The Vulnerable World is an original setting for occult and cosmic horror roleplaying, intended as an alternative to the Cthulhu Mythos and inspired by the namesake hypothesis. The design goals are to:
- Defamiliarize. Take aspects of the real world and reconsider how strange they are. Which parts of reality as we know it could be recast as supernatural anomalies? Which apparent supernatural phenomena can be explained through mundane means?
- Avoid counterpart cultures. Convergent evolution yes, one-to-one mappings to real-world groups no.
- Discard the worst baggage of the Cthulhu mythos.
- Create a fresh set of mysteries and entities for players to navigate.
- Set up a fragile but believable status quo for players to preserve or disrupt. Why should the end come now, at the turn of this world's equivalent to the 20th century, over any other period before?
Other inspirations include Fallen London, Cultist Simulator, and Chainsaw Man.