This is Chaos in Kansas (1989), a scenario for GURPS Cliffhanger or GURPS Horror, depending on how youâre feeling. The cover doesnât even come close to telling you what amazing things lie in wait inside, but itâs a start. In truth, the title alone is gold. Say it with me, Chaos in Kansas, Chaos in Kansas, Chaos in Kansas.
There are two scenarios and some source material on the setting, a town called Liberty. The first involves a kidnapping by a coven of witches who worship the horrible sorcerer monster thatâs trapped in a cave outside of town. Theyâre led by a teen flapper, the girlfriend of the kidnapped victim, who she intends to use as a human sacrifice to free the Dire Dreamer. She has a goat mask with crystal eyes in the trunk of her car. The cave is guarded by a horrible humanoid spider creature. The Dreamer itself is a mummified head on top of a pile of human intestines. I suspect that the phantom on Miro Sinovcicâs cover is meant to be the Dreamer, but good taste prevailed against depicting the pile of intestines. When the players defeat the Dreamer, the head explodes in a splash of goo, which should happen at the end of more RPG boss fights if you ask me.
The second scenario has the players investigating strange goings on at the local cement factory. And by strange goings on, I mean getting hired by the boss to root out the âBolsheviksâ who have been disrupting the work. Except it isnât Bolsheviks, its the ghost a Wobbly who was murdered on the site. When he came back as a ghost, he just kept on agitating for the workers, adopting the guise of the Demon of Capitalism to terrorize and sabotage the work site. He canât be exorcized (he was an atheist, lol) and he wonât rest even if his killer is brought to justice. The only way heâll depart is if the workers organize a union. The scenario includes lyrics to âSolidarity Foreverâ and other labor movement songs, presumably so you can sing them to the players in the character of Joe the Ghost. Joeâs my hero.
