Towny and You! (Guide written by Fit29, server VIP and Mayor of Canterlot)

If you want to try to learn towny yourself then just type /towny.

Beginnings

So you want to found a town? Well its not exactly as easy as saying "LOLLOL imma mayor guys!".

The cost is 125,000 gil to start a town. And then you also have the upkeep to handle, so I would first worry about making some friends that will stick behind you and help you manage this thing financially.

If you get past the hardest part (getting people to join the town/help found it.) then its basically easy street from here. (Unless your going to found in PvP, then its only the beginning of your troubles).

I would STRONGLY recommend reading this guide compleatly through first before doing anything.

Chunks and You!

Towns are based off a minecraft game design element called "chunks" (if you know what a chunk is, its size, and how to find where they end and stop then skip this part entirely).

These chunks are 16x16 squares that go from the sky to bedrock, they are how Minecraft generates its world. Towny is based off of these chunks, your town laws and protections only apply inside claimed chunks by your town. If you type [/towny map] then it will display a map of all claimed and unclaimed chunks. Try doing this by the land border of another town to see a clear representation of what is claimed, this gives you a good idea of it. Claiming a chunk costs 500 gil per chunk, and your town can only claim as many chunks as this formula: [# of residents in town] X 16. So if I have 10 people in my town, then I get the ability to claim up to 160 chunks. Now I'm going to go over on how to find chunks the most effective way (to avoid typing /towny map over and over again)

1. Type: [/resident ?] to get a help menu for all resident commands, these are commands anyone can access.
2. Now type [/resident set mode] These are all nice toggle-able modes that involve towny.
(Just as a side note, I would avoid using most of these unless you know what your doing, some can end badly if used wrong.)
3. Now type [/resident set mode map] This will make it so whenever you walk into a new chunk it will display the towny map, (This spams your chat btw) so now place torches to mark where each chunk ends so you have a sense of location wile making your town.
4. To un-toggle the map mode when your done zoning chunks, type [/resident set mode clear]

Founding The Town!

So now you are ready to found a town if you have all these things (Just use this as a checklist to make sure you are ready, better to double check than to see your town fall apart!)
1. Do you have at least 150k? You only need 125k to found a town, but its always good to have some money in your pocket in case of emergencies or something.
2. Do you have more than just yourself to support the town? Active players to help fund it, and people you trust to help you lead it?
3. Are you sure about the world you want to build the town in? If you make it in Aesir then it is in Aesir forever, no refunds if you want to move to PvP (Or reverse this, can't do from Muspell (PvP) to Aesir (Non- PvP)).

Pick the chunk you want to be your towns default home block, this will be the spawn of your town, so when some one warps to your town, it will be exactly where you are standing when you create your town. Don't worry about it to much though, the home block can be changed at anytime with [/town set homeblock]. So let us found the town and bring it to life! Type /town new [Town name here]. (Note that a town name cannot contain spaces, so you have to use _ if you want to imitate spaces.)

Congratulations, you are now a mayor!

So now that you are a mayor you must go buy a suite and a case of cigars.

Managing The Town!

Now you have many mayorly things to do Mr. Mayor, your town is tiny, only one chunk big! Its funny to me! Lets change that, go stand on another chunk outside of your town and type [/town claim]. This will cost 500 gil per chunk and can only be done on chunks touching your town's existing chunks. (Don't forget about you good ol' [/towny map]!) Also, DO NOT CLAIM TOO MANY CHUNKS, keep money in your town bank!

At this point of the proceedings you have claimed a few chunks, your town now has a decent size area to build in for now. Let us focus on the challenges of being a Mayor, keeping your town financially alive. As you should know, towns are required to pay a certain amount of gil each week. Prices can be view elsewhere on the website once, currently in the Game of Thrones Forum section. That is why you have to keep money in your town bank! IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY IN YOUR PERSONAL WALLET IT DOES NOT PAY THE UPKEEP. You have to have it in your town bank, to add money directly from your personal wallet into the town bank you type [/town deposit (Amount to add)]. To remove money from the town bank you type [/town withdraw (Amount to remove)]. There are many more ways to add money to your town bank without manually adding money from your own wallet though!

Taxing your residents is one way, although it is not the most appealing to new players who don't have a lot of money. Taxes are basically a daily charge on every resident in the town that is not you or an assistant. This is great for getting money to fund the town, and all of it goes directly to the town bank without any hassle from you!
So if you can calculate how much money you need from each resident, based on the upkeep price, you can actually make it so towny pays its own upkeep at the expense of your residents money. 

Another way is to really on donations from your residents, this is risky and is based completely on the faith your residents have in the town and you. This is not recommended purely because of its randomness. But this one is also very attractive sounding to new players. 

The third way is by mixing the two above, making taxes to pay a good portion of the upkeep, but also relying on donations to pay the rest off. This is a great way of keeping your towns taxes down, but still has that riskyness factor in it.

The fourth way is to pay it yourself, but this way is not fun at all since it requires so much money per day, forcing you to play a significant amount of time everyday. This is the least recommended tactic to take on upkeep.