Runescape Christmas 2012: A Stray In a Manger

A Stray in a Manger finally came out on 19 December, 2012.  It was so close to Christmas, I was starting to wonder if Runescape would get the update done in time.  Christmas content in Geilinor has had it's ups and downs.  Some fun, some not so fun.  The rewards over the years have had their ups and downs as well.

This year was one of my favorites.  I'm pretty certain it was Monique's all-time favorite Christmas special.  She's taken extra care of the Runescape stray dog for years.  Never kicks him away.  Always brings him a bone.  Even though he's a creature made of painted light, her heart goes out to him.  I guess he personifies all the real life strays that she would take in if possible.

To a lesser degree, it's the same for me.  After years of seeing the RS mongrel wandering around Varrock, it feels good to see him (and 3 other specially chosen strays) get some attention.

When you talk to your Snow Imp (near the Draynor Lodestone) he'll explain why he's the "pet Santa" this year.  Then ask for your help.  Finding the 4 dogs is quick and simple.  Putting the antlers on them and seeing them float up and away was an inspired touch.  Funny, yet heart-warming.

Your Snow Imp has different names for different players.  Mine was Morris.  Monique's was named Barry.  Go back to him, he'll ask you to clean up the strays.  Give them a quick bath, encounter an angry flea, and you get a small cutscene where he and the dogs depart for their night of deliveries.

After the work is done, you get to choose your favorite stray to adopt (but you can change your mind later and pick another dog).  Your Imp gives you a Kennel Flatpack, which becomes the basic dog house.  After that, you get the Gift of Giving.  Don't ask where it comes from.  You'll be sorry when you find out.  If you trade the Gift of Giving with other players, it continually renews itself and gives you more items.  Mostly, upgrades for the dog house.

After completing the adventure, I talked with Morris again, and he asked if I could help him find 4 lost implings.  When trading the Gift of Giving with other players, there's a chance of getting one of the 4 implings in a glass jar.  Use them on your imp, and he will award 50,000 bonus exp in Hunting... per impling.  That's a max of 200,000 bonus hunting exp!

The experience is doled out like the skill pendants.  You get the extra experience as you're hunting.  Once your GoG (gift of giving) has given you all 4 implings, and all the unique doghouse upgrades, it starts giving out junk items from previous holidays.  Nothing cool, just food and firecrackers.

You can't bank the Gift of Giving, but it will stay with you if you log out and back in.  To get enough unique players (you can't continue to swap the GoG with the same player), I moved to different worlds a few times.  World 60 was a good one.

If you destroy the GoG, the Imp will 'sick up' a new one upon request. But it doesn't take long to complete if you just keep trading.  I finished mine and then destroyed it.

Beyond "A Stray in A Manger", there are Christmas Implings flying around to catch, they'll drop the junk items too, and rarely the doghouse upgrades, but it's easier to get the upgrades by trading the GoG.  And Tradeable Christmas Gifts came out too.

The Tradeable Christmas Gifts can be had from the Squeal of Fortune (got two that way), and from random monster drops.  Or like Strange Rocks, while you're skilling.  Collect enough unique gift boxes, and you can combine them for better rewards.  If you don't have unique ones, you can trade other players, but not on the GE.  They have to be traded the old-fashioned way, player to player.  The rewards include mince pies, mistletoe (which comes with a 'kissing' emote) a Christmas Pudding amulet that grants bonus xp while training, and a Christmas Tree hat.  That last is supposed to be quite rare, and tradeable.
If you don't get all the unique colored gifts you're hunting for, you can trade with other players to complete your collection.

The only one that really catches my eye is the pudding amulet.  It grants double XP on the next 68,800 experience earned while being worn.  That's the max experience you can get, even if you have more than one amulet.  Stacks with the Festive Aura, which is nice.

This Christmas Runescape really hit a home run.  A heartwarming story, a permanent home for your chosen stray dog (and a flea circus!), and lots of customizing options.  Plenty of Christmas Implings to chase for fun.  Lots of player to player interaction with all the trading going on.  A very tasty exp reward in Hunting, plus the exp of the Pudding amulet.  And all the decorative rewards.

This was a satisfyingly rich Christmas offering.  As always, the forums are full of complaints.  Ignore the Scrooges saying "Bah humbug."  Go give your dog a home!

Runescape Double Dungeoneering- My favorite Winter Weekend Special!

