Server

A Server or World is a computer which hosts RuneScape. Servers are maintained by Jagex and are distributed across the real world. Each world allows 2000 players to be connected at once. There are currently 144 worlds (two are German-speaking), but more are routinely added.

Isolation of worlds
A player may be logged in to at most one server at any given time.

For the most part, events that occur in one world will not affect any other RuneScape world. For example, buying an item in a shop will only decrease the inventory for the shop in that world. Shop inventory, character and item respawns, and ore regeneration are all managed individually for each server. Additionally, players (along with chat messages) contained in one world will not be visible to players in another world.

World hopping
Because each world has its own shop inventory, players will often change worlds rapidly to buy from one store many different times. Also players often switch worlds to find more favorable conditions (e.g. more populated) for minigames, player killing or trading. This technique is known as world hopping.

Interaction between worlds
The only possible interaction between RuneScape worlds is private chat using the Friend list.

Persistence of character state
When a user logs off of a world, all settings particular to that character are saved to the player's account profile in a global database. Therefore, when logging into a different world, the character's skills, inventory, etc. will be restored to the same state, regardless of which server the character last logged onto.

Themed servers / worlds
In August 2007 Jagex will add a new column to the world select screen highlighting those worlds with associated activities, especially those team-based events like Trouble Brewing, to make it easier to find people with similar ideas.

Player worlds
Certain worlds have become specialised by the player-base for particular tasks. These guidelines are useful for tasks that require a lot of people (e.g. minigames), as they define a meeting place for people hoping to work together with others.