Random events

Random events in RuneScape are described by Jagex as being "the occasional strange event happening near you" though a more accurate descriptor would be "the occasional strange event happening TO you". According to official Jagex announcements in the past, Jagex originally installed them into the game in what is now known as RuneScape Classic (which still exists and was the precursor to RuneScape) in order to combat players that cheated through the use of computer programs that allowed them to use their character to play without the need of human interaction.

Jagex updated all Random events on the 25th February, 2009 update, the update containing: removal and retiring of some events, also the new reward system was brought in, which now means that instead of receiving specific random event rewards, players are given a 'Random Event Gift Box' which means that you can open the box and choose your reward, the higher the players level, the better the players reward choice. You can still receive tokens for costumes as JaGeX was apparently committed to avoiding new discontinued items being made and replaced any Broken axe or Broken pickaxe with a fixed pickaxe and axes unless the players only had the handle, in which case the handle was deleted. See below for more details of newly-retired random events.



Types of random events
There are 3 different types of random events.
 * 1) Guardians(Obsolete)
 * 2) Gift Givers
 * 3) Dangerous(Obsolete)
 * 4) Complex Events
 * 5) Inconveniences

After February 25th 2009, all Guardian and Dangerous events were removed.

List of Events
Gift givers are NPC characters that may quickly appear at any time or anywhere in RuneScape to teleport you away to perform some task for them. If you are teleported away, you cannot resume normal gameplay until you've finished the task.

When a player successfully completes a random event, he will be given a Random event gift, which will contain a selection of rewards to choose from. The reward options are randomized, but players with higher skill totals will generally be offered better rewards, especially if they have a record of passing random events.

If you fail to complete the given task, or just don't speak to the NPC, you might end up finding yourself atop the Wizard's Tower or Ice Mountain, without any rewards.


 * Certers: Involuntary task.

Speak to Giles, Miles or Niles and get a small reward. Ignore any of them and they'll turn all the items in your inventory into notes (including your weapon if notable!) and teleport you to a distant land.


 * Drill Demon: Involuntary task.

Complete his callisthenics tasks and get teleported back from whence you came and get a Random Event Gift or 500 coins. Ignore him and you cannot leave his training area.


 * Freaky Forester: Involuntary task.

The Freaky Forester may quickly appear and teleport you off to his wooded realm. Kill the pheasant he asks you for to get teleported back from whence you came and get a Random Event Gift or 500 coins. Fail to supply him with the correct pheasant and get teleported to a distant land.


 * Frogs: Voluntary task.

Kiss the frog wearing the crown and your prince or princess will appear to reward you with a Random Event Gift. Ignore them and you will be teleported away to the Kingdom of the Frogs. You will be stuck there until you apologise to them.


 * Maze: Involuntary task.

The Mysterious Old Man may quickly appear and teleport you into the Maze... run to the center and tag the spinning box as fast as possible to gain the most reward in coins and items that you can. Move slowly and gain the least reward.


 * Mime: Involuntary task.

The Mysterious Old Man may quickly appear and teleport you to the Mime... and you must mimic his movements a Random Event Gift or 500 coins and be teleported back from whence you came. Fail to accurately mimic him and you're stuck onstage until you get it right.


 * Pirate's Combination Lock: Involuntary task.

Speak to Captain Arnav and solve his puzzle to gain items or some coins. Fail and he'll teleport you away to a distant land. After he bonks you over the head with his bottle.


 * Quiz Master: Involuntary task.

The Mysterious Old Man may quickly appear and teleport you to the Quiz Master... solve his questions, and the player gets a Random Event Gift. before being teleported back from whence you came.


 * Sandwich Lady: Involuntary task.

The Sandwich Lady will appear, and teleport you to her very own café. Here, she will ask you to choose one of her breads. If you choose the correct one, you will get teleported back to where you were. If you don't, you get teleported somewhere far away.


 * Evil Bob: Involuntary task.

Evil Bob may quickly appear and teleport the player onto his private island for servitude. Pick up a small net and catch Bob the correct fish (ask the servant what fish he wants) then "uncook" them before giving them to Bob. Do this until he falls asleep and step into the portal to return with a reward of 650 exp in either the Fishing or Magic skill. The player's character will blow Bob a raspberry on the way out. Do nothing and be stuck serving Bob on his island... forever.


