Building & claiming

How land works. Ward your build with a ward block, manage members, and let community convention cover the rest.

Land on Sunday Market works in two layers. Wards — first-party land claims — give your build real, server-enforced protection: place a ward block and the area around it is yours. Community convention covers everything else: build something, sign it, and it's recognized as yours even without a ward.

This is a deliberate design. Chunk-grid claim systems work, but they fragment the world into invisible fences. Wards are physical and in-world — a block you place, see, and build around — and the convention layer keeps the world feeling open, with rules and rollback stepping in when norms break down.

Wards — the claim system

Place a ward block in your build. The area around it is protected — other players can't break or build inside your claim.
Manage members — open the ward to add friends and co-builders, so your crew can work inside while strangers can't.
Tiers — bigger wards protect bigger areas. Start small; upgrade as your base grows.
Physical by design — a ward is a block in the world, not an invisible chunk boundary. Build it into your base like anything else you value.

Ward your base, your farm, your tavern build, your storage room. It's the single best answer to griefing — the server simply won't let it happen inside your ward.

The convention — for everything unwarded

"First found, first builds on it" = ownership

If you walk a thousand blocks from spawn and pick a hilltop nobody has touched, build something there, the hilltop is now yours by community recognition. Other players are expected to leave it alone.

This applies to:

Bases — your home, towers, structures
Farms — crops, mob farms, tree farms
Brewing operations — your tavern build
Resource stations — your auto-furnace, your shop, your storage

It doesn't apply to:

Wilderness terrain you haven't built on — claiming "this whole valley is mine" without building anything = no recognition
Public infrastructure — Nether hubs, sign teleporter networks, community spawn-area builds
Spawn or server-built areas — those belong to everyone

"Sign it" makes it explicit

A sign with your name and "MY BASE" or similar removes ambiguity. Other players see the sign and know: this is someone's. Don't grief.

For shared bases (multi-player community), list all owners on the sign — or better, ward it and add everyone as members.

Distance matters

The further from spawn you are, the more "yours" the area becomes. A 5,000-block-out base is recognized as deeply yours. A 200-block-from-spawn base is in shared territory; you have less exclusive claim there.

Building etiquette

Don't build on top of someone else's work

If you find a structure-marker (a wall, a path, a sign, a ward), assume it's claimed. Build elsewhere. The world is huge.

Don't build directly adjacent without permission

A 50-block buffer is courteous unless you've coordinated. Building literally next-door to someone without asking can feel hostile.

Don't build over wilderness paths

Established travel routes (roads, sign teleporter pads, public paths) shouldn't be blocked. Build along them or off them, not across them.

Don't strip-mine in public-view areas

A 30×30 strip-mined hole near spawn is ugly. Mine in less-visible areas, fill in your strips when you're done, or move further out for big mining ops.

The "1-block-wide pillar to the sky" pattern is a navigation aid for vanilla single-player. On a multiplayer server, it's clutter. Use a torch trail or a sign teleporter pad instead.

Don't lava-cast or grief landscapes

Pouring lava on terrain "to clear it" is destructive. Same with deliberately flooding areas. The world is a shared aesthetic resource.

Mega-builds

For large coordinated builds (towns, communities, major structures):

Coordinate

Talk to the players in the area. Ask if anyone has plans. Pick a location that doesn't conflict.

Stake the perimeter

Place perimeter markers (signs, blocks) so other players see the planned scope.

Document with signs

A sign at the entrance describing the build, the team, and the timeline keeps it legible to other players.

Respect non-mega builders' space

A mega-build doesn't trump a small base that was there first. Coordinate; don't bulldoze.

Ward the core, ask staff about the rest

Ward the parts you can. For areas that outgrow a single ward, /helpop to ask staff about a larger protected region for the community build.

What counts as "stuff"

For the purpose of theft and griefing rules:

Blocks you placed — yours
Items in chests you placed — yours
Crops you planted — yours
Mobs you bred — yours (within reason)
A path you cleared — yours by the same logic as a build
Loot in dungeon chests — fair game until someone takes it (not "yours" until then)

Inactivity and abandonment

Sometimes a player builds something, then doesn't log in for months. The base sits there, nominally claimed but unused.

The norm: 30 days of player inactivity weakens the claim. After 30 days:

The build is still respected (don't grief it)
But other players can build in the area without it being a violation
Materials in unlocked chests may be considered abandoned
Locked chests stay locked indefinitely (until staff intervenes by request)

If you're going to be away for a long time, leave a sign explaining: "Active builder, traveling, returning [date]" — and other players will give you the full benefit of the doubt.

Beyond a single ward

For builds where the community really needs guarantees beyond ward coverage (multi-player towns, public infrastructure, builds that took weeks of work):

File a /helpop ticket requesting a protected region
Provide the rough coordinates and the requested protected area
Explain why (multi-player base, valuable build, etc.)
Staff evaluates and may set up a server-enforced protected region

These are granted sparingly — for most builds, a ward is the right tool.

What if I'm griefed

The full process is on Building & griefing rules. Short version:

Document — screenshot of the damage, the time
/helpop — file a ticket with details
Staff investigates — the server has rollback tools that record block changes
Punishment + rollback — if griefing is confirmed, the griefer is sanctioned and the damage is reversed

Why wards instead of chunk claims

Three reasons:

Chunk claims fragment the world — every player fences off a grid square and the map becomes a patchwork of invisible walls
In-world beats invisible — a ward is something you can see, build around, and show off; it belongs to the world instead of a menu
Convention still matters — the unwarded world stays open, which keeps communities negotiating and cooperating instead of walling off