The Runescape Rules

[jamesvernon]

Rule 15 - Advert Blocking

You must not deliberately block or hide the adverts which appear above the free version of our game. If you have advert blocking software please prevent it from blocking adverts on our website.

Why?

The adverts above the free game are what enable us to keep it free, after all! The sponsors who show their adverts there are the ones paying for you to enjoy a free game in the first place, so please don't block them

What if adverts slow my PC down?

Certain animated adverts may cause your PC to slow down while they are displayed. This is because your computer is busy running the advert animation which gives it less time to run the game.

Most adverts don't cause any noticeable effect, but some with particularly complex animations may cause slowdown. To limit the effect that this has on your system, right click on the advert and under the quality heading, select low.

If there is an advert which is causing particularly bad slow down, even when you set it to low quality, then please report it to us. Click on the Question-Mark "Icon" shown to the bottom right of the advert. This will pop up a window with instructions on how to report that advert.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 14 - Misuse of Official Forums

You must not misuse our Official Forums. The Forum Code of Conduct (Found here) clearly details exactly what is and what is not acceptable behaviour.

Why do we have this rule?

This rule is in place to maintain a fun and friendly atmosphere within the forums. The main purpose of the forums is for players to help each other. This could be by chatting or trading, but always in a safe and secure environment.

Can I promote my fan/clan site in-game/in the forums?

It is a breach of the rules to post anything promoting a website in the forums or in the game. As such, if you do post the URL for your own clan site, you could be banned. We understand this may cause some inconvenience, but please remember that this rule is there to make it impossible for people to send players to scam sites.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 13 - Personal Details

For our players' privacy and safety, you must not ask for personal details such as full name, email address, instant messenger handles, telephone number or your home/school address or age. You also must not post anyone's personal contact details (including your own) on our in-game chat or forums.

Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule in place to protect your privacy and ensure your safety. Not only may giving out your personal details affect the security of your account (as they may be used to make a false password recovery request), but it is also risky to tell people you meet over the internet your personal details.

Please remember that you do not know any of these people in real life. This is not to say that they are not as nice in real life as they act in game, they most likely are, but it's important and best to keep a safe distance from your fellow players.

What do personal details include?

Personal details are considered to include full name, email addresses, instant messenger screen names/contact details, telephone numbers, your home/school address or age.

Is it all right if I ask my friend for their address?

It is against the rules to ask for personal details. We do not recommend that you ask any other players for this type of information as a safety precaution.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 12 - Real World Item Trading

Game items must only be exchanged for other items/services within the game. Exchanging game items for items or other benefits in other on-line games, real-life money or other real-life benefits is not allowed.

Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule for three reasons: Firstly, because we don’t want you to be able to buy your way to success in our games. If we let players start doing this it devalues our games for other players. We feel your status in real-life shouldn’t affect your ability to be successful in the game. Secondly, we cannot monitor the transactions made between players outside the game, and if players swap items for external benefits we can’t see, to us it looks like an unbalanced suspicious trade. Thirdly, often when players attempt to break this rule and sell items for real cash the items are actually stolen, so you could even end up getting in trouble for receiving stolen property. If you purchased an account you might find it suddenly returned to the original rightful owner and yourself out of pocket.

I have seen an account for sale on E-bay, what should I do?

Please rest assured that members of Jagex staff check all known auction sites on a daily basis to ensure that no accounts are sold via an on-line auctioning web site. It should be remembered that all accounts (and items) remain the property of Jagex at all times, and we will not hesitate to remove such items from our games if we have evidence that rule breaking has taken place.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 11 - Advertising/Website

You are not allowed to actively advertise in any of our games or forums. This includes advertising any website or product, and no web addresses are allowed. Telling other players any web-address is not allowed.

Why do we have this rule?

Links to sites can sometimes be dangerous to players (by leading you to sites with inappropriate content) or your computer (by downloading a virus when you go to the site). This precaution has been taken in order that no links to any sites may be advertised in-game or in the Forums, thereby protecting you and your computer.

Does this rule include giving out the link to my clan/fan site?

Yes. Unfortunately we just don’t have the resources to check every website being mentioned, and even well meaning sites could inadvertently contain risks. So this rule covers ALL websites.

Does this include messenger program IDs and IRC channels?

Yes. These are not allowed.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 10 - Misuse of Customer Support

You must not misuse Jagex Customer Support. This includes threatening or reporting an innocent person, supplying false information and abusing Jagex staff.

Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule so we can help and assist you as quickly as possible. Misuse of Customer Support prevents us from helping players who genuinely need assistance.

What sort of things would be classed as ‘misuse of Customer Support’?

Submitting false abuse reports, making false password requests (attempting to steal someone's account), sending offensive messages to Jagex staff, or misuse of the in-game Report Abuse button can lead to Customer Support being withdrawn from your account.

Are there any cheats for any of the Jagex games?
There are no cheat codes available for any of our games, nor do we have any intention of adding them. All gains have to be made fairly and via honest game play: any usage of cheats or bugs, or attempting to discover the existence of any cheats or bugs, is a direct violation of the Rules of Conduct.

Please do not send in any more requests for such information as your account will be banned for attempted Cheating and for Misuse of Customer Support if you do so.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 9 - Encouraging Others to Break Rules

You must not encourage or help others to break any of the Rules of Conduct.
Why do we have this rule?

The reason for this rule is pretty obvious. Encouraging or helping others to break the rules is as bad as breaking them yourself, and therefore anyone doing so will be treated as if they were the one breaking the rule.

What do you mean by encouraging others to break the rules?