 * Surprise Exam!: Involuntary task.

The Mysterious Old Man may quickly appear and teleport the player into the classroom of Mr. Mordaut. Answer his three questions correctly and get a Book of knowledge that can be used to gain experience points in a skill of choice and be teleported back after exiting from the door the good professor indicates.


 * Beekeeper Involuntary task.

When picking flax, a beekeeper may appear and require help in assembling a beehive. Use the controls to assemble the four parts into one unit. Succeed and get sent back to the flax field with some noted flax. Fail and be mercilessly stung by bees until running to the water!


 * Grab the Evil Twin: Involuntary task.

Molly may quickly appear and teleport the player off to help her capture her evil twin. Use the control panel in the next room to capture her twin and to be sent back with some noted gems. Fail two attempts and she will complain before teleporting the player off to a distant land. Do nothing and be stuck there forever! Luckily, when you first get teleported you can simply go through the door to make the event go a lot quicker. Molly will ask if you know what you're doing in the room, simply answer yes.


 * Pinball: Involuntary task.

The Mysterious Old Man may quickly appear and teleport the player into the gigantic pinball machine. Tag the 10 poles in order when the glowing rings appear before exiting which will teleport back with some noted gems as a reward. Try to leave early or tag a pole out of order and the score will be reset.


 * Leo the Gravedigger: Involuntary task.

When burying some bones, old Leo the Gravedigger may appear and quickly teleport the player into his graveyard. He needs each of the five coffins to be placed in the appropriate graves before he'll teleport the player back from whence they came with a reward of some costume parts or coins. Failing to place any coffin in the right spot or doing nothing, will result in being unable to leave (check with Leo to see what is what)! There is a very convenient Bank Deposit Box to deposit items into, so use it if inventory room is needed.


 * Pillory: Involuntary task.

When attempting Thieving a pillory guard may quickly appear and teleport the player into a Pillory cage where they are forced to solve the locks to escape. Match the appropriate key with the shape on the spinning locks to solve them. Failing the locks or doing nothing will result in the player being stuck there forever while a tramp and any passing players may mercilessly pelt them with rotten tomatoes. Solve all the locks and be teleported back with some coins or an item as a reward.


 * Prison Pete: Involuntary task.

Evil Bob may quickly appear and teleport the player into the prison where Prison Pete awaits help in escaping. Throw the wall mounted lever to see what balloon animals to pop and give each key to Pete. When Pete says to run for it, move past the barriers to be teleported back with a small reward of coins or an item. This random event used to keep players stuck in the event until they completed it, however it's now been made so that they need not to complete it, but it will take an entire day before the player will be released.


 * Lost & Found office: Only occurs when teleporting.

You attempt to teleport to anywhere, you may get stuck iin the Runescape Teleportation Matrix. The solution is simple: simply tug on the one pole that's unlike the other three and you'll reconnect and be teleported on your way to your original destination with a reward of some runes. If you are being teleported to the essence mines when this event occurs your reward will always be pure or rune essence with the amount calculated as: your mining level times 0.2, rounded down. (minimum of 2 essence).


 * Big fish: Only occurs during Fishing.

Sometimes, when you make an attempt to fish, a Big Fish may appears and grabs your fishing equipment. Step away quickly once you see the Big Fish appear, to avoid losing the gear. Take too long and it'll grab your gear and spit it up onto the riverbank or dock nearby, so go pick it up and continue fishing.

Discontinued Events
Some random events proved to be too complicated or irritating to the players or were so unknowing as a deterrent to macroing that they weren't of real use so they were discontinued by Jagex. Some random events have also been refitted or "tweaked" over time... sometimes in an effort by Jagex to streamline them so that they weren't too much of a hassle to players but also to throw off cheaters that used programs to play the game for them. Ultimately though, this tweaking proved to be an exercise in futility because the cheaters could usually reprogram the code they used to cheat so fast (often in 12-24 hours!), it negated what Jagex had done. In any case, here's a short list of some of the events that were taken out of the game by Jagex... and are now in the history books.


