Burdenland

Overview

Students will begin by choosing a house to live in and are then guided through several beginner quests to help them get acquainted with the world. They get to choose which jobs they want to do and how much money they want to earn. With the money they earn they may save up for something nice such as armor or weapons. Students will have to budget the money they earn because they are required to pay taxes in order to live in the city. This map is intended for our fourth grade curriculum for students to understand some of the reasons why people wanted to move to America and escape Europe. A big topic we discuss is the differences in government: monarchy vs. democracy.

Jobs (Quests)

Within the world there are almost 50 different jobs that students can do. The jobs are set up using the Custom NPC quest system. Each job has its own requirements and rewards. Most of the jobs pay golden coins and can be started from the NPCs within the city. Normally a student may only complete a certain job once per day. Also, most NPCs offer two jobs and a student can only accept one at a time from a specific NPC. You can accept multiple jobs as long as they are from different NPCs. This way students need to manage their time and decide which jobs they can complete.

Taxes

The system I have in place for students to pay taxes comes as a quest, this quest can only be done once a Minecraft day. Any time a student talks to an NPC within the city they will receive the quest if they have not already completed it in the last 20 minutes (one Minecraft day). The tax money doesn’t actually go anywhere, it just disappears from their inventory.

City

The city has three gates to enter and exit. In the city there is a lower part with mostly houses and the city center which contains a well, the bank, and the spawn point with a map of Burdenland. Located on the east and west side of town are community crafting areas. Towards the back of the city is a potion shop. As you travel to the next highest level you will find the blacksmith shop as well as the community furnaces. Going higher up in the city takes you to the market and the weapon and armor shop. Overlooking the entire city is King Edwards’ castle. The castle is merely a facade and, for some reason, a point of interest for students to break into. However, it is nearly impossible for students to enter and will gain them nothing. Lastly, students are not allowed to dig/build within the city but may do so just a short distance from leaving.

Curfew

King Edwards has imposed a curfew law; all citizens must be back within the city before nightfall so they are safe. Students get quite angry when they are adventuring or doing jobs at night and they die dropping all their belongings. We use this law as a talking point to compare and contrast laws made within a monarchy to laws made within a democracy.

Border

If the students travel far enough they will find a border that won't let them pass. This is to contain the students so they don’t wander too far. Everything they need can be found within the bordered area. The border can be seen high in the sky.

Services

Within the world students will find that there is a bank available to store their things in to keep them safe. There is also a mail carrier that students can use to send and receive mail (this is kind of pointless but once in a while a student may send you a random item). Within the city is the town guard that protects against mobs. The king has also provided roads for students to travel to various points of interest. These are all used as talking points as to where the tax money goes that the students have to pay.

Citizenship

By default there is a scoreboard that will appear on the right of the screen. This tracks who is doing their civic duties and supporting the community. Any time a student completes a job they will receive one point. Students earn ten points for every time they pay their taxes. You may toggle this off by teleporting to the ‘Teacher Area’. I use this tool to keep track of which students are participating or not.

Tips

Strongly encourage students who are new to Minecraft to work in small groups, especially if they are leaving the town to complete quests. By default if a student dies they will drop all their items. I tell them this is a natural consequence for not being prepared with weapons, armor, or working as a group. You may have students who wish to leave the city and build their own houses. Do not let students live outside the city, it really takes away from the simulation. Do however let students be frustrated with the fact that they don’t like living within the city. The students’ frustrations then lead us to our next project: New Burdenland, where students have to build their own settlement and form their own government. I highly suggest you test play this map before unleashing it on your students. There are a lot of details, characters, and places to explore. Above is a link to a google doc containing all this information and specific details on every quest and shop.

Storyline

There is a start to a story but I never completed it….

Mods

Previously to making this world I had downloaded the World of Humanities map. With it comes an ample supply of characters to be used with Custom NPC mod. If the characters are not showing up properly it is because I took some of the characters from that world. You may change what the NPCs look like.