Safe In Our World goes to RuneFest 2025

Don your party hats, Safe In Our World partnered with Jagex to put mental health on the agenda at RuneFest 2025.

RuneFest 2025 may be over, but the memories will last forever. The team at Safe In Our World are back from their adventures at RuneFest, the world’s biggest and best real-world celebration of RuneScape.

RuneFest brings RuneScape to life

For those who don’t know, RuneScape is a hugely popular fantasy MMORPG developed and published by Jagex in 2001. Set in the vast fantasy world of Gielinor, rich in lore and possibilities, players complete quests, level up their skills, and share special moments with friends – which is exactly what we did at RuneFest this year! 

On arrival at the event, the team were blown away by the attention to detail in set dressing. We entered through a giant castle gate and found ourselves in an atmospheric RuneScape village, bathed in dappled light and swirling mist. 

After getting our bearings (and our coffee), we made a loop of the hall to discover all the fantastical activities that Jagex had created this year, to let players level up their skills IRL! 

Your quest? Make friends!

We collected our welcome bags – backpacks brimming with RuneScape goodies, including a high-quality faux leather-bound notebook, and set of trading cards. These cards were the best icebreaker to meet and befriend other eventgoers! 

All you had to do to strike up a conversation is have your cards to hand, and fellow adventurers would be drawn in by the promise of trade. This activity is a great example of social and mental health accessibility. 

Going to an event like this can be daunting, especially if you’re going alone, or if you struggle with meeting new people. Being given a tangible goal from the get-go, and a way to start up a conversation to get past that awkwardness, is such an ingenious way to connect people at events, and we hope to see more of this in the future. 

Collecting a set of four cards of one type (e.g. ore, gems, fish, logs or runes) would earn you a skill token. We took our trading cards to the Grand Exchange and gained our first token.

An Army Of WOM

Then it was time to build a WOM (Wise Old Man). We grabbed a table and got creative with a fun little activity included in our welcome packs. The goal was simple, pop out and stick layers of printed card together to make an iconic 3D RuneScape character. 

Once we’d finished, we had the choice to take the mighty WOM with us (which of course we did) or leave him to the army (or graveyard) of Wise Old Men, forming at the end of the tables.

We’re the Eggsperts

Following some time at the main stage, learning about all RuneScape has to offer, and exciting updates for the future, we decided to go for the Hunting skill token – which involved diving into a huge crate of hay to hunt for eggs. 

Two things we excel at as a team: 1. improving the mental health and wellbeing of the games industry and gaming communities, 2. finding rubber eggs.

We absolutely smashed that activity and had a basket of eggs so full that it almost instantly tipped the weighing scales. So, that’s another skill chip in the bag!

Say “Cheese”!

Of course, the day would not be complete without some Goblin Diplomacy, though we’re not sure what dispute we were resolving (other than whether or not we look absolutely amazing)! But since we got a skill token for our photoshoot, I think we were pretty convincing.

And so, we went for a long rest at the nearby hotel, to ready up for a full day staffing the Charity Marketplace with our friends at Special Effect and Blueprint For All. Little did we know how amazing Day 2 was going to be!

A Thoughtful Quest

It was an early start as we had to get the market stalls all dressed up around the Well of Goodwill. Our shared activity as one of the three charities was to ask three questions: 

“What advice would you give to your younger self?”
– Blueprint For All

“What are you thankful for in this moment, and what are you learning from this adventure?”
– Safe In Our World

“What are your hopes for the future of accessibility?”
– Special Effect

Answering these three questions would earn players a special Party Hat Charity Pin Badge, but it also gave players a moment to reflect on their journey. They could take their answers away with them, or pin them to the giant board, which quickly filled with thoughtful and introspective answers that had us all feeling so thankful for the community.

Reading the wall, and listening to the stories of players, we came to appreciate what makes the RuneScape community so special. It’s a community of creativity and kindness.

Reflections on the RuneScape community

Everyone is on their own journey, but there’s always space to help others. There’s a comradery among players, and a willingness to listen and learn and teach. 

Sharing a passion for RuneScape creates bonds of friendship and even partnership. People came as couples, as families, as friends who’d known each other for decades.

We are so thankful to have been part of what felt like a very special event for so many, and to witness the positivity and compassion of a community like no other. The event ended, visitors exited, and we got to packing up… but even then, we weren’t ready for what would come next.

staying behind after @RuneFest 2025 closes to clap and cheer the event organisers and volunteers

is the BIGGEST green flag we ever did see from a games community 💚 pic.twitter.com/SJ88UrjLpe

— Safe In Our World (@SafeInOurWorld) March 5, 2025

After a round of applause for all the volunteers and the Jagex team, we all headed to the exit, to be met by a crowd of players and eventgoers. They’d stayed in the NEC, waiting at the entrance, to clap and cheer the event organisers, the team and the volunteers for hosting such a great event.

The Safe In Our World team walked through a corridor of cosplayers and RuneScape fans, whooping and clapping and celebrating what had been the best two days, and two very special days that our team will never forget.