Introduction
These are the rules for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. They are in place to keep players safe and to ensure that playing our games is an enjoyable experience for everyone. The rules also help Jagex (the makers of the RuneScape games) deal with cheating and other activities that might ruin things for players who choose to play fairly.
The Rules of RuneScape
We provide these rules so you can understand that if you break any of these rules your game account might be muted (so you can’t chat in game) or banned (so you can’t play at all).
Real World Trading
Real World trading (RWT) means buying or selling in the real world, for real money, things that relate to Jagex accounts. This includes:
- In-game items
- In-game Gold (GP)
- Account names
In addition, paying someone to play your account for you is covered by this rule.
Everything in RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, including the account(s) you use to play the game, are owned by Jagex. Players are given permission to use these accounts by Jagex. However, Jagex do not give permission to anybody to sell or buy things that relate to Jagex accounts.
People who sell items or Gold (GP) often obtain them by:
- Cheating or macroing, often known as ‘botting’
- Hijacking (also known as 'hacking') other players accounts and taking their items
If you buy things from Real World Traders, you are also encouraging cheating and account hijacking.
People that sell game items, Gold (GP) and account names for real money are breaking the law. You can’t be sure that they will keep your information safe or even provide you with the things you have tried to buy.
If you provide them with payment details they may use your details to make purchases without your permission - also known as 'fraud.' If you provide them with personal information (this means any information that could be used to identify you in the real world, including your name, date of birth, email address, user name, login details, etc.) they may use that information without your permission in the future.
Macroing and third-party software/hardware
People also call this ‘botting.' It means using software or hardware that can help you play the game with the software or hardware doing things for you that you should be doing yourself. Our games are meant to be played by humans - if you cheat, you are likely to be banned, even if it is the first time you have broken the rules.
The people and companies who make cheating software do not care about your game account. They may lie to you and say that the software they offer ‘can not be detected‘ or is ‘ban proof’. This is not true. Jagex employ a team of people whose job it is to identify when players are cheating and the same team are always improving the tools they use so that all types of cheating can be detected.
If you have any doubt that something you are thinking of using could be considered breaking this rule our advice is to not use it. Play the game yourself, making sure you are in control of everything. It is simply not worth taking the risk.
Further Detail
Note: Our rules are written in clear language so that everybody can understand them easily. However, IN THIS SECTION, we’ve used some technical words and explanations because it is necessary to explain exactly what is not allowed in software.
Software that is not allowed includes anything that:
- Tries to interact with our game worlds without logging in.
- Tries to look at or change the communications between your device and our game worlds.
- Performs things in-game for you that you're meant to be doing yourself.
- Changes parts of our game. Copying the code we use to run our games is not allowed. Using edited versions of our game code is not allowed. Other software that shows pages or content from our website(s) must not be used to go to our website unless the software follows all of our other rules.
- Repeatedly asks for information from our website or is extremely demanding on our website. Each page on our website should only load if you open the page yourself.
- Gets around the normal steps used to log in. Any software should make sure you log in as normal to reach a game world.
- Hides or supports the hiding of any of the adverts on our website.
- Tries to make it easier to enter a busy game world than it would be for users not using the software.
- Has its own chat feature separate from our game chat that does not follow our rules. If the software has a chat function, then it should make it very clear to users that this chat is not part of our games and is not official, supported by, or moderated by Jagex Limited ("Jagex") This chat should still be moderated (just not by us), and the moderators should not allow chat that does not follow our rules set out on this page. Silver or gold crowns should also only be used to identify moderators in the official game chat.
- Uses any of the unacceptable features specifically banned in our Message About Unofficial Clients which can be found here
Inappropriate Language or Behaviour
We want our community to be fun and welcoming for all our players, so text that is considered inappropriate should not be used in our games. To be clear:
- It is against the rules to use chat that is likely to upset other players, using slurs, slang words and other inappropriate phrases that target specific people or groups
- Unacceptable chat includes bullying and harassment. We expect all players to treat each other with respect, and targeted ‘chat’ attacks between players will not be tolerated
- Some topics are not appropriate to be discussed in our games, including all illegal content (illustrative examples of which are set out above).
