Even while we're furiously preparing for RuneFest 2014, there's still time for some great updates.

Get ready for a spooky Halloween quest and event, smarter summoned creatures, better drop tables for beasts and ghosts, and an ironclad challenge - this October in RuneScape!

Ironman Mode

Free players and members

Ever wondered how fast you could progress through RuneScape without the help of anyone else? No trade, no helpful multiplayer minigames, no Treasure Hunter, no LootShare, no gifts from friends? If so, Ironman is for you!

Ironman is a brand new way of playing RuneScape, developed by you, but now with official support from Jagex.

It’s all about self-sufficiency, earning or making everything you use when playing the game. You'll be able to create a new account and set it to Ironman mode, fending for yourself and knowing that all your achievements are your own.

If you’d like an even greater challenge, our Hardcore Ironman mode features permadeath with two earnable lives. After that it’s game over.

There are brand new hiscore tables to support each of the modes so you’ll be able to gloat about your adventures to everyone!

For more information about Ironman, keep an eye on Mod Pips's Ironman forum post, or watch BTS Video 119:

Smarter Familiars

Members only

Mod Chris L and team have been busy improving the way summoned creatures behave in the game, making them smarter and more useful than before.

Familiars will get involved in combat straight away and keep fighting until you tell them otherwise. They will defend you if you come under attack but are busy with other things, can store their own scrolls and can even be told how frequently to use those scrolls.

We’re also improving the way charged summoning helmets work, updating the summoning side panel and adding a 'give all' button to beasts of burden.

That’s just a few of the improvements included, so make sure you try out all the new benefits with your favourite summons once its live.

Drop Table Reworks

Free Players and Members

In poll earlier this year, you told us that ghosts and beasts needed better drops. Since the ghosts were getting so much love during this spooky month, it seemed an appropriately beastly time for the update to go live…or undead, depending on which way you look at it.

All drop tables for ghosts and beasts have now been re-balanced to make them more interesting and valuable, and high-level Slayer targets have been particularly well treated, especially the legendary dark beasts.

You’ll even find new boots for rangers scattered across those creatures, and perhaps some special new upgrades for some ghostly tools… but more on that later.

Halloween Event

Free Players and Members

If you're looking for a Halloween treat, then look no further than RS this month. We have a great new quest and a cracking new Halloween event for you to stick your fangs into.

In the event - available to all players and with no requirements - you’ll be called back to Death's house to deal with a horde of evil yet slightly disturbed ghosts who are causing Death all sorts of troubles.

Help raise his spirits by strapping on a protopack, supercharging it with active ectoplasm and tracking those pesky ghosts down before they scare you to death.

Look out for JMods using their powers to summon demons, turn you into ghosts or even spook out Gielinor by morphing into otherwise innocuous objects.

Manage your fear levels and puzzle out some spooky attacks as you tackle the ghosts plaguing death. You'll earn a funky new ghost hunter outfit, a new title, a new ability to cremate bones in fires for prayer XP...and more!

Your protopacks can be used outside of the event - upgradable via special ghost drops - to give you extra benefits and rewards while fighting ghosts elsewhere in RuneScape.

Broken Home - Halloween Quest

Members only

All jokes aside, our Halloween quest is a far more serious and disturbing tale. Sometimes we like to make something a little different from the normal RuneScape fare: something a bit darker, designed to chill the warmest of hearts.

I don't want to give you too much detail about the quest, but it’s a novice level, members-only, non-combat, puzzle-solving affair with high-level content hidden in its rewards.

In fact, it’s the first ever totally replayable quest, with growing difficulty as you try its more fiendish features. As well as XP, rewards include some pretty tasty rings that can help restore your special attack or adrenaline levels.

Ninja - Divination D&D

Members only

Since its dark and mysterious outside, the Ninja Team have been especially busy preparing a suitably powerful update for you this month.

Enjoy a new Divination D&D (as voted in the polls), entering Guthix’s hidden rune caches and gathering ancient memories of Guthix, used to improve our divination experience and divination related activities.

And More!

Solomon rolls out the new epic rest animations this month, with cool 'world draining' animation effects, martial arts moves and an impling dance. We have a few Halloween-inspired features in Treasure Hunter, too!

RuneFest 2014

I’m hugely looking forward to meeting all our RS fans at RuneFest this year, but if you don’t have a ticket you won’t miss out! Check our website and free Twitch feed during the event and there will be live videos streaming all day - on the 11th of October.

There are some special announcements happening and plenty of juicy information about what we have in store for you this year and next, so make sure you tune in. Until then, have fun - Wooters out!

Mod Mark

What is Behind the Scenes?

Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.

This, however, is only a plan - not a promise - that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.