Rumbl-o-Rama: History of Madness
Rumbl-o-Rama was created at the message boards of RealitysEnd.com on May 5th, 2004. This is the date used as a rule for all other Rumblo trackings, anniversaries, and what-have-you. However, this is not the true birth of RoR. I mean, yeah, sure that's when it was officially posted, but the history of Rumbl-o-Rama does not begin with its creation. No, to truly understand the madness poured into it, deeper depths need delved. You need the prehistory of Rumblo.
VB: The Original Rumblo
On another board, at another time, in another year, even by another person, all that sowed the seeds of RoR was created. This was Vaporeon Babble, the brainchild of Vaporeon of the Mist (Diane Stine) over on the Karp Parkboard at the forums of AzureHeight.com, before it all went to hell, in the year 2000. That's only a guess, sadly. All records of that time have been long since lost to the ages. Only indirect determinations can be used to link when the true date may have been.
VB, as it quickly became known, was initially the zany, spur-of-the-moment ranting of a teenage girl on a sugar high that wrote about that exact thing being experienced by a Vaporeon, only this one sought to overthrow the Indigo Plateau. From this incredibly random hodge-podge, a full series of epics was generated. Joining VOTM in writing were Kero Kato (Jaret Cantu), Psybro, Philbo, Jackdaw (Shane Cantu, myself), and a loose assortment of sometimers.
The story was a multi-author comedy written collaboratively, the first exposure to interactive stories I had. After the first aimless romp, a sequel was quickly developed. VB2: The Fight for the Mist Stone contained an involved storyline, several action sequences, and crazy shenanigans up the wazoo! This is the chapter of the series that was hailed as the crown jewel and populated the internet. After this came VB3: Mew and the Hand of Fate, another juggernaut of comedic writing.
This is where fortune turned her back and allowed disaster at the hands of the maker. Like a god destroying her creation, many of the next installments were destroyed by the primary author, VOTM. Before VB4: That Obnoxious Hypno, there was VB4: The Mask of Mew, a parody of then-recent Legend of Zelda: The Mask of Majora. Since the story broke out and distanced itself from the game (which only one of the authors had even played), its time was cut drastically short and nothing was saved.
A while later, VB5: Pokemon in Space (as I call it since the real title can't be remembered) lasted little time at all. Despite copious hilarity and great writing, it didn't fit the vision of what was seen for it and also got the ax. Shorty after arrived the replacement for five, VB5b: Unknown Title. Yeah, that's right. We can't remember a lick about it. It didn't last long and left no impression. Several crapful events made its disappearance almost smiled upon. This was the last of the Vaporeon Babbles to ever be made. At this point in time, Azure Heights was a fetid pool that bred witless rejects and the contributing authors went their separate ways.
The Legacy of the Mist
Years passed, a seeming lifetime since the last recorded VB. While drunk on glorious memories of yesteryear, a thought came: Why not recreate the splendid series? At the new home of Reality's End, a safe haven was available for just such a risky venture within the Elite Members board, which had restricted access that only allowed veterans to read or post. With no risk of stupidity or ruination, the next step in the path to Rumblo was taken. On April 23rd, 2003, a Need to Occupy my Feeble Little Mind was answered in a story of that very name.
Success was very, very lacking. The original only consisted of seven postings, four of which were my own doing. To make up for this short coming, the current story was posted within the common boards for hope of further additions. This came twenty-six times before ultimately dragging off stale. To try and save the dying tale, Jackdaw, a whimsical character famed in the VB series, replaced the previous protagonist of the story in a move that didn't help anything at all. The story still ended without any real ending met.
Certain nuances were carried over between VB and its attempt at a progeny. The first the memorable "..." cliff-hanger ending. At the end of almost any post or addition, the author would just have a trailing ellipsis. This left the following author the chance to join their post and the previous with a common event, object, or character, not to mention leave room for comedic interpretation. Another rule was Fair Game. Authors and characters added were at the mercy of the writing body. If someone pulled off something stupid, they would be informed of it in story. If a character arrived that was pointlessly stupid, they were mocked or killed off, generally both at once.
More time would pass, but inspiration would come from an unseen source. The entire foundation of VB and its type of writing, now affectionately referred to as IAS (Inter-Active Story), had a direct enemy, the RP (Role Play). While the IAS constructed a readable story in the end, the RP yielded an unruly mass that read more like several stories poorly pieced together rather than one, flowing work. This was due to the collaborative nature of the IAS where authors just manipulated characters to tell the tale as opposed to only being restricted to "their characters".
Reality's End's forum, having no love for these mockeries of creativity, dawned a new, never before seen feature for its members to use: Forum: the RPG, a system whereby each topic turned into a battle between posters who could hack, blast, or heal one another. This interactive board action gave rise to a new hope for the VB legacy: If a story would fizzle out without any real direction, then maybe a finite goal would help.
A Legendairy is Born
And so it came to be. On May 5th, 2004, the very first Rummbl-o-Rama (yes, it was spelled with two "m" originally) was posted. It was short, barely one-hundred words in length, and was intended to make use of the newly developed FtRPG functions. Like its predecessor, it was only placed in the Elite Members board to help curb how heinous the story could become. It accrued forty-two posts from four dedicated authors and spanned over twenty printed pages in length. Oddly, the forum function it was created to exploit rarely, if ever, appeared in the text.
Much like its ancestor, the story spawned a lower grade spin-off. Unlike the past attempt, only the hundred word introduction was used to seed the parallel attempt, allowing for a complete second course of development. It was dubbed RoR: Square Rooted since it wasn't quite a full sequel or any other number for that matter. While the original culminated to some sort of final event, the analogue withered away directionlessly in the middle.
When the time came again for a complete sequel, the anniversary was looked to. However, at this time, the opportunity was already passed. So, to still have meaning in number two, a new "anniversary" was made up: one year, one month, one week, and one day later. So, June 13th, 2005, saw the creation of Rumbl-o-Rama: Idiotic Iteration. It gathered thirty-plus posts and seven contributors. Noteworthy is that the title never actually contains a 2, just an abbreviation that simulates Roman numerals since Square Rooted is debatably 2. Now, RE had a dedicated writing system, the Black & White Board Writing system. The story would see all the systems to follow in its run, including the RPeX and REWS.
Rumblo has appeared on more than just Reality's End, but that's the only place it ever got recognition. Without the Double Initial Second Post (2I2P) to get the ball rolling, setting the precedent, no one really knew how to follow up. Unsuccessful ventures including Writing.com and Kirby's Rainbow Resort twice, once in the whole form and another in a franchised in-name-only attempt that failed equally as much.
