Tag: Soccer

  • My best of 2024

    My best of 2024

    I didn’t do quite as much writing for public consumption as I have in most years since I started blogging regularly in 2008. Some of that reduction was due to me taking a step back at Sounder at Heart, focusing my work content on video briefings and emails, and Full Moon Storytelling being a “when inspired” project rather than an income generator.

    Here at Full Moon Storytelling my most popular writings over the past year were older materials.

    My custom backgrounds and my take on Sports in D&D remain popular as well.

    In fact, that’s where my biggest D&D related project ever came from, and one of my favorites of 2024. I helped out with Worlds To-Go: The Elysians.

    My contributions were five custom backgrounds, most completely new, plus formalization of sports rules including inventing two new sports — The Pentiad and Constellations (a team juggling sport that creates constellations).

    Here on FMS my favorite of the year was Goodbye Alignment. Hello short-form personality. In that article I encourage people to continue to use personality traits in their games, but make them as short as alignment! Then the DM and other players can grant Inspiration based off of something small enough to remember as opposed to the original 5e personality system that was six long sentences that no one remembered.

    There was also a quick review of the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

    If you ever need a quick 5-room dungeon and associated adventure, pick a pop song and convert it into one. That article may not have been well read, but I’ll refer to it when I’m back behind the DM screen.

    I stutter. Sometimes a little. Sometimes a lot. A personal essay I felt compelled to write after a re-watch of Agents of SHIELD, it also falls into the not-well-read column, but it meant a lot for me to share this about myself. It was not the only personal essay of the year. The other was about how the fragmented storytelling technique of D&D may fit me better than novels or short fiction.

    Soccer stories

    For the most part at Sounder at Heart I’m now the weekly columnist, sending out a large newsletter that covers one important topic, plus everything else you need to know for the week.

    Choosing the best of these was easy, because one of them helped change the approach from the organization towards the US Open Cup — Ship’s Log, May 7: Let’s win trophies again.

    My second favorite was about using the Club World Cup to sell the world’s best players on the region that I’ve chosen as home for all of my adult life — Ship’s Log, Dec. 6: Selling Seattle.

    I still dipped into journalism, covering Defiance’s new coach and the new practice facility. Walking through history is one of my favorite pieces of soccer writing ever (and there’s about 5000 of those).

    Factal

    Most of my writing at Factal is in emails. Some additional material is in the various Global Security Briefings I hosted this year, covering news like the Key Bridge collapse, bomb cyclones, DANA storms, mpox, Olympics security and more. On the blog I supplemented editors’ writings on Olympics security and for our year in review.

    Finding me on social

    • Mastodon or a bridge if you are on Bluesky (where I prefer to have most of my RPG and soccer thoughts)
    • Threads (a wider mix of who I am)
    • Instagram (mostly pics of my dog, the moon and soccer stuff)
    • LinkedIn (almost all safety news, intelligence and marketing)

    P.S. That jersey on the header was for the soccer team I sponsored this fall. I’ll be sponsoring again in the spring, because supporting my friends is fun.

    Fediverse Reactions
  • My Spring ’24 soccer team is inspired by the 90s

    My Spring ’24 soccer team is inspired by the 90s

    Being able to support my friends who do fun stuff is good. ECS continues to run Pub League, a simple barely competitive set of two soccer leagues full of joy that embraces everyone. Once upon a time I sponsored them while I managed Sounder at Heart. Then I stopped because I didn’t manage Sounder at Heart. A year ago they had an empty slot that needed a sponsor. I was able to and that was when my team was a group of pirates. Last fall it was vampires.

    Now it’s the Almost Full 90 FC, inspired by the era when I was a teen with Trapper Keepers and Peechees playing D&D hiding my inner nerd behind pastels (including my jeans).

    Two soccer jerseys and two logos. First soccer jersey on the left is a swirl of pastel colors in a sunset with two shiny dolphins jumping out of a pastel ocean over the setting sun. Second jersey is black with bands of swirly pastels over the black. Top logo is Almost Full 90s FC, a 1990s logo similar to MS Paint of that era. Second logo is for Full Moon Storytelling which shows a rising full moon with a polyhedral d20 silhouette embedded in it. The moon is rising out of a pine forest. The words Full Moon Storytelling are under the forest.

    Every player name is inspired by 90s era TV shows, songs and memes (we had those back then).

    Coaches: Bop it Throw it Pass it, That’s Brisk Baby, and Eat My Shorts

    Players: WHAT’S THE 411, COOPER, FRESH PRINCE OF DEFENSE, SPORTY SPICE, FOOTBALL HEAD, THAT’S BRISK BABY, I DID NOT INHALE, EAT MY SHORTS, ON A BREAK, BOP IT THROW IT PASS IT, DOCTOR, BEANIE BABE, REPTAR ON TURF, TRUNCHBULL, D’OH!’, MIDAS, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, STREET SOCCER, TOO YOUNG FOR THIS, UGH, AS IF!, NEVERMIND, NON BLONDES.

    I’m telling you, they’re going to win the ‘ship.

    There’s a couple other cool bits. The Captain’s armband is inspired by iconic frogs from the era and unlike most soccer jerseys these days, the back is similar to the front — with a unicorn.

    As always, the lesson from this is to support your friends when they do rad things. It’s totally awesome.

