1. the Exterminator views humans as pests. Secure type is Epicure, stress is Watcher.
2. the Helper views humans as potential (for improvement & uplift). Secure becomes Watcher, stress overlord.
3. the Agent views humans as pawns (in an interplanetary version of the great game. )  Secure becomes Enemy, stress is Breeder.
4. the Watcher views humans as entertainment. Secure is Exterminator, stress is Helper.
5. the Researcher views humans as data. Secure is Overlord, stress is Epicure.
6. the Enemy views humans as rivals. Secure shifts to Breeder, stress to Agent.
7. the Epicure views humans (or parts of the human anatomy) as food (or commodities). Its secure type is Researcher, stress type is Exterminator.
8. the Overlord views humans as slaves. Secure becomes Helper, stress Researcher.
9. the Breeder views humans as genes. Secure shifts to agent, stress to Enemy.

1. nine different character types, and how they shift under stress/ security to act as other char types. I’ll post a list of the nine char types in another post.
2. nine different alien types, and how they shift under stress/ security to act as other alien types.  Types are defined by the way aliens view humans.  They are not alien species- there can be more than one of each type in the solar system/ galaxy.  I already posted a list of types. I need to modify it to fit within the diagram.
3. nine different bodies in the solar system that surround the earth.  The list will usually include the moon, seven  planets (mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune) and one wandering planet invented by the players. An inhabited sun may substitute for Mercury in some games. the lines of influence in the solar system enneagram indicate connections between bodies. For example, that venus was settled by neptunians. That the wandering planet is controlled by giant martian magnet. That lunar warriors are invading Saturn, etc.
4. I anticipate having a printed enneagram used during play to show what types characters and aliens are in. If each player controls one human character and one alien, they wouldhave two tokens, kept on the enneagram to show if their characters are in their normal type, stressed type, or secure type.
5. Another enneagram would function as a map of where the character and aliens are. Tokens for characters on earth would be kept in the center of the diagram, those in the high sargossa sea placed on the lines surrounding the center; those on another planet put on the corresponding number; those beyond the stars/pores in the beyond, outside the circle.

Maybe characters have to fill in one via research/ wild conspiratorial guesswork during the fortian phase to unlock the contact phase; generate two answers to reach the solar system phase, etc. Or maybe each phase generates questions/ blanks that will be answered in subsequent stages? Whichever way, I’m currently assuming that players will answer the questions through play, in part by playing alien characters, rather than the game having a list of canon answers. Maybe one stage in gmed, one gmless, in one the answers are generated by an ‘auto-gm,’ exquisite corpse style (bit like drawn words in sign in stranger… ) Still need to work more on structure of play…

Some blanks to fill in >>
the ________ control the vast wheels that visit the earth. They are here to _______.
(same for torpedoes and clusters of lights)
The _________ live on _________ and view humans as ________.
repeat as needed
___________ have meddled in human history by/to _____________.
Repeat as needed.
the ____________ that fell from the sky in __________ is actually _________.
Repeat as needed
the _________ on/in __________ was constructed/established by ________ to ___________.
The ___________ and the ___________ are fighting an interplanetary war over ___________. Due to _____________, the ___________ are winning.
_____________ passes close to the earth every ____ years. _________ has fallen onto earth and _________ has fallen from earth.
The _____________ believe that _______________ lies on the other side of the stellar pores. 
Repeat as needed. 
Suspended in the high sargossa sea above ____________ is ________ from the surface and ________ from space.  

If you move beyond a baseline of cold indifference, the intentions of aliens become important:

I’m looking at a variant of the enneagram personality diagram to indicate nine different ways that aliens view and treat humans. While enneagrams aren’t Fortian per se, they were supposedly developed by mystic  G.I. Gurdjieff during world war one, putting them close enough in time and theme to Charles Fort’s paranormal interests.

The nine types each have a title and a dominant way of viewing humanity. When a type is secure, it shifts to take up the view of another of the nine types. Another shift occurs when the type is stressed. Each type/view will have mechanical impacts/ bonuses/ penalties through the game system. Players and/or characters will be able to take actions to try to shift an alien from their normal type into their secure or stressed variant.

I haven’t placed these on the diagram yet, I will need to adjust some of the stress/ secure shifts if I want it to work exactly like a personality enneagram:

• the Epicure views humans (or parts of the human anatomy) as food (or commodities). Its secure type is Breeder, stress type is Exterminator.
• the Exterminator views humans as pests. Secure type is Researcher, stress is Epicure.
• the Researcher views humans as data. Secure is Exterminator, stress is Agent.
• the Watcher views humans as entertainment. Secure is Helper, stress is Enemy.
• the Enemy views humans as rivals. Secure shifts to Watcher, stress to Overlord.
• the Agent views humans as pawns (in an interplanetary version of the great game. )  Secure becomes Enemy, stress is Researcher.
• the Overlord views humans as slaves. Secure becomes Agent, stress Breeder.
• the Helper views humans as potential (for improvement & uplift). Secure becomes Overlord, stress Watcher.
• the Breeder views humans as genes. Secure shifts to epicure, stress to Helper.