 * Dr. Ford: Dr. Ford would teleport you away from where you were for a short tes,and a piece of fruit if a wood or rock shard would hit you in the head while you were mining or woodcutting. Unfortunately, he also often teleported you back into an area of RuneScape that you were NOT at when he came along to intervene, even if you correctly guessed how many fingers he was holding up which tended to enrage legitimate players because it wasted their time by making them go all the way back to the location where they were before the event.


 * Tangle Vine: The Tangle Vine was discontinued because many players did not understand how it worked. Walking or running while in the tangle vine would cause very rapid damage to the player and because of this, many players died very quickly. Some players also took advantage of it and encouraged players to run away so they could collect their items after they had died. Though the Tangle Vines were discontinued, they were referenced to in construction as a trap for the dungeons.


 * Watchman: The Watchman is a former random event that appeared during Thieving, similar to other guardian events such as the Rock Golem. His level was the same as all other random events and differed depending on the player's combat level. He was removed due to players complaining about him killing them too quickly when they were pickpocketing while staying at a low Hitpoint points level and wearing no armour.


 * Candlelight: Was originally introduced on Febuary 20th, 2006 - unknown removal date. This event was removed quietly by Jagex at an unknown date. Pious Pete would teleport you away to his church where players would have to help him keep his candles lit in a drafty room. This random event also tested the patience of most players due to the fact that, while lighting the candles was fairly straight-forward, they were frequently blown out by the wind.


 * Axe handle/Axe head: It was removed on July 17th, 2007. This event was installed to combat players that cheated by using bots to cut Yew logs or Magic logs for the gain of a "main" character or to sell for real world money. Unfortunately, many players that weren't cheating were negatively affected as they would frequently lose a component of their axe, costing them a considerable amount of money to purchase a new axe. Jagex eventually chose to remove the event for this reason and because it wasn't doing much of anything to actually stop bots anyway (see the official news archives for details).  Some advanced bots are programed to pick up the fallen axe head and reattach it. This event was removed much after the introduction of the costly Dragon Axe.


 * Security Guard: Easily avoidable - Speak to him for a reminder to set your recovery questions and some coins or items. Ignore him and he'll attack you! Feel free to run away from him, though he will pursue you until you get a healthy distance away. The Protect from Melee prayer nullifies all damage by him. A Security Guard can be killed but there is NEVER a drop! (Extra Note: you must right click to talk to this NPC). This random event is discontinued.


 * Exploding Rock: If the player continues to mine a "smoking" rock, it will explode, breaking their pickaxe. If a player is LOW on hit points, the explosion can kill them. Step away quickly and move to another rock or wait until the rock stops smoking before resuming an attempt to mine.


 * 'Poison Gas: (members only) Step away 4 or more squares from the chest that you were attempting to pilfer or be poisoned to death as the poisonous gas hits between 2 & 3 per round (as if you were in combat).


 * Ent: If any player continued to cut the tree after the tree ent appears (you could see the Ent's arms swinging and the red eyes & mouth on the tree trunk, and a yellow dot on the minimap where the tree is located), their axe would be broken. Simply stepping away from the tree and move to another tree or wait until the Ent disappeared was the only solution other than waiting out the random event. Note that ANY player could have suffered a broken axe from an Ent, not just the player that set off the random event in the first place.


 * Rick Turpentine: The Highwayman random event was removed via an update on February 25, 2009. Players would speak to Rick Turpentine and gain some items or coins. Ignoring him would make Rick Turpentine attack you with his crossbow. Players could feel free to run away from him, though he would pursue you until you get a healthy distance away. The Protect from Range prayer nullified all damage from his crossbow. He can now be found in the Port Sarim maximum security prison, sharing a cell with a mugger who he says he enjoys watching him die even though he just comes back.


 * Lost Pirate: The Lost Pirate random event was removed via an update on February 25, 2009. Before the update, you had to speak to Cap'n Hand and you would gain some items or coins. Ignoring the pirate resulted in him attacking you with his crossbow. Running away resulted in Cap'n Hand pursuing the player until they were a good distance away. The Protect from Range prayer nullified all damage from his crossbow. He can now be found sharing a cell with a pirate in the Port Sarim maximum security prison.


