MAY 8, 2023 – The first set of diversity and inclusion changes is coming to OSRS.
After the second pride parade in Old School RuneScape’s history earlier in 2022, Jagex has decided to conclude the year with more changes to make OSRS more inclusive of gender and identity diversity. Some of the changes seem to go one step further than necessary. For example, you won’t have to pay any OSRS GP at the barber in Falador to change your haircut. This goes hand in hand with any changes to the base character model, for which you won’t have to pay OSRS gold. You will still need to go and visit the NPCs responsible for such changes physically, but enjoy them for free.
Character Base Model
- Body
Another NPC that won’t charge any OSRS GP for changing your appearance is Thessalia in Varrock. She can give your character in the OSRS accounts for sale you have a look makeover meaning that she will let you change how the basic bottom and chest piece looks when you’re not wearing your Bandos Tassets or Chestplate, for example. This was priced at 500 OSRS gold per piece, but since it wasn’t an actual gold sink and the GE tax is doing a fantastic job taking out currency, you’ll be able to enjoy free cosmetic necessities. Browsing Thessalia’s store is also a requirement for the easy Varrock diary. Hence, if you visit her to change what you’re wearing when not wearing anything, remember to browse her store to complete the task.
- Shoes
If you want a new pair of basic shoes that will be displayed whenever you are not wearing any equipable ones, you will need to go to Rellekka and right-click or interact with Ysra. Before the change, she would have taxed you a small amount of OSRS gold for modifying how your shoes look, but now you’ll be able to pick either the basic or the elven model in 6 varieties of colors each. The models are slightly different if you play on a male or female character.
- Hair
The hairdresser in Falador is the third NPC that can change the basic appearance of your character, and he will now do it free of charge. While the options for clothing and shoes are pretty scarce, when it comes to hairstyle and hair color, you will have a relatively wide range to choose from: 25 colors, 24 hairstyles, and 15 beard styles. The hairdresser will still discriminate based on the gender of your character and will only let you grow a beard on male characters.
- Makeover Mage
The fourth NPC that will help you is the makeover mage, located southwest of Falador, who helps turn you into a goblin during the land of the goblins quest.
This NPC will change the gender of your character and will also let you pick a new skin color if you’re not happy with your original choices. There are 13 skin colors, including some bold shades such as purple, blue, or green.
Quests
The diversity and inclusion changes are also modifying a few quests that could be questionable from this perspective.
- Throne of Miscellania and Royal Trouble
The Throne of Miscellania and its follow-up quest, Royal Trouble, used to oblige the players to date and marry a prince if on a female character or a princess if on a male character. Now you can choose to date or even become best friends with the prince or the princess, regardless of your character’s gender. This brings more inclusion because it will give you the freedom to
Select options that account for more orientations, or if you don’t identify with any of the still very restrictive options, you can become best friends.
- Recruitment Drive
Recruitment drive was a quest well known for discriminating whether you’re playing on a male or female character, as you could only kill an NPC from the quest as a female. The quest has been changed, and a different puzzle has been added to replace the fight as a female.
- The Feud
The feud is a desert quest where you’ll have to speak and interact with numerous NPC whose names are Ali, followed by their profession or something representative of their role within the world. This could be perceived as racial, so after the quest, all NPCs appear under more individualized names.
Ham Members
Ham members are an excellent target for pickpocketing. However, male ham members used to have a different level requirement than female ham members and a different drop table. To make things fair, you’ll be able to pickpocket both female and male ham members with 15 thieving, and you’ll be given the same amount of XP when you successfully steal from them.
They are usually pickpocketed for the easy clue scrolls they drop, which is an excellent way to earn OSRS GP, because of some of the valuables you can get from the reward caskets.
Another change is that the barbarian village inhabitants will now drop clue scrolls, potentially replacing the ham members’ meta for obtaining easy clue scrolls. Mainly because you have a much closer teleport in the form of the skull sceptre teleport, which will take you to the middle of the barbarian village, whereas running to the Ham hideout could take more time. This means faster trips, so more OSRS gold per total from easy clue scrolls.