• Armadas- invisible space armadas have clashed above the earth. Their wreckage and bodies have fallen to Earth, and scavengers and ‘sharks’ gathered to feast on the remains.
• Ballast- some of what falls from the sky is ballast from space vessels, presumably there may be alien life forms in these substances, just as invasive barnacles, mussels etc. are sometimes introduced into new terrestrial waters when boats expel ballast water.
• Balls of light- Clusters of glowing spheres, balls of light or lightning to earthly observers, are one of the three types of UFOs. What kind of aliens would utilize these ships- or are the balls themselves alien beings?
• Blood showers- blood falling from the sky is evidence either that the solar system is itself a living creature or that giant lifeforms float in space, and sometimes are flayed…
• Bodies- corpses from interstellar space battles sometimes fall to earth or collect in the high sargossa sea.
• Epicures-  Some aliens are epicures who enjoy the taste of humans and fish for us.
• Fished for- dragnets and long lines, operated by alien fishermen, who may or may not be the same species as alien epicures, descend from the sky.
• Gelatinous sky – the upper atmosphere is not gas, but a transparent, quivering semi-liquid, semi solid.
• Hemorrhaging- if the solar system is alive, it sometimes hemorrhages, the source of blood falls
• High sargossa seas- a zone in the sky where residue from earth AND from spacefaring ships collect in striated layers of altered gravity.
• Lighthouses- beacons and lighthouses on the moon or elsewhere in the solar system, perhaps orbiting earth as well, mark out routes and warn of obstacles.
• Limpets- entities that attach themselves to space crafts may be scraped off above earth, or drop off of their own accord.
• Planets- the planets in the solar system are small and they are close to the earth.
• Pores- the stars we see in the sky are pores in a substance. What is on the other side of this barrier?
• Supplies- starfaring ships sometimes gather supplies from earth. What do they need? Do they take it or do some humans barter with them?
• Shadows- the shadows of vast birds have been seen on the moon.
• Sharks- space sharks and other scavengers gather when space armadas clash to feast on the carrion.
• Stars- stars are very near the earth (see pores)
• Torpedoes- luminescent torpedoes are among the three kinds of common UFOs. Who controls them?
• Trade Routes – the earth is on trade routes that alien civilizations ply throughout the solar system. The merchant ships sometimes jettison ballast, scrape limpets free, or take on supplies.
• Tramp planets- some planets swing throughout the solar system like tramp steamers, sometimes coming close enough to earth for materials and inhabitants to fall between the two.
• Wheels- Vast wheels are among the three types of UFOs. They enter the planet through the gelatinous sky, then plunge into the ocean to avoid the low pressure of the air.
• Writing – Greek letters have been seen emblazoned on the moon.

What is game play like, what do players do, what do characters do? I like to break games into phases (whether or not the game will ultimately focus on all of the stages). So we have:

1. Pre-contact. A few brave researchers are uncovering evidence that the universe is a very different place than establishment science claims. They are ridiculed, ignored, perhaps persecuted. Maybe this could be a chance for players to throw out some weird theories, some/many or which will be right, as a way of establishing what is out there?
2. Contact. This could be public (a saturnian dreadnaught crashes onto earth, dragging a reasonably sized glop of the gelatinous sky with it like a jelly knife.) Or private, an alien abduction or visit or some scientists making it into space).
3. The solar system. Exposure to alien cultures and trade and space wars/
4. And beyond… through a stellar pore to what lies outside

Each of these four phases can be approached from a human perspective or an alien perspective. Characters can be human, alien, or both.

I can think of a few ways/structures to link together or alternate these eight possible vantage points/ phases.

• Humans 1-4 then aliens 4-1
• Aliens 1, humans 1, aliens 2, humans 2 etc.
• Players choose
• Just humans 1-4
• Just aliens ?
• Humans 1,2 then random with cards drawn to determine which phase/ vantage point

Whichever of these might work to allow different kinds of chars to interact and players to discover and/or create a weird solar system, a second choice is whether the game has a thematic focus. For example- is the point of the game:

• how characters change when confronted with the truth
• can chars save the earth, thwart the forces of evil
• uncovering secrets
• Or should I avoid a focus, allow different themes to emerge?

These brought to mind a game concept that had struck me several months back from reading Charles Fort-

things that fall from the sky – rockets sent up in 1930s experimental launches literally get stuck in the sky, proving the truth of charles fort’s theories that space is gelatinous, that interplanetary vessels sometimes unload ballast above the earth, that carrion from the clash of alien dreadnaughts have rained upon us, that invisible planets roam the solar system like tramp freighters, that organic and inorganic materials from on and off earth hang suspended in the sky in a high sargossa sea of variable gravity, that the earth -contra Galileo – does not move, that the moon and planets are small and alarmingly close, and that stars are pores in a substance leading who knows where

star, divider (between worlds), and seabird (stuck in gelatinous upper atmosphere?) seem to fit well. Depending on what/ who characters are and what they do, intrigue could work as well.

I haven’t thought about a game system much so I’m almost starting from scratch, just the concept and a page of quotes from the complete books of charles fort.

I’ll need to look at more of the game chef badges to see if I want to shoot for any.

>>> check it out and give it a try

I’ll give profuse thanks & credit to anyone who gets me feedback or a playtest report.

And remember, “The alienation of the worker from his product does not only mean that his labor becomes an object, an external entity, but also that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien, that it turns into a power on its own confronting him, that the life which he has given to his product stands against him as something strange and hostile.”