 * Genie: The Genie was removed as a random event via an update on February 25, 2009. Before the update, speaking to him would make him give you a lamp that you could rub for free experience points in a skill that you choose. Ignoring him would result in him teleporting you to a distant land or scattering your inventory over the ground near you. After the update he still appears if the lamp is chosen as the reward from a random event gift box, though now he immediately puts the lamp in your inventory and vanishes.


 * Mysterious Old Man/Strange Box: The Mysterious Old Man/Strange Box random event was removed via an update on February 25, 2009. Before the update, he'll quickly appear to stuff a Strange Box into your pocket. Solve the simple puzzle to gain items or coins. Fail to open the box by answering incorrectly or in a timely manner and it'll replicate itself endlessly until your inventory is full! Then it will start doubling up on itself relentlessly. There are two solutions, either solve all the boxes, or die with them in your inventory.


 * Drunken Dwarf: The Drunken Dwarf random event was removed via an update on February 25, 2009. Before the update, you had to speak to him and he'll give you a beer and a kebab. Ignore him and he'll attack you with a ranged attack though Protect from Range prayer nullifies all damage. Feel free to run away from him, though he will pursue you until you get a healthy distance away.


 * Strange Plant: (members only) When you move to perform almost any task, you may be interrupted by the sudden growth of a strange plant next to you. Picking the Strange fruit after it is fully grown on the plant will prevent the plant from attacking you and it will wither away until it disappears. Ignore the plant or fail to pick the fruit in a timely manner... and the plant will sprout legs to attack you! The plant WILL Poison you if it hits for damage and it can kill you. Slay+ it using Ancient Magicks or feel free to run away from it, it won't follow far. Protect from Melee prayer nullifies all damage.

Guardians (Removed from game)
Guardian random events are NPC monsters that will appear and attack players when they attempt to gain resources in RuneScape. The NPCs are usually slightly more powerful than the players but their combat level is directly related to that of the player.

While you may choose to attack these NPCs, you can also run away from them as they will only follow you for a short distance before disappearing. It is also often possible to ignore them simply by running to a position on the map where there is an object such as a tree or rock between your character and the NPC. The NPC will stick around guarding the area though, until the player leaves the immediate vicinity or logs out and will most certainly continue to attack the player again if the opportunity presents itself.

All of the Guardian NPCs have drops though most players consider the drops to not be worth the effort and simply avoid them until the NPCs disappear so they can continue training the skill they were working on.


 * Rock Golem - This NPC may appear when you attempt to mine an ore. Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from Melee or Protect from Range prayer can be used to nullify all damage. The Golem mainly attacks with melee, however it will also range the player by tossing small rocks from a distance so it's important to have the Protect from Range prayer engaged if you run away and are low on hit points.
 * River Troll - This NPC may appear when you attempt to catch some fish. Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from Melee prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Tree spirit - This NPC may appear when you attempt to cut logs from a tree. Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from Melee prayer nullifies all damage.
 * Shade & Zombie - These NPCs may appear when you attempt to bury any bones. Run away or fight either of them to the death. Protect from Melee prayer nullifies all damage. The shade has been relocated to the 4th level of the Stronghold of Security since it was removed from the random event system.
 * Evil Chicken - This NPC will appear when you are doing almost anything in RuneScape along with training any skill in general & as well as any resource gathering you may be doing. Run away or fight it to the death. Protect from magic nullifies all damage.

An update made on 25-Feb-2009 removed all of these random events from the game, although if you go to the Enchanted Valley (only accessable through fairy ring code BKQ) and try to gather rescources there you will ALWAYS be attacked by to corresponding guardian, for example, if you try to mine ore there, a rock golem will ALWAYS attack you.

