Player killing

Player killing (PKing), or player vs. player (PvP), is the act of two or more players in combat, instead of a player and a monster or NPCs. At present, there are only eight places in RuneScape where player killing can occur: Bounty Hunter, Castle Wars, Duel Arena, a player-owned house's combat ring or Dungeon, Clan Wars, Fist of Guthix, and the TzHaar Fight Pits.

There was a time in the game's history that the entire map was open for player killing. Later, normal PKing was restricted to the Wilderness. However in 2007, Jagex ended PKing in the Wilderness and released Clan Wars along with Bounty Hunter as partial replacements.

On August 15th of 2008, it was announced that Jagex plans to add several "Pking Worlds" in which players will be able to fight virtually anywhere, receiving predetermined drops to prevent the re-introduction of real world trading. Two new mini-games, Stealing Creation and Mobilising Armies, are also scheduled for a 2008 release. Clan Wars is also set to receive a major expansion.



History
Originally, after the release of RuneScape Classic, players could select whether or not to play as player killer characters. Players could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever. PvP combat could take place at most locations in the RuneScape world. The rules of combat were the same as in modern RuneScape Classic Wilderness. Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other; this was done to prevent a practice called "spawn camping", in which recently killed players were immediately killed again as soon as they respawned. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, breaking up PvP battles by attacking the aggressor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, PvP combat could go on freely.

On 13 August 2001, this system was replaced by the Wilderness, partly due to complaints from many players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by hordes of hostile player killers. Later, additional areas where PvP combat is allowed were added.

On 10 December 2007, Jagex made a highly controversial update that made pking in the wilderness only possible at the Bounty Hunter, which is unsafe, and Clan Wars, a safe minigame. Fist of Guthix, also safe, was not added until about four months after these updates. RuneScape lost about 6% of its paying players. No known amount of lost free players is known, however it is possible it was more than the number of quitting members. The exact numerical makeup of quitters (bots versus legitimate players) is uncertain. Many of the quitters were PKers, while others were the leaving accounts of autoers. According to Jagex, almost all the lost players since the 10 December update have been replaced by new subscribers. It is still very common to find players on the forums ranting.

On 15 August 2008, it was announced that in the future, certain worlds would be player-killing themed, re-introducing player killing almost everywhere in the select worlds. This update was compared to player killing in Runescape Classic. Two new mini-games, Stealing Creation and Mobilising Armies, were also announced for future release. Clan Wars is also scheduled to receive new rule options and additional arenas.

Combat Areas
There are two forms of combat area found throughout the land of RuneScape - single and multicombat areas.


 * Single combat restricts players such that they can only fight one-on-one. In a multicombat zone, multiple players can attack multiple targets.


 * Multi-combat areas are identified upon entering by two crossed swords appearing in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Anywhere else is classed as a single combat area. Multicombat areas were especially dangerous in the Wilderness, as more than one player could attack you at one time. These areas were beneficial to groups of players, as it allows them to pile a player and greatly decrease the opponent's chance of escape or allowed a group of lower level players to fight a higher level player at the same time.

Bounty Hunter
Main article: Bounty hunter

This dangerous Minigame was introduced into the Wilderness on December 10, 2007. This game allows players of three categories to fight off in a free for all to the death to obtain each others' items. The Level categories are in Free-to-play: 3-55 (low), 50-100 (med), 95+ (high) and in Pay-to-Play: 3-67 (low), 62-112 (med), 108+ (high). This is the only method of PKing that allows you to obtain another player's items as a reward for killing them. However, any player attempting to pick up items not belonging to his or her target will incur a penalty, preventing them from leaving the arena for a certain period. When originally released, the Bounty Hunter arena was a multicombat zone. The Minigame was later changed to a single-way combat zone. However, under certain conditions it is possible to be engaged by multiple players. This Minigame only allows players to bring combat related items.

Clan Wars
Main article: Clan Wars

This is a safe mingame that was introduced into the Wilderness on December 10, 2007. This game allows two clans to fight off in an enclosed location. In order to participate a player must be in a clan. Players may bring whatever items they wish into this minigame.

Castle Wars
Main article: Castle Wars

Killing other players in Castle Wars is technically only a secondary objective to getting the enemy flag; however, many players fight amongst themselves with no regard to the team objective. Castle Wars can only be accessed by members, and is highly populated in world 24.

Duelling and the Duel Arena
Main article: Duel Arena

This is a place where players can fight in a controlled environment and choose rules to their fight. They can also place a wager on their fight. The duel arena has inspired a new type of character called a staker. These characters are created to make money by winning duels.

