It’s not uncommon for some to have a hard time with others and for today’s youth it can be daunting to engage with their peers when it comes to anxiety and communication. This RPG has been a longstanding gateway to improving these situations…
Eon Legacy, the Multiverse RPG, was created with accessibility in mind from his own experience with ADHD and being nonverbal for almost 8 years. Because of this experience, R.A.G. Rankin created a game that removed the anxiety-causing dice-rolls and instituted a “Fixed Number System” and a “Optional Rulesets” so that people of all kinds could play.
The first play-testers were, in fact, other players with their own accessibility concerns at the time. Flash cards were written up by Loremaster Rankin for a player with speech impediments that gave them the ability to line up what he wanted to act with and gave them syntax practice while enjoying an imaginary interaction where they themselves had control without judgement. A blind player was explained the rules and ranges were simplified while using the optional system to forego rolls in favor of a more “Fixed Freeform with Critical Hit allowances”. A player with anxiety issues who feared the randomity of dice rolls was allowed the same. Another player, partially deaf, was able to use two of the systems in tandem with her own flash cards, impromptu bodily gesticulation (she loved standing up and punching and kicking) and uniform sign language, and when she got cochlear implants it gave her the chance to practice using all of the above options. An RPG with such flexibility allowed these 12-17 year-old players to engage in play and communication across a infinite world of possibilities. What do you think happened?
The confidence given to these players alone was considered staggering. School Councilors and District Assigned Therapists had asked if they could “Use this game in their own application to therapy with their clients” at the time. Educational Administrators had approached the author on the subject of copyright and publishing in early 2002 but R.A.G. Rankin felt that the “Content was too lean” after having met Stan Lee, Robin Williams, and Gary Gygax. 20-years-later he’s finally gone public.
I made a game for everyone so we could all play together. I wanted something to provide both an escape and improve the players at the same time. I’m just helping where I can like my dad said to when I was a kid.
R.A.G Rankin