Genres

Earth SMP and towny servers

An earth SMP runs on a scale map of the real world, and a towny server runs a town-and-nation plugin on any map. Most earth servers are towny servers with a specific map, so the mechanics overlap almost entirely and the two are worth learning together.

How towny works

• A town is founded by a player, who becomes mayor. The town claims chunks.
• Plots inside those chunks are sold or granted to residents. Your plot is your protected build.
• The town bank holds money. It pays a daily upkeep to hold its claims, funded by resident taxes.
• Nations are groups of towns with a capital, a leader, and diplomatic relations: allies, enemies, neutral.
• War is plugin-mediated on most servers, with rules about when claims become attackable.

The upkeep trap

This is the single most important mechanic and the one that costs people their bases. If the town bank empties, the town falls, and every plot inside it unclaims at once. You can be paying your own plot tax faithfully and still lose everything because the mayor stopped logging in. Before you join a town, ask who pays upkeep, how healthy the bank is, and how long the mayor has been active.

What earth maps add

Geography with meaning. Founding in a resource-rich region, controlling a strait, or bordering a large nation are all real strategic decisions, and the map's familiarity means everyone understands the stakes without explanation. It also means the good land is claimed early, so late joiners either join an existing nation or settle somewhere nobody wanted.

Joining well

1. Do not found a town on day one. Join an established one, learn the politics, then decide.
2. Check the nation your town belongs to and who it is at war with. You inherit those wars.
3. Read the server's war rules before a war starts, not during.
4. Ask what happens to your plot if the town falls or you are evicted. Answers vary and none are in your favour.

Who it is for

People who enjoy the diplomacy more than the survival, and who do not mind that a lot of the game happens on Discord. If you want protection and an economy without the politics, a claims-based survival server like our number one at play.talonmc.net gives you a personal claim rather than a plot inside someone else's town, which sidesteps the upkeep trap entirely.

Next in the SMP wiki

• Land claims and protection: what each system actually stops Claims protect blocks from strangers, which is narrower than most players assume. Where each system leaks.
• SMP economies: jobs, shops and why prices inflate Money enters an SMP economy every time anyone sells to a shop. Without sinks, prices only go one way.
• SMP PvP: combat versions, crystals and opt-in zones The 1.8 versus 1.9 combat split, why crystal PvP dominates modern SMPs, and what opt-in PvP zones change.
• Your first week on a new SMP A checklist that gets you established without losing your first base, in the order that actually matters.