Writing rules for a small Minecraft server

Even a server of five friends runs into the same arguments: someone took diamonds from a shared chest, someone built right next to someone else’s base, someone killed a named pet. Rules written down before the argument are much easier to apply than rules made up during it. This guide is about writing a short list people will actually read, and enforcing it without falling out.

Keep the list short

Nobody reads twenty rules. Five to eight, each one sentence, covers almost every server. A starting set:

1. No griefing or stealing. Do not break, change or take anything that is not yours without permission.
2. Build at least 100 blocks from other people’s bases unless they say it is fine.
3. No PvP without agreement. Fights are fine when both players want them.
4. No cheats or hacked clients. X-ray, fly and kill-aura included. Performance mods and minimaps are fine.
5. No lag machines. Turn off big farms and redstone clocks when you are not using them.
6. Be decent in chat. No harassment, slurs or spamming.
7. Ask before killing named animals or villagers.
8. Admins have the final say, and will explain their decisions.

Adjust them to your server. A hardcore server needs a rule on revives; an anarchy server needs no rules at all and should say so plainly. What matters is that they are written down where everyone can find them.

Where to put them

• A #rules channel in your Discord, pinned.
• Signs or a book at spawn, so players see them in game.
• A line in the MOTD, if there is room. See Server icon and MOTD.
• For new players, a short message when they first join — EssentialsX can show one, and many plugins add a “rules” command.

Decide these before they come up

• Mod and client rules. List what is allowed (minimaps? schematics? auto-clickers for AFK farms?). “No cheats” means different things to different people.
• Shared resources. Who owns the villager hall, the iron farm, the community storage? Who can take from it?
• Inactive players. If someone has not played for three months, can others take over their land? Most servers say no for builds and yes for unclaimed land around them.
• Resets. Will the world ever be reset — for a new Minecraft version, for a new season? Telling players up front avoids feeling cheated later.
• Who the admins are. And what they will not do: for example, admins do not spawn items for themselves.

Enforcing them, step by step

For most problems a word in private is enough. When it is not, use steps that everyone knows about:

1. A warning, with what was wrong. Note it somewhere — a private Discord channel works.
2. A kick — kick Name Reason in the console. They can come straight back, but it gets attention.
3. A temporary ban. Vanilla bans are permanent; plugins such as EssentialsX add tempban Name 1d Reason.
4. A permanent ban — ban Name Reason. pardon Name lifts it.

Deliberate griefing usually skips straight to a ban. Before banning anyone, check the logs — CoreProtect shows exactly who did what, and saves you from punishing the wrong person. See CoreProtect.

Moderators

Once a server has more people than you can watch, pick one or two trusted players as moderators. Give them the commands they need through a permissions plugin — kick, temporary ban, CoreProtect lookups — and not operator. See LuckPerms for beginners. Agree together what each step of enforcement is for, so the rules feel the same whichever admin is online.

The rules are for the players

Rules that are explained get followed. When you add one, say why — “no lag machines, because the server lagged for everyone on Saturday” — and be willing to change rules that turn out not to fit. The goal is a server people want to come back to, not a tidy rulebook.