Player-Owned Houses

One of the ways for a character to show his or her connection to Sigil (or elsewhere) is by

• Buying an apartment. For those who aren't swimming in money and want to experience the joy of homeownership, within the Hive Ward near the Lower Ward entrance, is a building called the Slagslide apartment. Players can buy one of these apartments.
• Building a house. We allow our players to create their own houses and also buy existing houses. In the rest of this article, we will refer to player-owned dwellings as "houses", although they could just as easily be an apartment, a cave, a shop, a wizard's tower, or any number of things.

Buying an Apartment (Hive Ward)

1. Inside the building is the landlord's chamber, a two-tile area which doubles as a sample apartment. For 40,000 jink (a discount over making your own), you can purchase one of the apartments (there are 7 to start with, 3 on the ground floor and 4 more upstairs) and have it furnished exactly like the landlord's chamber (in other words, you buy the key, and I copy-and-paste your room's contents at the next update). 2. For 50,000 jink (the going price for Hive real estate), you can create your own two-tile area in toolset and have it copied-and-pasted into the room. Additionally priced features like back entrances and crafting benches are NOT available in this option.

With either of these options you will be given the ability to have your name on the door and a waypoint signifying your ownership on the area map.

Building a House

1. To own a house, a character must be able to afford the cost of building or remodeling. A house is not something for the been-around-a-week character, but for those who have been an integral part of the server though extended play. Houses can be quite expensive; a price list can be found below.
2. It's up to the character's player to provide the actual area of the house. The DM team is happy to set up a working door from whatever area your house is in, but the player is the one responsible for building the area themself (although of course if they have a friend who is experienced in the toolset, they can have someone else build it for them). I could even see someone skilled in the toolset creating an "interior designer" or "homebuilder" character and charging in-game for this service.
3. Due to file size and server overhead, only interior areas are allowed.
4. The player can choose who he or she gives keys to. However, the DM team will not be responsible for taking keys away from others, so please be cognizant of this when giving out keys.
5. Houses can include both private and public areas. Public areas are those that anyone can visit at any time such as a shop, tavern, or guildhall; a 50% discount is available for public spaces within a player's house. Of course, a keyed door or transition can separate the private and public areas of a house.
6. We don't recommend having two characters played by the same player being homeowners; this should be discussed with a member of the DM team first. In the occasion where this is granted, both houses will need to be created within the same area to avoid proliferation of areas.
7. Currently, interactive objects (aside from KEMO chairs, interactive lights, and objects with transitions) are not allowed within player houses. This includes NPCs, monsters, merchants, containers, or objects with conversations.
8. Houses are priced "per tile". This actually means per tile used for the house, not by the actual area size. So even if your area is 4x4, if you only have 6 actual tiles laid down, you'll pay for six tiles and not 16. Interior tiles are 9 meters by 9 meters.
9. The house must be paid in full before keys will be given out. Houses can, of course, be owned by a group of characters rather than a single character.
10. Any attempts to use a house to cheat (hiding magic items or gold in a dresser, applying scripts to objects, etc.) will result in the player being blocked from having a house. We're going to look at everything you include, so please don't try any shenanigans.
11. A factor or higher rank in a Faction may petition to add living quarters onto the faction headquarters (this will be accessed via a keyed door). This will be at DM discretion, however.

Home Pricing

Just like in the real world, it's all about "Location, Location, Location". The price of your house will depend upon several things, but the primary driver of cost will be where it's situated. The same house will be considerably more expensive in the Lady's Ward than in the Hive, and of course any work done in uncivilized areas will require expenditures. Certain features can be added to a house for an additional cost; these are outlined below. Prices are, of course, subject to change. Please note: we will not be placing houses in adventuring areas.

Tier1: 25,000 per tile

Hive Ward, Undersigil Village: these are the least desirable IC locations, so of course they're going to be the cheapest.

Tier 2: 35,000 per tile

Lower Ward, Death of Innocence (Niflheim): slightly more desirable, but still notably lower-class.

Tier 3: 50,000 per tile

Clerks Ward, City of Brass, Dead God's Rock: a finer address you wouldn't be embarrassed to admit you lived in.

