In normal situations (outside of the Wilderness and PvP environments), when your character dies, you are allowed to choose three items that you can keep, while the other items you are carrying drop on the ground where you died. The choice of items happens in Limbo, which is less dramatic than it sounds: it is simply a screen that allows you to select three items you wish to protect and keep, and displays other useful information about your death. By default, the three protected items are the most valuable items on the Grand Exchange, but these can be exchanged for other items in your inventory or worn inventory. Borrowed items are always kept and will automatically take up one of these slots.

Some items are automatically kept when you die, and do not count towards the three items protected on death. This is because they are quest items, or are useful-but-common items that would be awkward to retrieve if you lost them. Coins are also protected in this way.

To find out which items you will keep, you can look at your 'Items Kept on Death' interface. Read the Inventory article to find out more about this feature.

When outside of the PvP areas of the Wilderness, any items you drop when you die will be protected by a gravestone (see above) for a certain amount of time. Once that time elapses, your tradeable items will be visible to all players, who are free to pick up the items for one minute before they disappear.

While in PvP areas of the Wilderness, you will not drop a gravestone and your items will become immediately visible to the player who dealt the most damage to you before your death. That player will then be able to pick up those items for a period of one minute - after this time, the items become visible to all other players. If you are killed by other methods in the Wilderness, or if you drop items deliberately on the floor, your items will become immediately visible to everyone in the vicinity, and they will be able to pick those items up. In all of these instances, it is unlikely that you will be able to return to the point where you died to retrieve your items. This makes the Wilderness a truly high-risk area to explore. Read the Wilderness page for more information.

If your Prayer level is high enough, you will be able to use the 'Protect Item' prayer or curse to hold on to one extra item when you die. So, if you die normally, you will be able to retain four items, and if you die in the Wilderness you will hold onto one item, as long as the prayer is active when you die. You will not be able to use the 'Protect Item' prayer or curse on a High-risk Wilderness world.

There is a chance that you can get your items back, as long as you're quick or have friends near where you were slain. Unless you were killed in PvP areas of the Wilderness (at which point your items drop to the floor and become immediately visible to other players), you may drop several of your items when you die and a gravestone will appear at that spot, guarding your possessions and acting as a warning to others. This gravestone will remain in place for between five and fifteen minutes (depending on your gravestone - see above). A timer will appear in the game window letting you know how long your gravestone has left, and the icon to the left will appear on the world map (as long as you have the 'You are here' marker visible) to let you know where your gravestone is. Please note that if you died in an area for which there isn't a map (like the Underground Pass), you obviously won't be able to see it on the map, but your gravestone will be there and the timer will count down as normal.

If you die in a special area, such as certain times in quests, your gravestone will appear next to the entrance to that area, giving you a chance to collect your items without having to worry about being killed again.

As your time runs out, your gravestone will begin to crumble. A friendly player can fix up your gravestone by right-clicking and selecting 'Repair'. They need to have a Prayer level of 2 to do so.

Alternatively, a player may choose to 'Bless' your gravestone, imbuing it with the strength of their faith to keep it in place for up to an hour. This requires a Prayer level of 70.

Note that, regardless of when the gravestone was blessed, it will crumble to dust one hour after you died. It will also collapse if you die again and drop more items, although your items may remain available for a while longer if your gravestone has been repaired or blessed recently. If you lose your connection or log out, your gravestone will continue to count down.

To make it easier to get to your items when you return, you (and only you!) can right-click on your gravestone and select 'Demolish'. This won't make your items vanish immediately, so you should still be able to pick them up before they despawn.

Yes! Your gravestone will look the same even when playing on a free world. Because many people there will not have access to the same range of styles, you'll be able to spot your gravestone even more easily in an area littered with the bodies of the slain.