Runescape has been incredibly busy recently.  I can hardly keep up with the new quests, the Player Owned Ports, the Festive Aura, the Winter Weekend specials, the (soon to come) Stray Dog Christmas Event...  

I've certainly missed some, but that gets the point across.  I'm starting to think they're throwing so much out so fast because of the Evolution of Combat release.  

Since EOC came out, there's been a very vocal group that hates it.  Chances are, a number of those people just haven't truly tried it.  All this new content, especially the Tzhaar grandmaster quest, is serving to familiarize us with the new interfaces, and to bury EOC behind a flock of new content.  With so much going on, EOC becomes old news, and not so important.  

When EOC first started, there was plenty I hated, but was willing to give a fair chance.  Still not happy about losing the functionality of Enhanced Excalibur II, but on the whole EOC has become a lot of fun.  

Particularly in Dungeoneering.  Aside from daily challenges, I haven't done Dungeoneering much.  As a matter of fact, my 99 in the skill is mainly due to daily challenges, exp bonuses, and the Jack of Trades Aura.  

Last weekend, the Winter Weekend special was double dungeoneering exp (and tokens).  So Monique and I put some serious time into Daemonheim.  We duo dungeoned for nearly 30 floors, taking our time, having fun.  With the binds being 'bankable' up to 10 items, we both needed to rearrange our possessions. We hunted for Grave Creeper wood, and made bows and magic staves.  Searched for Promethium to upgrade her armor, but for some reason, Promethium was in hiding.  

It was a lot of fun.  The new binding system gives more options than we used to have.  EOC means we have lots of really cool attacks and graphics.  The rebalancing means our experience is a lot more appropriate to our levels.  The easier floors are... easy.  I don't really start needing food until around floor 49.  Until then, EOC abilities are enough to keep my hp high.  

Most things can't kill me unless I'm being stupid... except for Blink.  I hate Blink.  

We both leveled up over the weekend.  Enjoyed the bonus exp.  Best of all, it reminded us how great Dungeoneering is.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll finally start getting those long-delayed Chaotics!

Runescape Player Owned Ports Review

Player Owned Ports came out this week (Mid-December, 2012).  Billed as a mini-game for high-level players, it has a requirement of at least 90 in one of the following skills:  Fishing, Slayer, Runecrafting, Herblore, Prayer, or Thieving.  To get the most from the game, you should be at least 90 in ALL of those skills.  To be honest, I'm thrilled.  Something targeted specifically for high-level players has been greatly needed.  Not to be 'elitist', but because it gives all players something to look toward as they raise their levels.  Plus players that already qualify have content that's fun to do, and rewards commensurate with our levels.

It's taking me a while to get the hang of it, but so far I'm enjoying the mini-game a lot.  It reminds me of Kingdom managing at Miscellania, with a bit of Sim City mixed in.  The first day seemed a bit overwhelming.  I made the mistake of clicking the green arrows for mission selection, not realizing it was "re-rolling" for replacement missions with every click.  I thought it was just scrolling through the list, and wound up burning through most of my first day's missions without getting to do them.

By the second day, things made a lot more sense.  At the beginning, the game is mostly about building up everything.  I'm sure that as it progresses, more emphasis will shift to clever resource management, rather than just upgrading everything in sight.


There's a very extended introductory walkthrough that mixes theatrical cutscenes with an interactive guide.  In terms of introducing the story, and the concepts involved, it's well told.  I enjoyed the cinematic aspect.  As a tutorial, it was kind of weak.  Glossed way too quickly over everything, and didn't explain enough detail.  As an intro it was great, but for a tutorial, we need a more involved and in-depth approach.  Maybe a 'point-and-click query to explain things as they're needed, available at any time.  More like a 'help' command.  The Runescape site itself has a good description of much of the game, though it's not a strategy guide.

POP is a lot of fun in its own right, but let's be honest... I'm here for the armor!  There's high-level armor for all three combat classes, all of which require at least level 85 combat to wear.  They all require at least 90 in their associated skill (Smithing, Crafting, and Runecrafting for each respective armor set.)  The armor sets don't look bad, but could look better.  Oh well.  I still want them.

The armor comes in two levels, a slightly weaker tradeable version, and a stronger untradeable version.  Both degrade, but the tradeable one degrades to destruction.  The untradeable sets can be repaired, either with resources or gold.  There's been some grumbling on the forums because they degrade.  I don't mind, in either case.  Primarily, I want this armor for myself, and don't see any problem with fixing it periodically.  The tradeable version is a clever design on Jagex's part to provide a consumable resource.  The armor will always need to be replaced, so it will constantly have a demand.  It'll be a lot cheaper than the (up till now) current highest level armors.  That should keep the value reasonable, and give port-owners ongoing rewards.