- Spamming/flooding the chat window. By this, we mean to fill the chat window with text that is not related to game play
- It is also against the rules to regularly and persistently use a lot of swear/cuss words
We understand that players may use the odd ‘bad word’ from time to time. Nobody will get into trouble for light swearing; but if the language used is very strong and persistent we may apply a mute to your account.
Any player who may feel uncomfortable can use their Ignore List against players who are causing offense, or apply chat filters to automatically block the majority of well-known swear/cuss words.
Solicitation
It is not okay to ask for a boyfriend or girlfriend in-game. This is not a dating website after all!
Games of Chance
You must not advertise, organise, promote, or take part in any games of chance. Games of chance are games that depend more on luck than skill, they are mostly games that people bet on. For example, situations where in-game Gold (GP) or items are traded with the promise that you will receive additional in-game Gold (GP) or items in return, if you correctly guess the outcome or result of the game being offered.
Some of these ‘games of chance’ are offered by macro accounts. These are accounts in game that look like other players but are not run by a human and are programmed to offer games of chance. It is against the rules to use and run these macro/bot accounts and for players to interact with them.
Any websites or services that provide you with the opportunity to offer game items or Gold (GP) on games of chance are not official or supported by Jagex in any way. Using these unofficial websites and services supports the flow of items and Gold (GP) to Real World Traders and as such we may ban any accounts involved in this type of activity.
It is often the case that the rules of games of chance are not clear, or the game of chance being played is not fair and heavily stacked in the favour of one side. There is also no guarantee that the person offering the game of chance will keep their side of the deal or pay you if you win. They may also mislead you and tell you that have not won, even if you have.
In addition, accounts that promote and offer games of chance often spam the chat window making it hard for real players to enjoy game play, carry out trading and chat with friends.
Scamming
It is against the rules to try and obtain items or Gold (GP) from other players by scamming them. By ‘scamming’ we mean tricking or deceiving other players for your own advantage. Although scams come in many forms, these are some common examples of behaviour that could lead to your account being muted or banned for scamming:
- Asking other players to give you something with the promise that they will receive something in return and then not supplying it
- Deliberately lying or misleading someone about an item to inflate it’s value. For example, claiming an item is rare and valuable when it is not
- Not carrying out a trade as agreed. For example, agreeing to pay 100m Gold (GP) and then only offering 10m Gold (GP) in the hope the change won’t be noticed
- Trying to get other players to accept a trade that is very unfair, by tricking them into not removing items they have placed in the trade window, but did not intend to trade to you
- Asking another player to trade you anything in order to ‘trust you’ or for some other thing to happen (such as winning a prize for trading the most valuable items)
- Saying that you will trade back more Gold (GP) in a second trade than you are given in a first trade (often called ‘doubling money’)
- Tricking or deceiving a player into entering a dangerous area
- Tricking or deceiving a player into dropping items or Gold (GP)
- Pretending to help a player who someone is attempting to scam by telling them how to ‘scam the scammer’, which still leads to the original player being scammed anyway (this is known as ‘anti-lure’ and is a scam in itself)
- ‘Extorting’ Gold (GP) or items from a player as payment for the scammer to stop doing something. For example, to stop attacking monsters you are trying to kill or to leave you alone and allow you to do something without interruption
- Talking about ‘giving money away’ on the condition that a player must post a comment on a forum or comment on a video. These websites are usually fake copies of official sites and are designed to trick players into logging into them with their game account details, which will lead to their account being hijacked
- Anything else that uses scamming techniques, dishonesty, misdirection or similar and results in a player losing items or wealth that they did not expect to lose
It is not possible to multi-log and move Gold (GP) or items between the RuneScape and Old School RuneScape games. There are players who will offer to help you do this and this process is generally known as ‘swapping’.
Swapping (if not linked to any other type of rule breaking) is not against the rules - however it does carry large risks. As a result we highly recommend that you don't attempt to ‘swap.'
There is no safe way to 'swap' and there are many things that can go wrong. If there is a problem with an agreement you have made with someone in relation to ‘swapping' Jagex will not be able to help.
In general, please bear in mind that ’if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.' By this we mean that if you are offered a way to earn some items or Gold (GP) quickly and easily by another player it is probably a scam and you’ll end up losing out.
