Is there a way to play runescape without downloading activex? Sometimes I'm stuck on campus for awhile inbetween classes and the comp lab doesn't have activex installed.

Yes, considering you can run it on browsers that do not support ActiveX at all. Is it possible on IE? I wouldn't know, I've never had a reason to try it. Getting another browser (Preferably one that can be used off of a portable media and doesn't require installation, such as Firefox Portable) would be the easiest way to do so. I don't see why RS should require activeX at all though, since it's a Java applet.

I'm pretty sure Runescape and Active X don't have much in common. I was able to play rs with activex disabled, so your problem is probably with java itself.