Other nice rewards include Rocktail Soup, which is now the best food in the game.  Made with Rocktail, and Spices from  the player owned port, again Runescape has given a great reward and a reason to continue playing the mini-game.  At first people were paying ridiculous money for it, though at this moment it's going for about 5,000 gold.

The final reward is Scrimshaws, the new item worn in our 'pocket'.  It will boost specific skills or abilities, requires 85 fletching or higher, depending on which one you want to make.  As with the armor, scrimshaws come in tradeable and untradeable versions with higher stat boosts to the untradeable ones.

The graphics are beautiful.  Very pleasing to look at.  There's a lot of voice-acting with the characters.  It's well-done, but maybe not quite as good as some of the recent quests.  When I was talking with the Siren, Monique wanted to know who the sexy woman was that I was flirting with...

The controls and menu interfaces are initially confusing.  The first day, I didn't know if I'd ever get it, but just played around, made mistakes, and learned.  Bynow it's making a lot more sense.  The wiki has a pretty good description and strategy suggestions.  I don't think this kind of game really lends itself to a step-by-step guide.  There are too many ways to play, and too many options to choose from.  The best way to play is read through the Wiki strategy tips, then just play.  You'll pick it up as you go.

There's a huge amount of depth, lots of different storylines, randoms, multiple rewards, mini-mini-games, and re-playability.  Most updates flood the Runescape forums with haters and whiners.  I don't mean rational, objective reviews or suggestions.  But I'm sure you've seen the posts like "Fix it now, give me back my lost xxxx, or I quit!"  Every update just seems to bring out the worst in the forums.

Not Player Owned Ports.  This time, the forums are full of happy players, tips and advice on how to play, and objective comments on suggested improvements.  The overall tone has been very positive.  That alone indicates what an overwhelming success POP is.  Runescape really did well.  They needed something strongly positive after all the complaints about EOC.  (There are still complaints, but there's always going to be some no matter what.)  I'm sure right now there are lots of happy employees among the Jagex staff.


Personally, I love this update.  It's added a lot of fun to my gameplay, and it's a very cool reward for all the time spent leveling my character.  I can't wait to advance and start earning some armor!

Runescape Crafting 99 Cape

Well... it's a cape.  Not very pretty, but it sure cost a lot.

Didn't expect it for another week or two,but this weekend marked 99 Skill in Crafting.  It's an expensive skill, and my thought was to do 30 minutes a day with the Festive Aura using Green Dragon Leather.  Plus Daily Challenges, and Mining Urns when the money ran low (because they're profitable). 
Then Runescape changed the Prismatic Pendants.  For a while, you could only ever have one pendant for any skill (a Squeal of Fortune reward).  New prismatic pendants could only be used for a skill you didn't already have a pendant in, even if it was destroyed.  I had 23 in the bank, plus some Prized Prismatic Pendants.  Didn't junk them because it seemed like such a waste not to be able to use multiples in a single skill.  There were a lot of complaints in the forums from skillers with only a few skills left to train. 

Now you can use up a pendant, destroy it, and assign a new prismatic pendant to the same skill.  Friday Night I got 96 Crafting, and very nearly made it to the next level.  Saturday was a surprise game day.  Monique and I played Runescape in a full-day-long marathon.  It was great- all day long, just relaxing and playing.

Thanks to the boosted experience from the Festive Aura, the Wisdom Aura, and 23 Prismatic Pendants in a row used for Crafting, on Saturday my Crafting went fro 96, to 97, to 98.  Plus about a third of the way to 99.  Got up early Sunday morning, watched a Bruce Lee movie (Way of the Dragon) and a Schwarzenneger movie (The Running Man), and finished the 99.

The cape is a mild disappointment.  Kind of bland.  Same with the animation.  Carve a cat out of a block of wood, hold it over my head.  What?  That's the best they could come up with?  Thanks, but for now, going to keep wearing my Dungeoneering cape.  It has 3 different emotes, and they're ALL cool!

Next goal is going to be Fletching.  It's the most afk'able skill left to do, and I'm looking forward to not having so pay so much attention.  Then Hunting, then Farming.  Going to hate Farming.  After that, it'll just be a matter of getting Dungeoneering level 120.  Should keep me busy for a long long time...  :^)