An atomic bomb went off causing a meteorite covered in space mold to be sucked through a black-hole where it travelled back in time and absorbed G-cells and..

To create your OWN character in RUMPUS is like playing Othello, a second to learn and a lifetime to master. RUMPUS uses the IDEAS© system, a point-based character generation system that allows you to design your own attacks, defenses and powers as customized as you want them to be. The only limitations are your imagination, your skill with the rules, and exactly how much silliness your ref will allow! Let's take at this step by step, getting more and more complex until your brain explodes..

I. Basic Scores:

You need 9 random numbers to make your character, so either find a D10 (if you're a gamer) or hit RND on your calculator and write down the first 9 digits or go to EXCEL and type =RAND() and press F9 calc and write those down or if you can't do any of <those> write down the next 10 numbers you see in order that you see them.. 0's to be treated as 10's.

These 9 numbers are assigned to 9 basic scores:

Assign each number then compute your scores as 35 + 5 times the number you chose. Important scores that come from these:

Important Things to note: Initiative is AGL+PCN divided by 2, Prowess or the monster's chance to hit in combt

II. Using your CP:

Because RUMPUS is point-based, it means you're working to a budget: You naturally want the coolest attacks, the kind that can melt a planet, and defenses so good that they reflect all attacks, be able to travel Warp 20 and all that, but RUMPUS is a contest like Magic:TheGathering, and part of the contest is battle-tactics, part of it is luck, and part of it is who has the coolest monster. All monsters start at the same approximate power level, the ones who will come out on top will be the ones who are designed the best. I stress start at.. because once they start winning battles, they start getting stronger!

So part of your challenge in RUMPUS will be to design a mega-powerful monster, who can resist other monsters' attacks, deal the most damage back, and stay standing the longest, and there are a million ways to do it and a million ways to screw up. You have to start rationing out your cp, .. if you put all your 500 cp into one devastating attack you will likely blow any any monster you come up against in RUMPUS in your first turn, and in the next turn, you will be blasted to powder by Minya -- godzilla's son with the wimpy firecracker breath -- very embarassing.

A good way to begin is to set a starting size, design a few attacks, decide on a kind of defense, maybe a mode of travel, and then pour whatever's left back into size.

III. Size(3):

The basic size of any RUMPUS monster is 140,000 pounds, this is yours for free for playing. If you want your monster to be bigger, it costs 1 cp for every 3,000 lbs. extra. If you wanna make a cute monster who's smaller, it works the other way too -- 1cp back for 3,000 lbs. Size is a crucial factor in Body Points (how much damage a monster can take) and Strength (how much he kin dish out.)

IV. Attacks:

Attack-forms in RUMPUS can be as simple as "Claws 20" for 20CP or as complex as "Tac-Nuke missiles 3uses XT/5turns missile 250" for 20CP. That jargon-looking stuff is IDEAS modifiers, which alter the cost. There are two kinds of damage in RUMPUS, Body (disabling) and wounds (fatal). These are the basic attacks you can take in RUMPUS, and their costs:

For more attacks, and modifiers, see the full details pages in this section, but if you're a beginner, read on.. The cost of either of these attack is equal to its Level (in cp.)

To make an attack in RUMPUS,

• Declare your target, the monster you want to hit the most, and type in your IRC channel:
• save nn where is your monster's level of Coordination or Prowess, depending on the attack form.
• The RUMPUS computer will give you back a result "Tonka saved vs. 85 and got 3DG".
• To compute your damage, type dg d nn where d is the dg you just got, and nn your damage level.

So, if say Tonka the rocket turtle was using a 120-level Power Blast (one of his rockets) that does 240 Body and had a coordination of 65, he would type: save 65. If the battle computer returned 4DG, he would then type dg 4 240 and the battle-computer would read out 4DG of 240 is 10DG(100), meaning his unlucky opponent just took 100 Body damage.

V. Defenses:

Defenses in RUMPUS resist attacks. Not all rumblers have or need these, as their armored scaly hides will shrug off tanks, missiles and planes and high-tension wires like nothing.

For more defenses, see the full details section. Like attacks, the cost of defense is their Level (in cp.)

When you get hit in combat, you will be told you received an amount of Body or wounds. Wounds are more serious. Type dgo damage mybody in your irc channel, with the damage and your monster's Body total (told you it was important.) The result will tell you how many DGs of Body or wounds your monsters just took.

Example: Leggy-On took 100 Body from Tonka's attack. Leggy-on has 180 Body, so he types dgo 100 180 and the battle-computer informs him "100 is 6DG of 180" which means he just took 6DG Body (quite a serious hit!)

Every rumbler begins with 0DG wounds and 10DG Body. As you take Body, it goes down, as you take wounds, it goes up. If your rumbler ever has more wound DGs than Body DGs, it's collapsed, wimped out, too tired to fight anymore and basically out of the fight (unless he gets a breather.) If he doesn't recover, he's rumbled, and your opponent wings. If your rumbler takes 10DG wounds, he is well and truly rumbled, and your opponent has won.

IV. Special:

So, you can make a rumpus monster as simple as this: 140,000 lbs, 250 Power Blast, 250 Armor, that's 500 cp..

Trust me, you will want more than that. People will be pounding you to a pulp just for being boring, besides, the ref of RUMPUS is an evil sonuvabitch who adores Godzilla films and who will cheat to kill off boring monsters and kiss up to the cool ones. So, you will want to get fancy and vicious, surprise your opponents and lay waste to your friends, but to know more about this you have to consult the more detailed section that follows. So, tighten your genes and go have a look when you feel ready, but be warned, there are numbers there so if you're stupid, go home now.

Special abilities are things like Flight, Tunnelling, Cute, and so forth and so on.

V. Review and Bonus/Penalty:

When you have completed your character, it must be reviewed by the ref before you can enter a RUMPUS. The ref will look over the monster for style, spelling, posture and so on, make comments and so on. If the monster is extremely cool, he will award you a bonus of some CP and you can go back and add on some power.

VI. Name:

A good monster needs a good name, something that will wear well, something distinctive that strikes terror into the hearts of millions, something that you can say in awe with a bad japanese accent. The last step of your monster creation should be to name your monster. Then you are ready to rip, gouge, crush, crumble and chomp!

VII. Who am I up against?:

A wise chinese guy said "Know thine enemy" -- but what do you care about chinese proverbs, you're a 30-foot mutated rose bush with an attitude!! You are up against the worst bunch of fetid, mutated creeps that ever trod on a metropolitain centre, and they have real human operators who are just as smart and as bloodhungry as you are. If you want to see our little rogues gallery, to try and spot weakness, or to get ideas, go have a look. Who knows, your own genocidal dinosaur may be listed in lights along with them some day.