OSRS’s Pride event brings even more love to Old School RuneScape with a Love Crossbow reward
The first time Jagex brought a pride event to Old School RuneScape was in 2017. This event sparked fervent discussions within the community. Many players felt that the event carried excessive political undertones, making it seem out of place and “irrelevant” within the game’s context. This sentiment might even resonate with you. The event announcement made on Mod Wolf’s personal Twitter was met with significant opposition. Thankfully, now that we’re in 2023, things have gotten better.
A Lull Happened
Looking back at the tumultuous response from the community in 2017, it’s evident that it led to a significant pause, with no new Pride events until 2022, since the J-mods were scared that a similar event would cause similar reactions from the community. Given the initial hostile reaction, it became apparent that in 2022, preventative steps were needed to avoid any potential anti-LGBT protests.
Actions such as disabling Dwarf multicannons, Hunter traps, mithril seeds, and fires around the event could be considered wise. Also, implementing sanctions like muting and banning players deliberately causing disruptions may have seemed harsh but necessary to maintain order.
Taking the Necessary Precautions
Even though after 2017, Jagex expected the 2022 event to be even more eventful in the sense of having to deal with a similar situation, and they were ready to ban players spreading the hate, this wasn’t the case, and the 2022 event went smoother than expected.
This made Jagex even more confident that celebrating diversity has a place in Old School RuneScape, so they returned the event for the second consecutive year. The 2023 Pride event celebrates and promotes the inclusion of all players, regardless of their sexual orientation or whether they identify with LGBTQA+ or not.
Walkthrough
The event was available for both F2P and members in Varrock. To start the event, you would need to go to the Blue moon inn, and the best way to get there fast is using a Varrock teleport tablet or the Varrock teleport spell from your standard spellbook and then walk south.
Once you arrive at the inn, you must speak to 4 NPCs trying to write love letters. Agree to help them, and they will give you poetry scrolls. For each of the poetry scrolls, you will have to fill in two lines:
- For Gregory’s scroll, use Spring and soil
- For Bethan, use the fly and riverbank
- For Quinton, use teller’s boot and shines
- For Tabbitha’s scrolls, use guard and protect with my life
After you fill in the scrolls, talk to Anie and then to the fairy that spawns. Pick up your follower if you have one and talk to the poets. Each of them will give you new scrolls that will indicate the locations where you need to travel to.
The most efficient route is to go to Tabbitha first in Varrock Castle. Cast the Varrock teleport spell, break a Varrock teleport tablet, and walk north. Cast the spell again and walk east to get to varrocks east bank for Quinton.
Use the Combat’s bracelet to champion’s guild or the Chronicle if you’re f2p to help Gregory, then finally use the Skull Scpetre to teleport to the Stronghold of Security entrance in the Barbarian Village west of Varrock to help Bethan.
After this, walk across the river and speak to the Love fairy to claim your rewards.
Rewards
The Pride event consists of two elements: a game march resembling the actual IRL Pride march and an in-game event where you’ll earn a few cosmetic rewards, including a love crossbow.
This year’s event took place between June 7 and June 28, and similarly to the other seasonal events, its completion granted you not only this year’s rewards but the rewards from the previous year’s events also, and even though you cannot turn them into OSRS GP, they are still nice assets for your Fashion Scape.
For the completion of the event, you will get the following:
- Two Cakes
- Love Crossbow
- Poet’s Jacket
- Rainbow Jumper
A Summary of Pride March 2023
The Pride March took place on June 8th, 2023, and it started at the fairy, where you claimed your rewards for the in-game event. The march had 4 dedicated worlds: 500, 427, 476, and 435, and the World 500 was livestreamed by the Jmods, who also included a giveaway of 30 pride t-shirts. Even though the livestream didn’t keep players updated about the OSRS gold price, it followed the parade from the barbarian village to Varrock Lumbridge, Drynore Village, Rimmington, and Falador, and it ended at Falador’s party room.