Buying/Selling and Sharing Accounts
Players must not share, transfer or lend their account to anyone else. You may have as many game accounts as you like, but each account should only be used by the person who created it. All game accounts are the property of Jagex and players are only granted limited permission to use accounts. Nobody has our permission to sell accounts.
If you buy an account, it’s likely that the seller will take it back from you after you have already put time, resources and effort into it.
For another player to use your account they will require your login details. This means your account security is weakened. If you allow somebody else to access your account they might steal items or Gold (GP) from you or even try to claim the account belongs to them so they can keep using it forever. In addition, if they cheat or break our rules using your account they could get your account muted or banned for things that you haven’t done.
Sharing accounts is also a form of cheating. This is because sharing an account with somebody else gives you an unfair advantage. Completing challenging achievements and appearing on the HiScores is recognition of individual effort, and should only apply to players who stick to the rules and play fairly.
Advertising Websites
By ‘advertising’ we mean using chat in game that mentions websites, or chat that could lead people to websites, that are not appropriate to be shared in our games. This means websites that offer (not a full list:)
- Gold (GP) selling
- In-game item selling
- Cheating and macroing services
- Private servers
- Account services
- Accounts for sale
Inappropriate advertising also includes links related to ‘gambling’, 'phishing' (fake sites designed to steal your account details) or sites that host illegal and adult content.
Some of these websites can contain viruses and keyloggers designed to steal information from you or weaken your account security. You may also see websites being promoted as part of the 'giving money away' scam mentioned in the 'Scamming' section above.
It is not against the rules to mention websites that are in common use and are generally accepted to be safe, such as ‘Google’ – but if you are ever visiting a website you have seen mentioned by another player, take steps to access the site directly yourself rather than using any links provided to you, even if the link looks genuine and the websites appear to be official.
Multiple Logging-In
You are free to create as many accounts as you like, and you are welcome to trade between your accounts just as you would with any other player - you can log into two accounts at the same time to do this if you wish. Trading wealth or items between your own accounts is done entirely at your own risk. We advise that you use the trade system we supply to trade between your own accounts. Unusual trade methods like dropping, death or trust trades are particularly risky and we strongly advise against them.
If any of your accounts obtained items or wealth through rule breaking activity, for example macro use or real-world trading, then all your accounts may be banned.
Also, multi-logged accounts must not interact with each other to gain an unfair advantage in game play, such as ‘rigging’ the result of a minigame. For example, it is against the rules to have a number of accounts in a minigame all controlled by the same person, in order to try and guarantee the minigame outcome.
Jagex Staff Impersonation
Players must not pretend to be Jagex staff in any way for any reason.
Jagex staff will never message you in-game and ask you to visit a website for any reason. Jagex staff in-game will always have a gold crown next to their name in all chat channels. All Jagex staff account names also begin with the word ‘Mod’.
If somebody tells you they work for Jagex and they need you to give them your password or visit a site to become a moderator, talk to you about your account or something else that only Jagex could do, they are not Jagex staff and are trying to scam/hijack you.
Jagex staff can be reported just like any other player, so if you think a Jagex employee is breaking the rules please report it. You won’t get into trouble for reporting staff and genuine Jagex employees will understand players being cautious.
You must not ask any other player for their personal details and you must not provide your personal details to another player if they ask for them.
‘Personal details’ means information that can be used to find or contact you in the real world. This includes:
- Full name
- Email addresses
- Telephone numbers
- Home address
- Your age if you are under 18
- Any other information that could be used to contact or locate you
Giving out personal details may affect the security of your game account or risk your own personal safety. Unfortunately, you can’t trust everyone you meet online, and some people will lie about who they are when you can’t see them face to face.
Very rarely some adults will lie about their real age, gender or other things because they have an unhealthy interest in attempting to contact or meet younger people in the real world and may want to harm them. The only way to stay safe and be sure you are not putting yourself at risk is to not provide any personal information to anyone you meet online.
Exploiting a Bug
Players must not take advantage of any bugs they may find in our games. If you discover a bug, please report it to Jagex.
If you have ‘stumbled’ across a bug do not continue to exploit it. We will not ban anyone who discovers a bug in our game, lets us know about it and then does not use the bug again.
