Part of this motive Old School Runescape is really bad at describing itself comes down to its heritage. A decade ago, there wasn't any Old School Runescape. There was just Runescape. But after a significant update totally overhauled Runescape and turned it into what has become colloquially called OSRS gold, Jagex ran a poll to determine if players desired independent servers in which they might play Runescape as it was back in the day.
Almost 500,000 people said yes, and Old School Runescape was born. So, the threadbare tutorial is more than sufficient for people who've played Runescape earlier (such as myself). That said, Old School could still stand to guide new players a bit better, because it is completely unlike other MMOs.
Everybody has the same 23 abilities, which can broadly be grouped into combat abilities like Strength and Ranged, crafting skills such as Herblore and Fletching, and collecting skills such as Fishing and Mining. All skills start at level one and move up to 99 as you get experience by dealing damage, crafting potions, catching fish and so forth.
In other words, you're not a mage, you've got high Magic. You're not a warrior, but you've got high Attack, Power, and Defence. Your skills reflect your playstyle, but there is not a hard division between personality types. Everyone is encouraged to level all their skills, and the ending goal for the majority of players is to get all them to 99.
Old School Runescape also does not play just like most MMOs. It lacks the customary selection of cheap RS gold ability pubs, hotkeys and cooldowns. It feels more like an old cRPG. It is introduced in simple, literal terms, and it is almost entirely mouse-operated.