Dangerous Events (Removed from game)
These events, while being called "dangerous" by Jagex, really aren't dangerous to any player that is paying attention when they play... and only three out of the six has any real chance of killing the average player at all. All the NPC monsters are easily avoided simply by running away from them as they appear. To avoid other mishaps, stepping away from the thing that may cause some equipment to be broken or lost is easily done. The real danger would be limited to really low leveled players or those that are very low on hit points, so it's best to stay at high hitpoints (just in case) before you go to get resources like logs, ores or fish. You never know when one of these randoms may appear, and may be dangerous otherwise.
 * Evil Chicken - Feel free to run away from him as he won't follow you or fight him to the death. The Protect from Magic prayer nullifies all damage from his magic based attack. The Evil Chicken can quickly kill a player that isn't paying attention.
 * Swarm - Although not very dangerous, the swarm cannot be hit by any attack from any player and eventually, if no action is taken, it might kill lesser players that are really low on hit points. Swarms stop players from being able to thieve, hunt and farm. High level players can choose to ignore it while they complete their task (the swarm won't be likely to do damage to a high level player) or anyone can simply run away from it. Ever since the swarm was removed as a random event, it has since appeared in Musa Point (for free players as well) as a non-attackable monster.
 * Whirlpool - You make an attempt to fish somewhere, and suddenly a Whirlpool appears at your fishing hole. Step away quickly once you see the Whirlpool appear to avoid losing your fishing gear or your equipment will be sucked up by the Whirlpool, out of your inventory. Look up on the nearby shore to look for lost equipment.

Update to Random events
Some random events have been removed from the game. Poison-gas chests, smoking rocks, broken pickaxes and ents became things of the past. Though, you'll still be able to obtain shade robes, strange fruit and security books; they do not discontinue any existing rewards.

All Broken axes and Broken pickaxes were replaced with a fixed pickaxe and hatchet, unless the players only had the handle, in which case the handle was deleted.

Old random events can still be visited today. Some of the guardians, which include the Tree spirit, River troll and Rock Golem, now spend their days in the Enchanted Valley (which you can get to using the fairy rings). The more unsavoury types, like Cap'n Hand and Rick Turpentine, reside in Port Sarim Jail. You can still see Dr Jekyll from time to time, dashing to the Varrock apothecary in a desperate bid to keep Mr Hyde in check; and if you're in Karamja to the south-west of Brimhaven, you may come across the strange plant, which still produces rather excellent fruit. The Drunken Dwarf will also be seen on occasion, staggering about in an erratic fashion. If you talk to him, and he takes a liking to you, he might treat you to a kebab and some beer.