We do ban players who continually exploit a bug, particularly if the bug provides unfair gain or advantage over other players.
If you discover a bug, please don’t share details of it with other players. For example, by sharing the information in game or making a video (or similar) that explains how to exploit the bug.
Encouraging other players to abuse a bug or sharing information about it is treated in the same way as continually abusing the bug yourself and can lead to a ban.
It is against the rules to do the following with bad intent: ‘Testing’ unusual practices and sequences of actions to make the game respond in an unintended way.
It is generally OK to play and use items where a bug is minor and does not give you any advantage. We will not take action against you if you play with a graphical bug that causes your cape to not display properly, for example.
Encouraging Others to Break the Rules
You must not encourage, support, or help anyone else to break any of the rules set out here.
Encouraging or helping others to break the rules is as bad as breaking them yourself. If you encourage someone to break a rule, we treat it as if you are also breaking the same rule yourself (even if you haven't actually broken the rule).
Rules for Fan Sites and Clan Sites
This rule covers any website or similar that is not approved by Jagex but is typically aimed at RuneScape players and is maintained by players with good intent.
These sites are welcomed by Jagex and are an excellent addition to the overall RuneScape community experience. However, to ensure the safety of all our players who may use these sites, each site must comply with the below requirements:
- The site should recognise and reflect our terms and conditions of use
- The site should not promote any activity that is against any of our rules
- The site should not publish any article, text or images taken from any of our websites without our permission
- The site should not link to or promote any adult sites, sites that contain illegal content or host or link to content that might conflict with Jagex interests
The Game Rules - Common Questions
What If I Have Been Muted or Banned?
If a game account you created has been muted or banned by us you may have the right to appeal the penalty. There are some mutes and bans that can’t be appealed, however, these offences are only for the most serious types of rule-breaking or if an extensive investigation has already been completed.
The following links will let you know if you can submit an appeal, and provide you the next steps if you can:
- Read more information about appealing a mute
- Read more information about appealing a ban
When Should I Submit a Report?
You can submit a report to us whenever you feel someone is clearly attempting to break the rules or has broken the rules. Our Support Centre contains a useful guide about how to report rule breaking.
What Happens When I Submit a Report?
We call your report an ‘abuse report’ and we use the information it provides to decide if we need to take any action against the player that has been reported.
We use a mixture of tools to deal with abuse reports. Some reports are dealt with by automated systems and some are reviewed by human moderators who work for Jagex.
Human moderators review every report about really serious issues. For example, where somebody might get hurt in the real world or if a player is using extreme hate language.
We also monitor all chat (even if it is not reported to us) to check for child protection issues. Some Jagex staff who are trained in online safety processes may also access and review any chat logs if we have a reasonable belief that the chat logs contain illegal content. Illegal content includes but is not limited to harassment, threats, discrimination, intimate image abuse, sexual exploitation, terrorism, coercive behaviour and encouraging suicide. We use a mixture of automated systems and human moderators to identify and act on illegal content. You can read more about the limited ways we monitor chat in Section 5 of our Terms and Conditions.
How Do I Deal With Issues That Are Not Breaking the Rules?
When playing our games your ‘Ignore List’ will allow you to avoid another player so you won’t see their chat and they can’t get in touch with you. It’s a bit like ‘blocking’ someone on your phone; and is a good way of dealing with players who might be annoying you but are not breaking our rules.
However, should you see a player who is clearly breaking any of the rules outlined above, you can always report the issue to us.
What if I am Really Worried About Another Player?
If you are worried about another player because you think they might harm themselves or other people you should contact your local Police force - even if you do not know much about the player you are worried about.
Police Officers can contact Jagex by email at lawcontact@jagex.com if they need help from us to keep someone safe. Please note we may not respond to any emails sent to our law contact address unless they are sent to us by a Police Officer.
Other Things You Need to Know
- By using a game account you agree to follow these rules
- If you do not agree to follow these rules you should not use a game account to play our games
- These rules are set out to cover the most common things which are banned. However, as all accounts belong to Jagex, we may choose to mute or ban an account for any reason at any time, even if that reason is not covered by these rules
- In addition to these Game Rules, you must also follow our terms and conditions of use ("Terms"), privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") and the end-user license agreement ("EULA")