In RuneScape Classic, there is still a third option available when right-clicking on a player in normal areas. The option, "Duel-with", allows the player to send a duel request as if in the Duel Arena of the modern RuneScape game. There is also even the option to stake items, and to set specific rules in the duel, though this is very limited compared to the modern Duel Arena's rules. Such options include "No Retreating", "No Magic", "No Prayer", and "No Weapons". Once the rules are set and the stakes are agreed on, the players then proceed to fight under the condition of the given rules, if any.

On 20 November 2007 JaGex made a cap to the amount a player can win in a space of 15 minutes in a staked duel, which is set to 3,000 gold coins to make it harder for real-world traders to unfairly use the Duel Arena as a covert way of transferring items. This also applies to the 'player value' of items which will change according to any market fluctuations in the Grand Exchange. This resulted into the Duel Arena Riot as well as rendering stakers useless.

The key difference between Bounty Hunter player killing and this form of duelling is that players cannot obtain the skull and crossbones effect upon attacking another player in a duel, and will not lose any of their items if they should happen to die.

TzHaar Fight Pit
Main article: TzHaar Fight Pit

The TzHaar Fight Pit is a minigame in which players fight against each other in a free-for-all arena. The winner is crowned champion once everyone else has been killed. Since killing someone ejects them out of the arena and into the waiting area, the first rule is all one needs to remember.

Fist Of Guthix
Main Article: Fist of Guthix

Fist of Guthix is a PvP minigame Released on April 9, 2008. Fist of Guthix is a one on one F2p and P2p Minigame where one player is being hunted by another player. Once the hunted player is killed, or the time ends, the players switch. At the end, the player with the most charges win.

Player-owned houses
Main Article: Combat Room and dungeons.

Players may fight in player-owned houses, both in combat rooms and dungeons. If killed in these areas, players respawn without losing any items. If the combat takes place in an enclosed area in the player-owned house, such as ranging pedastals or combat rings, they will respawn inside of the house. If combact takes place in the dungeon, players will respawn outside the house portal.

Combat styles
Main article: Combat classes

Melee Fighters

 * Advantages - For those who want to get up close and homicidal, melee is the preferred option. This involves, generally, bulkier weapons and armour than the light and flimsy range and mage options. Not only does this make you look more impressive, it gives the adventurer a strong advantage over Ranged attacks. Arrows and bolts will have a hard time piercing armour, allowing the melee fighter to get close enough to do serious damage.


 * Disadvantages- The 'but' comes when encountering mages. Well-constructed melee armour does a good job of deflecting blades and bolts, but also manages to strongly conduct Magic attacks, increasing the effects and damage caused by an opportunist magician. An experienced spellcaster can also paralyse a melee combatant with a 'holding' spell and then attack from afar. Mages are melee fighters' arch enemies, and so should be avoided.

Mages

 * Advantages - The mage may look like an easy target, wearing what could be described as a glorified flannel, but beneath their soft and stabbable exterior lies a dangerous opponent. A combination of 'holding' spells and Magic's conductivity through armour makes the mage strongly anti-melee, often keeping a hand-to-hand combatant incapacitated and highly vulnerable.


 * Disadvantages - Soft-to-the-touch cloaks and robes make the mage a tempting target for passing rangers. With little Ranged Defence, this often makes the mage a walking range or melee target - and 'holding' spells will only encourage rangers to shoot from afar.

Rangers

 * Advantages - With light, articulated armour for optimum ranging, the ranger is able to substitute what his or her armour lacks in physical Defence with magical resistance. This makes the ranger a strong adversary for the mage, who will find a foe that is well defended against magical attacks while also being able to attack from long distances.


 * Disadvantages - To keep nimble, the ranger has sacrificed a large element of his or her armour's melee Defence. A hand-to-hand combatant will be able to aim attacks at the joints and other unprotected areas with relative ease, as long as they can get close enough to do so.

Anti-Player Killing (Obsolete)
Anti-Player Killing (Anti-PKing, sometimes called PKKing, or Player Killer Killing) was the act of killing a Pker. Anti-Pking was around for as long as PKing was. An Anti-PKer is someone who only ever attacked a PKer's (i.e. Only attacking players with skulls) and never attacks anyone else. Some RuneScape clans were "Anti-PKing clans" and only ever killed PKers. Ironically, Anti-PKers often made more money than PKers, as the players they kill were skulled with drops from other players. Due to Pking in the wilderness being transferred into Bounty Hunter, players don't have to deal with PKers unless they are PKing also.