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This RuneScape trivia quiz has 54 free questions with answers and spans the whole 25-year history of Gielinor, from the Java applet the Gower brothers ran out of their family home to the two live games that exist today. It covers the big turning points - the RuneScape 2 engine, paid membership, the December 2007 removal of free trade and the referendum that brought it back, the 2011 Bot Nuke, and the 2013 poll that resurrected an August 2007 backup as Old School RuneScape. There is plenty for players of both versions. Expect the first quest and its birthday cake, Dragon Slayer and Elvarg, Recipe for Disaster, the gods and their symbols, the origins of partyhats and other rares, the Falador Massacre, skill counts and level-99 experience, and Old School staples like the abyssal whip, the Inferno, Zulrah, Ironman mode and Leagues. Roughly a third of the questions are easy warm-ups; the rest climb toward the trivia only a long-time Gielinor resident would know. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the official RuneScape and Old School RuneScape wikis, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 54 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year did RuneScape first go live as a public beta?
2001
2001 saw the public beta go live on 4 January, and by December that year the Gower brothers had set up a company to run the business side of the game.
Q 02The earliest RuneScape servers ran out of the Gower family home in which English city?
Nottingham
Nottingham was home to the Gower family, and the game ran from their parents' house before the company moved to proper offices in another city.
Q 03What is the name of the fantasy world in which RuneScape is set?
Gielinor
Gielinor is the world, explored beyond the game in tie-in novels such as Betrayal at Falador and Return to Canifis.
Q 04Which businessman joined Andrew and Paul Gower as the third founder of Jagex and served as its first CEO?
Constant Tedder
Constant Tedder was later replaced as CEO by a former European CEO of PayPal, and all three founders left the board of directors in December 2010.
Q 05Andrew Gower's earlier game, the direct predecessor of RuneScape, was called what?
DeviousMUD
DeviousMUD was a Java game with 2D isometric graphics; its second version was briefly released as a public beta in 1999 before the rewrite that became RuneScape.
Q 06In which year was RuneScape 2, with its fully three-dimensional engine, officially released?
2004
2004 brought the official launch on 29 March, after paying members had tested a beta from December 2003.
Q 07After RuneScape 2 arrived, the original game stayed online under what one-word suffix?
Classic
Classic was the name the original game kept; it lingered on a handful of servers for another fourteen years before finally being shut down.
Q 08Old School RuneScape was built from a backup of the game dating from which month?
August 2007
August 2007 was the date of the backup found in the company's archives; Old School launched as an exact copy of it and has since diverged with its own updates.
Q 09How many votes did the 2013 poll need before Jagex would open Old School RuneScape servers?
50,000
50,000 votes was the lowest reward tier, enough to open the servers; the final tally fell just short of a bigger tier that would have promised extra incentives.
Q 10What was the final vote count of the 2013 poll that created Old School RuneScape?
449,351
449,351 votes missed the 500,000 reward tier, but Jagex granted several of that tier's promises anyway.
Q 11RuneScape 3 launched in which month?
July 2013
July 2013 brought RuneScape 3 on the 22nd, a few months after Old School RuneScape opened, giving the franchise two live versions that ran side by side.
Q 12RuneScape 3 was originally developed as a version built on which web technology?
HTML5
HTML5 was the web technology behind the planned client, which never left beta; at RuneFest 2014 the company announced a replacement standalone client instead.
Q 13The October 2011 anti-bot update nicknamed the 'Bot Nuke' had what official code name?
ClusterFlutterer
ClusterFlutterer was the code name; Jagex estimated it wiped out 98 percent of bot accounts and celebrated with a week of bonus in-game events.
Q 21Lumbridge's cook needs a bucket of milk, an egg and which third ingredient for his cake?
A pot of flour
A pot of flour is made by grinding wheat at the mill north of the castle, unless players simply buy the ingredients and finish the quest in seconds.
Q 22The Lumbridge cook is baking a birthday cake for which noble?
Duke Horacio
Duke Horacio of Lumbridge wants the cake for his birthday; the same duke hands out the anti-dragon shield during Dragon Slayer.
Q 23In the free-to-play quest Dragon Slayer, what is the name of the dragon players must kill?
Elvarg
Elvarg is a green dragon far tougher than her kin, and her dragonfire hits hard on anyone without an anti-dragon shield.
Q 14The release of which skill triggered the infamous Falador Massacre?
Construction
Construction's player-owned houses held the bug: players ejected from a house party kept player-versus-player rights and killed others across Falador.
Q 15On what date did the Falador Massacre take place?
6 June 2006
6 June 2006, written 6/6/06, gave the event its '666' nickname; it happened on world 111 during a house party thrown by the first player to reach level 99 in the new skill.
Q 16Which player behind the Falador Massacre returned as a boss in its 10th anniversary event?
Durial321
Durial321 was the player most associated with the killings, and his ghost returned as a boss in the 2016 tenth-anniversary event.
Q 17The original coloured partyhats came out of which item during RuneScape's first Christmas event?
Crackers
Crackers were handed out in the first Christmas event; pulling one with another player produced a partyhat, nearly worthless at the time.
Q 18How many different colours of partyhat were handed out in the original Christmas event?
Six
Six colours were handed out in the first event; a golden one was added as a tradeable reward in the 2021 Christmas event.
Q 19In the Draynor Bank Robbery, the Wise Old Man telegrabs and puts on a partyhat of which colour?
Blue
Blue is the partyhat he wears from then on; he confesses to the whole crime during the Love Story quest, and players can watch the bank's security recording for 50 coins.
Q 20In which quest do players wield the sword Silverlight to banish Delrith?
Demon Slayer
Demon Slayer has players gather three keys for Sir Prysin's sword Silverlight, then recite an incantation to banish the demon Delrith at a stone circle.
Q 24The Dragon Slayer quest sends players by ship to which island to face the dragon?
Crandor
Crandor is reached aboard the ship Lady Lumbridge, using a map torn into three pieces by the surviving mages Melzar, Thalzar and Lozar.
Q 25Completing Dragon Slayer lets free-to-play players finally equip which piece of armour?
Rune platebody
Rune platebody also needs 40 Defence, and it can be smithed from five runite bars by anyone with level 99 Smithing.
Q 26What is the capital city of the kingdom of Misthalin, ruled by King Roald from his palace?
Varrock
Varrock was originally known as Avarrocka and is the largest city available to free players.
Q 27Which god of RuneScape's pantheon is the god of balance, and the last of the Naragi race?
Guthix
Guthix slept beneath the world for millennia after ending the God Wars, and his symbol is usually shown in green.
Q 28Which god's symbol is a four-pointed star, usually coloured gold or silver?
Saradomin
Saradomin's four-pointed star marks his followers; he was born a human and is thought to be the most widely worshipped god in the game world.
Q 29Which god began as a Mahjarrat, became the Zarosian Empire's top general, and dethroned Zaros?
Zamorak
Zamorak's coup against Zaros ended the Second Age and set off the God Wars, which lasted roughly four thousand years.
Q 30In RuneScape's December 2010 referendum, what share of voters wanted free trade and Wilderness PvP back?
91%
91% said yes from around 1.2 million votes cast, and both features returned on 1 February 2011.