Minecraft RPG server: classes, skills, quests and dungeons

What a Minecraft RPG server is

RPG stands for role playing game. On a Minecraft RPG server that mostly means progression: players get stronger over time through levels, skills and gear, and the server gives them things to do with that strength. It is not the same as a roleplay server, where players act as characters; the roleplay server guide covers that. Many servers mix a little of both.

RPG class ideas

Classes give players an identity and a reason to play together. Four to six classes is plenty. Each one needs a weapon, a way to deal damage or help, and at least one weakness, so a group of different classes does better than a group of the same one.

1. 01
   Warrior

   Sword and shield, lots of health, pulls enemies towards them. Slow and weak at range.

2. 02
   Archer

   Bow or crossbow, high damage from a distance. Fragile when enemies get close.

3. 03
   Mage

   Spells that hit groups of mobs, cast with a wand or a staff. Needs time between casts.

4. 04
   Rogue

   Daggers, speed and big hits from behind. Low health, so every mistake counts.

5. 05
   Cleric

   Heals and protects the party. Low damage alone, but no group wants to run a dungeon without one.

6. 06
   Ranger

   Tames animals that fight beside them and tracks mobs through the wild.

7. 07
   Alchemist

   Throws potions that weaken enemies or help allies, and brews what other classes need.

8. 08
   Paladin

   A mix of warrior and cleric: less damage than one and less healing than the other, but hard to kill.

• Let players try a class before they commit, for example at a training ground near spawn.
• Allow one free class change, then make changes cost time or in-game money.
• Test each class alone and in a group of three before launch, and write down how long a dungeon takes.

Skills and levels

Levels show players how far they have come. The simplest system is skills that grow by doing: mining raises Mining, fighting with a sword raises Swords. mcMMO works this way, with skills for gathering, combat and crafting, abilities that unlock as a skill rises, and a power level that adds all skills together.

Early levels should come fast, so a new player feels progress in the first hour. Later levels can take days. If players reach the top in a week, add a new zone or a new season before they run out of goals; the season reset guide explains how to reward the players who got there.

Quests and characters

Quests tell players where to go next. Give them to characters in towns, not to a menu, so the world feels alive. Citizens places characters that are not players, with their own names and skins, and quest plugins connect to them to hand out and check quests.

1. 01
   Hunt

   Defeat a number of mobs, such as ten spiders in the old mine.

2. 02
   Gather

   Bring back items, such as wheat for the baker or iron for the smith.

3. 03
   Deliver

   Carry a letter or a package to a character in the next town.

4. 04
   Explore

   Find a place on the map, such as a hidden shrine or a ruined tower.

5. 05
   Escort

   Keep a character alive on the road while mobs attack.

6. 06
   Boss

   Defeat the creature at the end of a dungeon and bring back proof.

1. Write a short chain for each zone: three to five quests that end at the zone's dungeon.
2. Keep quest text short. Two sentences and a clear goal beat a page nobody reads.
3. Reward each quest with something useful right away, such as experience, in-game money or a piece of gear.
4. Add daily or weekly quests for players who have finished the chains.

Quests are the easiest place to tell your server's story. The lore guide shows how to hide history in quest text, books and builds.

Dungeons and bosses

Dungeons are where classes, levels and gear come together. MythicMobs creates custom mobs with their own abilities, drops and behaviour, which is what turns a room full of zombies into a boss fight players talk about.

1. Pick a theme and a level range, such as a flooded temple for levels 25 to 35.
2. Build a short path with three or four rooms, each with a different kind of fight.
3. Add a puzzle or a hidden room, so a dungeon is not only fighting.
4. End with a boss that has two or three attacks players can learn to dodge.
5. Give the boss a loot table, and a cooldown so the same party cannot farm it all day.
6. Protect the whole dungeon from building and breaking, and reset it after each run.

Loot tiers and custom items

Loot is the reward for everything above, so it needs a clear ladder. Most RPG servers use rarity tiers with a colour for each, so players know at a glance whether a drop is worth keeping.

ItemsAdder adds custom items, blocks and textures through a resource pack that players download when they join, with no mods needed. Keep stats on gear from dungeons and quests only. Selling stronger gear in a store turns an RPG server into pay to win, and store items should stay cosmetic, as the ranks guide explains.

Build the world in levelled zones

An RPG world works best as a path. Players start in a safe town, and each zone further away has stronger mobs, better loot and a dungeon at its edge. Minecraft's own biomes make natural zones: fields, forest, desert, jungle, snow, ocean and finally the Nether and the End.

• Build the starter town first, with the class trainers, a quest giver, a shop and a portal or road to the first zone.
• Show the level of each zone on signs at the border, so nobody walks into a zone far above their level by accident.
• Add fast travel between towns once players have reached them, so they do not have to walk back every time.
• Leave room for new zones. The best time to add one is just before most players reach the current top level.

DeluxeMenus builds menus for class selection, fast travel and quest lists. The spawn ideas guide has more on guiding new players out of the starter town.

Keep players levelling

The hardest part of an RPG server is the top level. Players who reach it with nothing left to do leave, and they often take their party with them. Plan for them before launch.

• Rotate weekly bosses and raids, with loot that only drops that week.
• Run events that use the RPG systems, such as a double experience weekend or a boss invasion in town. The event ideas guide has more.
• Add cosmetic titles and particle effects for maxed skills, so reaching the top is visible.
• Keep a leaderboard of the highest levels and update it every week.
• Start a new season with a new zone when progress slows down.

How to show your top players on your website

Several templates in the website builder come with a Leaderboard section: Skyblock on its Top islands page, Prison on the home page and the Ladder page, Factions on the home page and the Season page, and Creative on the home page. Turn it into a list of your highest level players, so reaching the top of your RPG server shows up outside the game as well.

1. 01

   Open the page with the Leaderboard

   Go to Website in the server panel of Astroworld Hosting or minecrafthosting.cc, open the editor and click the Leaderboard section.

2. 02

   Write the label and heading

   Set the Label and Heading to something that fits your server, such as Top adventurers and The highest levels this season.

3. 03

   Set the column heading

   Change Column heading to what the numbers are, such as Power level or Level. The value field of each place takes that name.

4. 04

   Add the top players

   Under Places, use Add place for each player and fill in the Name and the level. The order in the editor is the order on the page, so put the highest level first.

5. 05

   Update it every week

   The leaderboard does not fill itself: you keep it up to date. Copy the top players from your in-game ranking, such as /mctop in mcMMO, once a week.

6. 06

   Publish the leaderboard

   Press Publish. Our team checks every change before it goes live, so publish a day before you announce the weekly winners.