Installing the Dungeons and Taverns Mod on Your Minecraft Server

What This Mod Adds

After a few hundred hours in Minecraft, even the most stunning landscapes start to feel familiar. Once you and your friends have raided every village and lit up every stronghold, the vanilla world runs out of surprises. That is where Dungeons and Taverns comes in. Available for both Forge and Fabric, it sprinkles over twenty new structures across your world, each filled with loot ranging from enchanted gear to stacks of valuable ore.

Some of the new builds are small detours. Others are sprawling complexes that fit a specific biome and require real preparation to clear. The mod plays nicely with a standard server setup, and the HolyHosting panel takes care of most of the heavy lifting so you can focus on actually exploring. This guide walks through downloads, client install, server install, what to do in-game, and the usual issues that come up along the way.

Downloading the Files

Grab the mod and its dependency from CurseForge before touching either Minecraft instance.

• Open the Dungeons and Taverns page on CurseForge and select Files from the top menu.

• Find the Minecraft version that matches your server, then click the three vertical dots on that row.

• Hit Download File and save the JAR somewhere you can find again in two minutes.

• Repeat the download process for Structure Essentials, which is a hard dependency. If you are running Fabric, the Fabric API is also required.

Without the dependency, nothing loads. It is the most common reason this mod fails to start.

Setting Up the Client

You need Forge or Fabric already installed on your launcher before the mod can do anything useful. Once that profile exists, the rest is drag and drop.

• Launch Minecraft and open the Installations tab at the top.

• Locate the Forge or Fabric profile you plan to use and click the folder icon next to it.

• Enter the `mods` folder. If it does not exist yet, create one with that exact name.

• Drag the two downloaded JAR files into the folder and return to the launcher.

• Pick the modded profile and press Play to confirm everything loads without errors.

If the game crashes here, it is almost always a version mismatch between Forge or Fabric and the mod JARs.

Setting Up the Server

The server side mirrors the client. You will need a Forge or Fabric server already running on the version that matches the mod. Set this using your panel's version selector, restart once so the loader generates its files, then move on to the mod itself.

• Open your control panel and open the FTP or file manager section.

• Enter your password and press Login.

• Open the `mods` directory and use the Upload button in the upper left.

• Drag both JAR files into the upload area and wait for the progress bar to reach 100%.

• Back in your panel, generate a fresh world and restart the server so the new structures can spawn from scratch.

The world generation step matters. Pre-existing chunks will not contain any of the new buildings. We will come back to this point in the troubleshooting section.

Exploring the World

Once everyone logs in, the lucky players will spawn right next to a new structure. The rest of us have to find a tavern first. Taverns hold the maps that point to the rarer locations, so they are the natural starting point. If you have cheats or operator rights, the `/locate` command will skip the search entirely, but doing it the long way is half the fun.

Dungeons and Taverns adds buildings on the surface, deep underground, and across the Nether. Below is a quick tour of what to expect and how each piece fits together.

Tracking Down a Tavern

Taverns look like oversized village houses with several rooms, each stocked with useful supplies. One of those rooms holds a chest containing one to three treasure maps. Those maps are the shortcut to every other structure in the mod, though you can also stumble onto things naturally if you prefer organic exploration.

Taverns generate in essentially every biome, from birch forests to deserts, and they sometimes appear within walking distance of spawn. Wander outward from your starting point for a few minutes and there is a fair chance you find one. Worst case, you trip over a different structure first and skip the tavern step entirely.

Reading the Maps

The chest inside a tavern usually has two or three maps along with food and a handful of building blocks. Take the unique ones and leave any duplicates behind, since duplicates point to the same destination. Each map sends you toward something different, whether that is an illager outpost or a ruined town.

While holding a map, watch the white dot. That is you. Walk in the direction of the red X, using a compass if cardinal directions confuse you. Once you arrive at the marked area, the map has done its job and can be tossed.

The Structures Themselves

Around twenty different builds are scattered across the world. Most appear in any biome, but a handful are biome-locked and can be a pain to track down without a map. Here are a few of the highlights worth looking out for.

Illager Encampments

The illager campsite is the small, common variant. A handful of chests, a few defenders, and one trapped villager who can occasionally be repurposed into a respectable trading hall. It is not glamorous loot, but the villager alone is worth the visit if you are building an enchanted book farm.

The badlands miner outpost is the dramatic version. Multiple floors, illagers on every level, and chests with unique collectibles tucked at the back. Bring proper armor before you commit. It is biome-locked to the badlands, so you will probably find it via a tavern map rather than by accident.

Forts and Ruins

The stray fort sits in snowy biomes and resembles an oversized village fortified with stone. Plenty of chests to loot and a layout that works surprisingly well as a starter base if you are okay with the cold.

The jungle ruined city is the showpiece. Sprawling buildings, armor stands, lootable chests, and mobs scattered through the rooms. The sheer size of it makes the first visit memorable. Show up prepared and you will leave with a respectable inventory.

Underground Builds

While mining, you may break into a bunker. Small, enclosed, a few rooms, and not exactly thrilling, but the loot is decent and it makes for an easy underground base if you do not feel like building from scratch. Bring torches. These places are dark.

Undead crypts are the headline underground structure and probably the most-loved addition in the entire mod. They are large, full of mob spawners, lined with chests, and visually inspired by Minecraft Dungeons. Bring friends. Make a farm afterward. The crypts justify the rest of the mod on their own.

Everything Else

Beyond the categories above, you will find towers, custom Nether fortresses, and assorted smaller builds with the usual mix of loot and hostile mobs. The mod does not add new items, blocks, or entities, so everything you pull out of these chests is standard vanilla. That is intentional. The point is more places to go, not more inventory clutter.

Common Issues

If the game refuses to launch or you cannot connect to the server, the cause is usually one of three things.

First, the Structure Essentials dependency. It is required on both client and server, and skipping it on either side causes immediate failures. Double check that both JARs are sitting in the right `mods` folder.

Second, version mismatches. The mod JAR, the Forge or Fabric loader, and Minecraft itself all need to line up. If anything is off, expect crashes during world load. Also make sure the client has enough memory allocated. The launcher defaults are sometimes too conservative for modded play.

Third, conflicts with other worldgen mods. Biomes O' Plenty and similar packs occasionally fight with Dungeons and Taverns over chunk generation. If your console points at worldgen errors, try removing other structure or biome mods one at a time to isolate the culprit. If nothing obvious shows up, reach out to support and they can walk through the logs with you.

One last thing. The mod modifies world generation, which means a freshly generated world is required to see everything. Existing worlds still get the new structures, but only in chunks that have not been loaded yet. Walk a few thousand blocks out from spawn before you give up and assume it is broken.

Useful Links

• Dungeons and Taverns on CurseForge
• How to Add Mods to a Minecraft Server
• Becoming a Minecraft Server Operator
• Generating a New Minecraft Server World