Well, here’s yet another update to make pures flock to the Rants forum to whine. With the addition of Gravestones, player killers can no longer gain the loot from the slain unless they wait for a bit. Not just that, but players who happen to be around guys with expensive things when they die don’t get a thing. Of course, even the pking they once did for their RuneScape living has changed. That’s another story.

To see these new gravestones, go to free to play Lumbridge or any other spot where you’d think there are lots of deaths, and move around a bit. They shouldn’t be that hard to find. Before this gravestone update, whatever the unfortunate dead player was carrying would have landed on the ground for passersby to grab. Now, the player can go back to the spot where he died (made easier by the close proximity of a spawn point in this case) and reclaim his items safely. But is there more of an effect on the RuneScape world than just convenience to players who frequent death.

Gravestones don’t just help the newbies that believe they are “teh l33t” and run to take on powerful monsters after they first start. I’m sure many players have had a short burst of lag in a fight and have died. Unfortunately, as of the time this article was written, when you log out your gravestone disappears with your items. Therefore, if you “lag out” of the game while your gravestone is up, your items are toast. Only this time, someone walking by won’t get phr33 st00f.

The gravestones also affect lots of players. People are, to an extent, less likely to buy expensive things to keep them alive as before, since basically the death penalty has been lessened. It is now just courteous to repair gravestones you pass by, which means even if you have the simple wooden grave marker you have a good chance of getting to your own gravestone to recover your items. Blessing a gravestone requires 70 Prayer, and can keep a gravestone in place for an hour. Repairing a gravestone requires 2 Prayer and 5 Prayer points, and it will keep the gravestone in place for about another five minutes.

There are several kinds of gravestones, ranging from the simple wooden marker in the ground to a spectacular stone monument. Gravestones are also a small money drain, yet I doubt many players spend 500,000 coins on an “Angel of Death” gravestone from Keldagrim. Even that, the best gravestone, only holds your items for 5 minutes unless someone repairs or blesses it.

If you feel the need for a better gravestone than a simple wooden memorial in F2P and you’ve done Restless Ghost, you can go to the church in Lumbridge and speak to Father Aereck. There, you can spend up to 5,000 gold coins, up to an Ornate Gravestone, which protects your items for three minutes without blessings or repair. If you’ve done The Giant Dwarf in P2P, you can go to Keldagrim and speak to Blasidar the sculptor for more gravestones. You can spend up to 500,000 coins, up to an Angel of Death, which protects your items for five minutes without blessings or repair. Blasidar’s selection of gravestones also include some gravestones with other quest requirements, such as the Ancient Symbol gravestone which requires Desert Treasure as well as The Giant Dwarf.

Gravestones aren’t just a little thing for those before-mentioned “teh l33t” players to admire. They’ve changed some of the ways of RuneScape. I still believe that Jagex will refine the gravestones in the future, but only time will tell.