Tier 4: 65,000 per tile

Other Extraplanar Location: this could include places such as the cave of the dead in the Grey Wastes, the Serpent pool in Minauros, and so on. Locations will be left to the discretion of the DMs, but it's likely to be allowed as long as it's not inside an adventure area or designated resting zone.

Tier 5: 75,000 per tile

Lady's Ward or Keyed Portal Access: living the life of luxury! A "keyed portal" means your dwelling will exist on another plane and be accessed by a portal, much as those that connect to adventure areas, which will use a keyed object (which will be publicly available). The placement of this portal will be at the discretion of the DM team (i.e., we don't want everybody putting their portal in front of the Foul Olde Spirit), but the player of course is allowed to have a preference.

Building Addition Surcharge: Minimum 25,000

This surcharge exists when a new building must be added to make room for your home. This is most applicable for people who build in planar locations. A small entrance such as a cave mouth or trap door will incur the minimum price, while a large building like a manor or wizard's tower will most likely be in excess of 100,000. This surcharge will be applied at the discretion of the administration.

Workbench Surcharge: 10,000 per working bench

This refers to benches used in crafting, and can be placed in the private or public portion of a house.

Extra Entrance Surcharge: Minimum 25,000

If you want more than one way in and out of your house, you're going to have to pay for it. The possibility of this of course is also dependent upon the house's location, and entrances on more than one map (such as a front door in the Lady's and a back door in the Lower) will be considerably more expensive. Please note that the entrances must be connected to areas that are plausibly physically near each other - i.e. this does not allow for portals between planes. A house with multiple entrances will be valued by the most expensive area it connects to.

Redecoration Surcharge: 25,000

If changes are desired to be made to an existing house, this charge, as well as the cost of any additional tiles, will be charged. This must be paid before the edits are made to the server.

Examples

Joe the Barbarian wants to build a house. However, he also wants to include an area for his newly formed "Planar Berserkers' Guild". He chooses to build his home in the Clerk's Ward, and after creating it in the toolset there are six private tiles and six public tiles. Because one of his close friends is an enchanter, he also chooses to place a magician's workbench in his house. Thus, he pays 50,000 for each of the private tiles (total 300,000) and 25,000 for each public tile (total 150,000), plus a 10,000 surcharge for the bench, resulting in a total home cost of 460,000.

Rick the Cleric, on the other hand, wants to erect his own house and Temple in Elysium. Making an area with eight private and four public tiles, Rick decides to include an alchemist's workbench. Because his area has no existing buildings, he also needs to place a stair to reach the area. He pays 65,000 for each of the private tiles (total 520,000) and 32,500 for each public tile (total 130,000), plus surcharges for the bench (10,000) and the building addition (25,000), resulting in a total home cost of 685,000.

Al the Assassin has more frugal needs, just a nice hideout in the Hive when the streets are too dangerous after a job. His hideout is only five private tiles; however, the risk of being cornered leads him to add a second door leading onto the street behind the building. He pays 25,000 for each private tile (total 125,000) and an additional 25,000 for the second entrance, for a total home cost of 150,000.

Area Submission Guidelines

Once your house is built, you have the money, and you're ready to have it uploaded, there's a few things to keep in mind:

• The area should be exported from the toolset as an erf. To do this, go to File -> Export, and select the area to be exported. This makes it much easier for the builder to implement. Do NOT send your whole module.
• Currently, houses cannot have npcs, special scripts, items, or containers. If these are included in your submitted erf, they will be stripped out. So, for instance, do not make your house key yourself. If you want to make some areas public and some private, simply tell the builder which interior door(s) need locking.
• Houses should be one area. Do not put separate floors in different areas.
• Houses should be submitted in a tested and finished state. Additional fixes after submission are on very low priority, and will be subjected to the Redecoration Surcharge.
• Remember to name your area, and set your music! Both of these can be set in the area's properties.
• Unless you are paying extra for a custom building, the house entrance will be linked to an already existing and unused door (feel free to send screenshots of the desired location). If you do want a custom exterior, clear it with a builder first to make sure there's actually room and walkmesh space available for the new structure.
• If you want a sign outside your character's house, please send your desired name and description.