Trivia

 * In the feast cut scene of the Recipe for Disaster quest, the Duke of Lumbridge gets the strange box random event and Evil Bob teleports Osman away.
 * In Swan Song, there is a cut scene in which the Wise Old Man gets the Drunken Dwarf. The old man replies "I'm not your mate" and kills the unfortunate dwarf.
 * If a player moderator gets a random event that makes the player involuntarily say something, their crown won't appear for that one line.
 * When My Arm is farming his hardy Goutweed in the quest My Arm's Big Adventure, he gets a Drunken Dwarf random event. My Arm will smack the Drunken Dwarf with his arm, knocking the dwarf away from him and off the nearby cliff.
 * It is possible to kill an attacking Strange Plant with either high level Ancient Magicks spells, or by safe-spotting (halberd, range, or magic), but it does not drop anything.
 * The Evil Chicken will always have a drop of: 1 bones, 1 raw chicken and some feathers but the number of feathers in the drop is a range (numerically) determined by the combat level of the Evil Chicken. It can be over 1000+ on super rare occasions by the level 159 chicken.
 * A Tree Spirit may drop a type of axe from bronze to rune, though the lowest level axes are what you can expect to receive. A Dragon Axe is NEVER a drop from a tree spirit!
 * A broken axe or broken pickaxe may be repaired by Bob in Lumbridge or Brian in Port Sarim, amongst others. Pickaxes may also be repaired by Nurmof in the Dwarven Mines. The cost of repairing an axe is 10 coins for Black, 18 for Mithril, 43 for Adamant, 427 for Rune and 1800 for Dragon; there is no charge for Bronze, Iron or Steel axes. Repairing a pickaxe requires 17 coins for Steel, 43 for Mithril, 107 for Adamant and 1100 for Rune; there is no charge for Bronze and Iron pickaxes.
 * If your pickaxe head, spade, or rake flies off the handle, no other players but you can see or pick it up for the first 30 seconds. ANY player can pick it up after 30 seconds on up to 2 minutes when it will disappear forever.
 * A strange fruit that is picked from a strange plant cures poison and gains the player 30% of their run energy back.
 * If players obtain all the rewards (emotes, clothing, etc) from the Mime, the Freaky Forester, Leo or the Drill Demon then the reward will be exactly 500 coins, You can drop the costume items and re-obtain them if you choose.[Note: An Behind the scenes update will allow players to obtain more copies of the clothing]
 * Random event clothing can be stored in the appropriate chest in a POH Costume Room (members only).
 * Shade robes in the past could be bought, sold or traded freely by any player. Jagex recently made them untradeable so the only way to get them now is through defeating shades in combat. A shade may or may not drop either of the robes when slain.
 * When the Drill Demon event was initially installed by Jagex, for a short time, the camo clothing could be bought or sold though Jagex eventually put a stop to it. The asking price for the original helmet climbed as high as 100K before they were made untradeable.
 * The Kebab that is received from random events used to either heal the player or cause them to lose hitpoints. However, Jagex changed this due to complaints and kebabs can no longer hurt a player.  They can, however, lower certain stats by a few points.
 * The maximum time for players to escape from the prison after unlocking all the doors is 30 seconds. Fail to leave in that time and you will need to get a new set of keys.
 * It is possible for any player to get more than one random event at a time. This can be accomplished by ignoring a prior event (if possible), standing still in one square, never adjusting your viewpoint, doing the same task for as long as possible, not engaging in any conversation or trade with other players, trapping the NPC behind a door or in the crook of two or more objects such as rocks, trees, walls, etc.
 * Rather than retire them, they made the cert brothers Giles, Miles & Niles into random events. There job was converting some resources such as coal or lobsters into tradeable certificates ("certs") before banks had the capability to convert items into notes.
 * The Maze, Mime & Strange Box events were introduced by Jagex on August 4th, 2004.
 * The Surprise Exam! random event was introduced by Jagex on July 17th, 2007.
 * The reward lamp from the Genie rewards 10 times the level of the skill that you choose.
 * The reward tome from the Mr. Mordaut rewards experience at the rate of 15 times the level of the skill that you choose. For example, if your level is 50, you will get 750 experience points.
 * Evil Bob's island is not in RuneScape, it's in ScapeRune, as is the prison where you will find Prison Pete.
 * You cannot eat or take any fish from ScapeRune, though you can take the nets.
 * Bob the Jagex Cat was introduced on a Friday the 13th 2004.
 * If you end up with the Lost & Found office random event, choosing the wrong lever will temporarily lower your Magic skill.
 * The Drill Demon's name is Damian, and his rank is a Sergeant.
 * The five souls buried in the graveyard where Leo is are: a cook, a crafter, a farmer, a miner & a woodcutter.
 * When the flying axehead random event was still a part of RuneScape, there were two types of axe handles: one for the Dragon Axe and one type for all the others. Before Balanced trading, Dragon Axe handles were popular scam items; players would claim the handle to be half the value of the axe.
 * It is unknown whether this is a glitch, but while in the Stronghold of Security, waiting approximately 15 minutes and then burying a bone would yield a random event. A similar effect occurs in the graveyard of shadows.
 * Sometimes when you are underwater scuba-diving, random events still show up. But they will have their scuba gear on as well, or changed to 'a swarm of vicious plankton' in the case of the swarm event. {citation needed}
 * During the Drill Demon random event, if you are asked to jog on the exercise mat and your running is turned off, it will turn on automatically. Any attempt to turn it off will get you a message saying "You can't change that setting now." and your running will turn back on. However, no running energy is used during this random event.
 * The clothing reward from the Drill Demon random event used to look different. A few months after this random event came out Jagex changed the appearance.
 * When having The Gravedigger random event, Leo will hold a spade which looks like he was holding a 2-hand sword.
 * During the Evil Bob fishing random event, if you use cooked food on the uncooking pot, it would say "You do not have the required Uncooking level to uncook this. You need a Uncooking level of 50-80... Wait, Uncooking isn't even a stat!"
 * When the camo costume was first released and awarded by the Drill Sargent, it was tradable and sold for high prices

On February 24th, 2009. Some random events will be removed from the game such as Poison-gas chests, smoking rocks, broken pickaxes and ents. These will become things of the past.