Players use the town bank indirectly for claims, upkeep, and taxes. Depositing helps the town grow and survive.

• Any resident can deposit using /town deposit <amount>; only the mayor and certain ranks can withdraw with /town withdraw <amount>.

• Towns can have a bank cap so you cannot stuff infinite money into a town to avoid other plugins’ death/penalties.

• Sometimes there is a limit bank actions to bank plots, so you must stand on a bank plot to deposit or withdraw.

Overclaiming and losing land

Sometimes there is an event that enable overclaiming, where other towns can slowly steal land from towns that are holding more claims than they are allowed.

• A town becomes “overclaimed” when it has more claimed townblocks than its current limit (e.g., after losing residents).

• Nearby towns can use a takeover command on bordering plots (for example /town takeoverclaim) to capture them, one at a time, until the victim town is no longer overclaimed.

Ruins, reclaiming, and grief windows

When a town fails upkeep or is deleted, during most of the time it can enable a ruin state instead of instant deletion.

• In ruin, town land can be griefed and looted, but other towns cannot claim it yet; the town is controlled by an NPC mayor.

• Over time, more plots in a ruined town automatically open their perms so anyone can build/destroy, giving a looting window to players.

• Former members (or sometimes anyone, depending on config) may be able to reclaim the town using a paid /town reclaim command within a configured time.

Maps, borders, and navigation

Towny gives several tools to visualize where town land starts and ends.

• /towny map, /towny map big, and /towny map hud show claimed chunks around you, including plot types and names.

• Resident modes like /res toggle map, /res toggle plotborder, or /res toggle townborder can constantly show borders in chat or with particles as you move.

Wilderness vs town land

Outside of any town, you are in the wilderness, which has its own rules per world. Town land is usually much safer. Town land usually stays as players leave it.