  • Happy Full Moon, meet What We Do On The Sidelines

    Happy Full Moon, meet What We Do On The Sidelines

    This past spring I sponsored a soccer team. That one went on to the win the championship, clearly inspired by my efforts (I kid). I sponsored a team for the fall version of ECS Pub League too.

    There’s a blue super moon tonight, which feels like the perfect time to reveal “What we do on the sidelines FC.” This team is inspired by What we do in the Shadows, a fine vampire production.

    Full Moon Storytelling was kind of the perfect fit for the front of shirt sponsor.

    The orange is the keeper kit. I may need to talk to the corrupt league commissioner for one of those. When the season is done, I’ll be getting the “Strahd #83” jersey and maybe one of the other sub jerseys too.

    If you want one of the pirate themed sub jerseys from Spring ’23 reach out to me. I do not need three, but will be keeping the Dread Pirate Roberts #6 (Wesley was #4 btw) top.

    As I said last time I say again, maybe one of the players on the soccer team I sponsor will play Dungeons & Dragons for the first time because of this. Maybe not. That’s not the point. The point is my friends needed a tiny bit of help and I could help — so I did.

  • Meet Passive Aggression and Izzy Handball, two more characters inspired by the soccer team I sponsored

    Meet Passive Aggression and Izzy Handball, two more characters inspired by the soccer team I sponsored

    I went and sponsored a soccer team. It’s a pub league team with several friends I met through Sounders soccer. Rather than advertise my soccer blog they all know about already I put the logo for Full Moon Storytelling on their kits. And then I offered to make any of them an Adventurer’s League legal character that represents some of their favorite soccer players and themselves.

    A character sheet in Dungeons & Dragons is a story told in short hand.

    Here’s the story I was trying to tell with Passive Aggression.

    With Passive Aggression, one of the first things I wanted to do was have a little honey badger companion (in Reroll I used a cat). Ozzie Alonso was Seattle’s honey badger for so long that I must, must honor him. The player who submitted their favorite players requested a minotaur, which also suits Alonso well. It is easy to imagine Alonso lowering his head and charging through someone.

    The other guidance is the maestro Luka Modrić. Ranger helped with this, because the bit of magic makes sense. Luka is one of the more technical players in the world, with the titles and individual recognition that makes sense. When the player is that exceptional only magic makes sense. Zephyr Strike seemed perfect for that representation.

    I chose the subclass Gloom Stalker because of the Our Flag Means Offside FC player sees themselves as someone who can be a support player across the battlefield, Entangle and Dread Ambuser helped capture that story

    Here’s the story I was trying to tell with Izzy Handball.

    Roger Levesque is a legendary Sounder, from the time before they were in MLS. He also puts on a great pirate impression. Pelé is the world’s greatest player, ever. Young people please don’t come at me with your modern faves — Izzy Handball will slay you.

    Combining a cult legend and the world’s greatest was a fun challenge. I started with the pirate, which meant Swashbuckler Rogue, which also fits Pelé’s personality. He loved to go one-on-one, or one-on-four, whatever. Dual-wielding swords made sense because Pelé would strike rapidly, constantly and with both feet.

    A wood elf was chosen to further lean into Pelé’s pace, his fey ancestry and his charm.

    With both of the soccer players the Folk Hero made sense. Whether form the streets of Brazil or the artificial turf of Starfire, Levesque and Pelé became legends with tales growing taller every year.

    Character graphics are made using ReRoll app. All eight players who submitted their favorite players and idealized playing styles to be imagined as D&D characters can be seen on DnDBeyond.

  • Meet Davy Jones, an exceptional striker and brave defender

    Meet Davy Jones, an exceptional striker and brave defender

    I went and sponsored a soccer team. It’s a pub league team with several friends I met through Sounders soccer. Rather than advertise my soccer blog they all know about already I put the logo for Full Moon Storytelling on their kits. And then I offered to make any of them an Adventurer’s League legal character that represents some of their favorite soccer players and themselves.

    First up is Davy Jones. Why Davy? Because that persona is on the reveal graphic.

    A character sheet in Dungeons & Dragons is a story told in short hand.

    Here’s the story I was trying to tell with Davy Jones — the name on the back of one of the players’ shirts. I didn’t look up the real players to build these. I did use their soccer-name as inspiration.

    The soccer players provided in the prompt questions were Fredy Montero, DeAndre Yedlin, Zlatan. In some of the prompts there were references to Jessica Jones and Ljósálfar.

    D&D is an imperfect way to represent these things. My attempts here are to capture the vibes of a potent showperson, a striker from distance and a stout defender. An Aasimar is more similar to the light elves of Nordic legend than the current version of D&D, plus that helps add more magic to Davy Jones — Zlatan has to have magic, so does Fredy “Golden God” Montero.

    It was Fredy that helped the lean towards Paladin, as well as the Jessica Jones mention. Jones helped the decision towards Oath of Vengeance. Having Compelled Duel was another touch point towards Zlatan.

    With DeAndre Yedlin still to be incorporated the Background choice was obvious — Folk Hero. Yedlin was the first MLS Sounder to rise from the Academy, the first to play in the World Cup because of their performance as a Sounder and the first to be sold to Europe. He’s a legend in his home town, and so is Davy Jones.

    Each skill, weapon, spell is chosen to emphasize the combination of mystical striker, bewitching technique and the willingness to be a stout defender.

    That’s Davy Jones.

    Character graphics are made using ReRoll app. All eight players who submitted their favorite players and idealized playing styles to be imagined as D&D characters can be seen on DnDBeyond.