Examples of encouraging or helping others to break any of the Rules of Conduct include:

1. Attempting to convince other players that the Rules of Conduct are different from what they actually are.
2. Trying to get a reaction from another player by using offensive language against them.
3. Creating, distributing or advertising third party add-ons which break Rule 7.
4. Advertising or linking to real-world trading websites which break Rule 12.
5. Encouraging others to abuse bugs - any bugs found should be reported to Jagex immediately.
6. Hosting, facilitating, linking to, or providing software which links to, forums/chat where users discuss behaviour which breaks rules, or help or encourage each other to do so (unless a genuine effort is made to moderate such chat and prevent such discussion).
7. ... there are many more examples; basically, anything that makes someone else more likely to break a rule.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 8 - Multiple Logging-In

You may create more than one account, but if you do, you may not log in more than one account at any time, and they must not interact with each other in any way. This includes 'drop trading' or any other method of item transfer.

Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule to maintain a fair gaming experience. We don’t want our games to become games where everyone feels they need to use multiple accounts at once just to compete! It’s much better to team up with your friends.

Can I give items to another player from one of my accounts, so that they can then give the items to another character that I play?

No, this goes against the rule. You may not transfer items between your accounts in any way.

I have two accounts. Can my friend play one so I can trade between the characters?

No, this goes against this rule. You are not allowed to trade between two characters owned by one player.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 7 - Using Third Party Software

You must not use other software to gain an unfair advantage in our games. This includes automation tools, macros, bots, or auto-typers. You may not circumvent any of our mechanisms designed to automatically log out inactive users.

You also must not use any game-specific third party software that encourages breaking of our rules, or bypasses the normal navigation of our website, or automatically requests pages from our website, or which endangers user accounts.

Why do we have this rule?

First, we don't want players to download third party software from untrusted sources that can, and often do, contain key loggers, Trojans and viruses. Many players have had their accounts stolen because they have inadvertently installed hacking software on their machines. Even if the author has good intentions, an unintended flaw in their software could still put your account at risk. Even some supposedly reputable software has had problems in the past. There are also cases of people deliberately writing software which looks like a cool add-on but actually just steals your password.

Secondly, macroing ruins the game for everyone else. We don't want some players having an unfair advantage and filling up all the best training spots with bots. This game is designed to be enjoyed by humans, not bots. In the past, when we have not enforced this rule, we have rapidly found it quickly spoils the game, and players themselves start demanding that we enforce it. So now we enforce it thoroughly.

What type of third party software is NOT allowed?

This includes, but is not limited to the following third party software:

1. Software that attempts to communicate directly with our game worlds.
2. Software that monitors, modifies or decrypts the communications between our game applets and our game worlds.
3. Software that generates input to our game applets. This includes software that automatically moves the mouse pointer or generates mouse clicks or key presses.
4. Modified or replacement versions of our game applets. Reverse engineering our game applets is strictly prohibited. Using a modified version of our game applets is not permitted for any reason. Third party software that displays pages/content from our website(s), and that has specific features (i.e. toolkits) must not be used to access our website unless that software conforms with all of the other rules, and the following additional rules:
5. It must not encourage rule-breaking or endanger users.
6. It must not contain adverts or links to websites that encourage rule-breaking or endanger users.
7. It must not automatically make repeated page/content requests from our website or otherwise make excessively bandwidth intensive requests from our servers (each page/content request should only be in direct response to a user request each time).
8. It must not bypass the normal navigation of our website for users wishing to reach the game worlds. The software should initially only point at the front page of our websites, and should require the user to navigate through the website normally to reach the game worlds. The software must not contain or acquire direct links to our "Select a world" page, or to our game world pages, or to the applet.
9. It must not hide or encourage the hiding of any of the adverts on our website. To avoid encouraging users to hide the advert above the game the pane displaying pages from our website must default to at least 630 pixels high (if viewed on a screen with a resolution higher than 800x600), and it must not be possible to resize it to less height than that. i.e. the page must be displayed in such a way that both the game and advert are fully visible at the same time.
10. It must not attempt to make it easier to enter a busy game world than it would be for users not using the software. It must not allow worlds marked as 'FULL' on the world select page to be selected. It must not contain any features to make it easier to enter or monitor busy worlds.
11. If the software has its own integrated chat feature, separate from the game chat, it should make it very clear to users that this chat is not part of our games and is not official, endorsed or moderated by Jagex in any way. Furthermore, this chat should still be moderated (just not by us), and the moderators should not allow chat which infringes our rules of conduct. To avoid confusion with the official game chat, moderators of the external chat should not be indicated with a silver or gold crown. If the chat is IRC based, then the software should only allow access to IRC channels which conform with the above rules.

In any case, the use of such software is not recommended. We do not recommend the use of ANY 3rd party software as it is potentially extremely dangerous. Please be aware that there is software out there which claims to be a cool add-on, but actually installs a keylogger on your computer and steals your password! You should also be aware that there is dangerous software around that won't necessarily be spotted by your anti-virus software. Scanning downloads is, of course, a very good idea, but it still doesn't 100% eliminate the risk.

[jamesvernon]

Rule 6 - Account Sharing/Trading

Each account should only be used by ONE person. Account sharing is NOT allowed. You may not sell, transfer or lend your account to anyone else, or permit anyone else to use your account, and you may not accept an account that anybody else offers you.

Why do we have this rule?

We have this rule for two reasons:

1. Firstly, many of the accounts people try to sell are actually accounts they have stolen, so, by buying the account you are helping them profit from their crime, and encouraging them to do it more!
2. Secondly, this rule is for your protection, as people who share accounts run the risk that the person using the account won't give it back, or that the person will break a game rule causing your account to be banned.

I share my account with a family member and/or friend, is that allowed?

No, this is not allowed. Sharing your account with anyone, including family members and/or friends, means that you are breaking a game rule and this can lead to your account being banned.