Housing

Getting a home, who may come in, how merchants build and furnish it, special rooms and deeds, storage, upkeep, and farms.

A home is a private, persistent space of your own. It begins as a single entrance room and grows from there: free standard rooms in an allotment that grows with the home, and special rooms unlocked with deeds that give storage, crafting stations, rest and other services. You may own several properties at once, and houses lists every one.

Building inside a home is a merchant's work. You choose what to build and pay for deeds; a merchant of the guild you engage does the building.

Getting a home#

There are two kinds of home.

A neighborhood home costs nothing. Stand in a housing neighborhood, such as Tidewhisper Waterside in Aurin, and type movein. You own one home in each neighborhood, and typing movein where you already have one takes you back to it. A neighborhood home holds up to thirteen rooms and has no upkeep.

A merchant of the guild can also deed you a home of your own on one of the Land Office's building plots. plots homes lists them, nearest first. Each home opens its own door off the plot, named for its owner and its kind, as in "bramwick's cottage". You may keep one home of each kind on a plot and up to ten Land Office homes in all. The merchant offers the home with buildhome, and you agree before any coin moves.

These are the list prices; the Guild Tariff can change them, so check tariff. A grander home holds more rooms and unlocks the costlier special rooms.

You may hold up to twenty properties of all kinds together.

Upkeep#

The Land Office bills every home and farm a merchant has deeded you once a day, whether you are in the game or not.

• While you are in the game, the bill comes out of your bank at once, and out of the coin you carry if the bank runs short.
• While you are away, the bill waits on the deed and is drawn from your bank the moment you log in. Keep coin in the bank and you never fall behind.
• A bill that cannot be paid when it is presented leaves the deed in arrears. You are warned then, at every login and every day you are in the game, and the bill is tried again each time.
• Fourteen days after the first warning, a deed still in arrears is foreclosed: the property is pulled down with everything left in it, and the debt goes with it.

Banking enough coin, or typing houses pay, clears the arrears and stops the clock. You are never foreclosed on without a warning. houses shows each property's daily upkeep, anything it owes and how many days are left. A property that owes upkeep cannot be transferred to another player until it is paid.

Coming and going#

Your door is locked. It lets in you, the guests on your list, a tenant while a lease runs, a merchant you have engaged to build there, and staff. Open the house and it lets in anyone. A pet, hero or other follower comes in or stays out with the player it belongs to.

In a housing neighborhood, house takes you to your own home there and house <player> visits someone else's, if you are invited or the house is open. A Land Office home or a farm is entered through its own door on its plot.

Standing inside your own home, invite shows your guest list and whether the house is open. invite <player> adds a guest and invite remove <player> takes one off; a guest removed while inside is not thrown out, but cannot come back, and one who logs in inside your home after being removed wakes in the Explorer's Guild Lounge instead. invite open lets in anyone and invite close shuts the house to all but your guests.

A guest may come and go, rest in your bedrooms, relax in your comfort rooms and put things into your stores, but only you, and a tenant, can take anything out.

A merchant can also let you one of their own homes for a term. See help tenancy.

Building with a merchant#

Bring a merchant who knows renovation (a merchant skill learned at level 44) into your home and, standing there, type invite renovator <merchant>. The engagement lasts a week, until you release them with invite renovator remove <merchant>, or until they finish with renovate done. Up to three merchants can be engaged on one dwelling. It lets the merchant in to build and nothing else: they are not your guest, take nothing from your stores and do not rest there. They may name a fee for the work, which you agree to before any coin moves.

The merchant does every piece of work with renovate, using the words of pbuild:

• build <dir> <name> raises a standard room off the room they stand in.
• short, long, day and night name and describe the room; smell, listen, touch and taste set what it offers each sense, and <sense> <item> sets a sense for one thing; item <name> adds something to look at.
• object <name> places a piece of decor, station <type> adds a station, cellar stores decor away or fetches it back, ambient <0-100> sets the light level and climate <indoor|outdoor> sets whether the room counts as inside.
• exit <dir> <room> links rooms, door <dir> hangs a door, and remove takes away a room, sense, item, exit, door, object or station.
• special <type> <dir> raises a special room you hold the deed for.

Exits only ever join rooms of the same dwelling; nothing opens onto the wider world. The entrance room is fixed: it can be decorated, but its way out to the street cannot be removed. Anything typed line by line ends with a full stop on a line of its own, and it saves only if you are still in the room where you began.

You keep what reads and switches without a merchant. pbuild rooms shows how many standard rooms you have used of your allotment, pbuild preview lists every room of the dwelling, pbuild list shows the current room's details, pbuild check its building id, and pbuild lights on or pbuild lights off lights or darkens it. You also place your own staff with pbuild place <staff>. decorate is another name for pbuild.

A merchant who knows renovation builds in a home of their own with no one to engage: they type the pbuild words directly.

Special rooms and deeds#

A special room needs a deed. A merchant sells it to you with selldeed, standing with you, and you agree to the price before anything is paid. You must already hold a home grand enough for the room, with space for it. A deed is good for one build; to fit the same room in two homes, buy its deed twice. Raising the room spends the deed and costs nothing more, though the building merchant may charge a fee. A deed you will never use can be sold back to a merchant who sells that kind, for half its list price.

pbuild special lists the deeds you hold and can build now. pbuild special catalog shows every room you could buy a deed for, including those that need a grander home, so you know what to work toward.

Each room has its own help entry: help vaultroom, help greenhouse and so on.

pbuild staff lists the staff contracts you hold, pbuild staff catalog shows every role you could hire, and pbuild place <staff> puts one in the room you stand in.

Storage#

Storage rooms keep belongings safe up to a fixed number of items. Stand in one and store <item> or store all puts things away (worn and wielded gear is skipped), list shows what is held and how full the room is, and borrow <number> or borrow all takes things back. Each room takes one kind of thing.

Crafting, rest and comfort#

A forge, kitchen, workshop, apothecary or scriptorium is a permanent crafting station. Stand in it and use your usual crafting commands; no portable bench is needed.

repose in a bedroom or guest room rests you fully, and relax in a bath, library, shrine, garden or similar room refreshes you and gives a small boon. You and your guests can use both. repose can be used again after three minutes, or a minute and a half with a maid on staff, and relax after five.

Demolishing#

A merchant can tear down a single room with renovate remove <room>. houses remove <number> pulls down a whole property: every room of it, its deed and its door to the street. Anyone inside is turned out to the street first, but anything left in its stores is lost. It cannot be undone, so you must type DEMOLISH to confirm. To pass a property to someone else instead, change its owner at the Notary.

Farms#

A farm is a working property: livestock in pens and crops in fields that yield goods you can sell. A merchant deeds it to you on one of the Land Office's farm plots (plots farms), and you hold one farm at a time. Pens are bought as deeds and raised by a merchant like a home's special rooms. Farms pay daily upkeep on the same terms as homes. farm shows your land, pens, stock, feed, goods and upkeep, and help farm explains the rest.

Clan halls#

A clan's hall is separate from a personal home. It begins as a one room Abode and is built up a tier at a time by a merchant as the clan rises, to as many as forty rooms. See Clans.

Related systems#

• Clans for the clan hall and who may enter it.
• Economy for banks, which pay your upkeep.
• Companions for the pets a stable, kennel or mews can house.