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Please note this is a ‘Safe’ minigame. There is nothing to kill you here, unless you are poisoned.

The Prince of Burthorpe is well known for his love of games and puzzles. The Prince has decided to open his games rooms to the public, hoping to attract the best gamers from around RuneScape.

The stairs down to the Burthorpe games rooms can be found in the entrance hall of the Prince’s Castle in Burthorpe. The village of Burthorpe is located North of the Heroes’ Guild.

You can get to Burthorpe by either walking or using a Games Necklace. Games Necklaces can be bought from other players, or you may wish to make one yourself.

For more information on crafting and enchanting jewellery, please see the crafting and the magic sections.

There are no skill or quest requirements to use the game rooms.

No items are needed when visiting the Burthorpe Games Room.

Once that you have climbed down the stairs you will be greeted by Rachael the barmaid, who will tell you some information about the games.

There are currently four games that you can play in the games room, Runelink, Draughts, Runesquares and Runeversi. The empty rooms will be used for future expansion. If the games rooms prove to be popular, these rooms will be opened up for many other games.

You start off at rank 1000. When you play someone else you automatically “stake” some of your rank and the other player does the same.

When playing someone of a much lower level you will stake a lot, but the other player will stake very little. On the other hand, if you are playing someone much higher, you will stake very little but stand to gain a lot. If you win, you will gain the other player’s stake. If you lose, you will lose what you staked.

Whilst you can challenge players anywhere in the games rooms, there are two dedicated challenge rooms. If you go into one of the rooms, you will see the board for the game appear on your main window. You will also be able to see your own rank and other players’ ranks, when you right click them. If you become experienced enough, you will be able to go up the ladder to the elite challenge room, where you only find other experienced players.

Draughts is a game of strategy and takes more time and thought than Runelink. To play, go to the Draughts challenge room located on the West and challenge another player. You will then be teleported to the game room and your game shall begin.

Both players begin with twelve of their chosen rune. Your goal is to capture all of your opponents rune pieces before they take yours. In order to do this you need to move the rune pieces diagonally forward and jump your opponents pieces. Once one of your runes reaches the opposite end of the board, it becomes a King and is able to move both forward and backwards diagonally.

Points to remember:

• You can only move and jump diagonally on the dark squares.
• You must always take a jump.
• A normal piece can only move forwards.
• A ‘King’ is able to move both forwards and backwards.
• If your time limit runs out one of your pieces will be automatically moved.

Draughts uses these standard rules apart from when no piece has been taken or moved in forty turns. In this case a draw is declared.

The dedicated Runelink room is located in the South East corner of the games room.

The objective of Runelink is to connect four of your runes in a row to win. The first player to connect 4 Runes either diagonally, horizontally, or vertically wins the game.

To begin, you will need to challenge another player by right clicking on them and selecting “Challenge”, you then choose the game and can modify some options. You can choose the rune that you want to use as your game piece. Other options set the time allowed per move and whether or not the game will affect your rank. Please remember that as with Draughts, if your time limit runs out, one of your pieces will be automatically moved.

If you wish to take a break from playing, you can observe other peoples games by clicking on a game table that’s being used by other players. You can watch their game to see who’s winning or to check out their tactics!

The Runeversi room is located in the south-east corner of the games room.

Runeversi is the Prince’s version of Reversi. The object of this game is to have more of your runes on the board than your opponent. You can take your opponents pieces by trapping them between your own.

To begin, players will first have to choose their own game piece and set the time allowed per move and whether or not the game will affect your rank.

Both players, in turn will place one of their runes by left clicking onto a vacant square on the board. A rune may only be placed if it captures one or more of your opponent’s runes. Once placed, a rune never moves, though it can be flipped so that it changes rune types.

To capture one or more of your opponent’s runes you must trap them between two of your runes. Your opponent’s runes will then change into your rune type. This can be done by a horizontal row of runes, a vertical column of runes, a diagonal line of runes or a combination of these.

The game is over once the board is full. The winner is the one with the most pieces, however, if both players have the same number of runes on the board, the game is a tie.

The Runesquares room is located in the south-west corner of the games room.

Runesquares is a simple two player game. The objective is to box in more of the board than your opponent. To begin, each player takes it in turn to draw a line between two adjacent grid points by clicking the left mouse button on their desired position.

When a player completes the fourth side of a box their chosen rune will appear in it and they may continue to play until they are unable to complete a box.

The game ends when no more lines can be placed. The player who has filled in the largest amount of the board is the winner.

Time to brush up on your boardgame skills!