The basics

What is a Minecraft SMP?

SMP stands for survival multiplayer: a shared survival world rather than a set of minigame lobbies. That is the whole literal meaning. What makes the term confusing is that it has become a genre label covering four things that play nothing alike.

The four genres

• Lifesteal. Hearts are currency. Kill someone and take a heart, run out and you are locked out. See lifesteal mechanics.
• Anarchy. No rules, no claims, no moderation, no reset. See anarchy servers.
• Earth and towny. Real-world maps or nation politics on top of a claim plugin. See earth and towny.
• Claims-based survival. The moderated middle: a protected plot, an economy, staff who respond. The largest category by player count and the right place to start.

SMP versus "survival server"

There is no mechanical difference. Convention is that "SMP" implies a smaller, more community-driven world and "survival server" implies a larger network with an economy and ranks, but plenty of servers describe themselves either way and several on our ranking use both words in their own materials.

What to establish before you build anything

1. Genre. Everything else is downstream of this.
2. Claims. Can you claim land, how much, and does the claim expire if you stop logging in? See land claims.
3. Season. Does the world reset, and where in the cycle are you arriving?
4. Moderation. Sit in chat for ten minutes and read. It predicts whether you are still playing in a month better than any feature list.
5. Distance to fresh terrain. On an old world, spawn is stripped for tens of thousands of blocks.

Where to start if you are new

A claims-based survival server. You get a protected base, an economy, and staff, which means your first mistakes are survivable while you learn what you actually want. Our number one at play.talonmc.net is that genre, with its land claiming, economy, progression and trading all built from scratch rather than assembled from plugins, plus custom abilities and earnable titles as you progress.

Next in the SMP wiki

• Lifesteal SMP mechanics explained Hearts as a transferable resource, elimination when you run out, and revival as the economy that grows around it.
• Anarchy servers explained No rules, no claims, no moderation, no reset. What that actually means for your first session.
• Earth SMP and towny servers Real-world maps, player nations, taxes and border wars. The most political corner of Minecraft multiplayer.
• 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.