Category winner for Poniverse's Mascot Summer Palooza Contest! If you have any questions about who these characters are or why you should be bothered to read about them, I highly recommend you click that link.
Wordplay would much rather spend the day writing and world-building instead of going outside where real, normal ponies spend their free time. A nearly full-grown stallion with no cutie mark, he is goaded into playing a few games with his siblings and their friends--but, naturally, very few things go right. Chief among his problems: giant spiders.
"A winning entry through and through, Ogres and Oubliettes is a fun read anytime..." -- Batbrony
Thanks to The Albinocorn for plot help, and Snow Berry and one Kella Williams (if you see this, I'd love to know who you really are!) for proofreading.
Wordplay, Road Map, Fair Dice, and Pixel Wavelength all belong to Poniverse. Hoops is a random name I came up with before realizing a Hoops exists in the show already. Whoopsie!
Good effort for your first attempt at putting something on fimfiction. It's a nice story concept.
6297478
Thank you! Glad you liked it.
Nice. :)
I can understand the desire to write out the wargaming section, but to be honest I think the overall pacing works better without it. There's nothing stopping you writing it out as a 'director's cut' scene and adding it as a bonus chapter, of course. ;) It just won't be part of the judging.
Full disclosure, here—I'm not a judge, just a fellow entrant who decided to review all the stories submitted to this contest.
Dang. I was wondering where I saw your name from . . . then I figured out that you're the bona fide manager of the Writing Center over on MLP Forums. I was going to review this story like I'm doing with every other entered into this contest (with the exception of my own, of course), but now I'm wondering how I can critique someone like you. Dang.
Meh, won't stop me from trying, I guess. Forgive me for my possibly misguided comments.
First, you know how to write a tight story, and I respect that. I'm a scientist, and I like my stories concise and without extra weight: you really know how to nail that. There's not an event in this story that seems extraneous.
Second, your grammar is just about flawless. I very, very rarely see people who know what an em dash even is, let alone how to use it correctly! But it seems like you do. Aside from a smattering of minor errors that don't really matter and only a die-hard Grammar Nazi would notice (like me), you've got it down! Oh, and . . .
Present perfect versus simple past. I love it!
Third, I love how you tell very little of your story. You surely know the concept of show vs. tell, and I like that you err very much on the side of "show." Yes, I noticed, and, yes, it makes your story (and metastories) more engaging and effective.
Sooo . . . it looks like all I've done is shower you with praise about your story. That's not much of a review, I guess, but the only reason I'm doing it is because I'm struggling to find things wrong with it.
Let's see . . . I thought Wordplay's turnaround where he goes from being timid as Fluttershy to confident as ever to be a little abrupt. Consider that Wordplay only decides to DM the roleplay because of an act of rashness, his siblings' comments swimming through his mind. This isn't unbelievable, but when Wordplay says this . . .
That doesn't feel right. Up to this point, I was still under the impression that Wordplay was doing this as an act of rashness. Then, with no inner thoughts, no introspection, bam, confidence everywhere? It's not something that can't be fixed with a bit more development, but at present, it feels jarring how quickly it occurs.
Hmm . . . though you "show" very well, lemme point out a section where your "telling" got distracting for me.
Up to this point, you had been doing brilliant "showing" your story. Then . . . this. I normally wouldn't bother with pointing this out, but you had been doing so well that this sticks out like a Fluttershy in Rainbow Dashes.
Then . . . I guess that's it. I really can't think of much else I found wrong, and certainly nothing story-breaking I could point out to you. I really can't say much else. What I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, and I'm glad I didn't choose to write about Wordplay for my own entry! Good luck in the contest, though considering this story, I don't think you'll need it.
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Ah, you flatter me with such praise! Thank you kindly, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
Holy cow...
That...
Was...
AWESOME!!!
Oh goodness, that was a simply splendid fic! Seriously, this is your first fic? My gosh, this was phenomenal! One-shots can be such tricky business, but your pacing was superb given the number of scenes in this fic. Everyone got the amount of attention they deserved, the grammar was flawless, the writing itself was executed splendidly, honestly this was nearly flawless. The only character I found annoying was Hoops, but I think that was intentional on your part; still, there were a couple times where I was left wondering why his siblings were associating with the guy in the first place. He seemed more like a stereotypical jock at times than an RPer (and I'm not an RPer mind you, so I wouldn't know from firsthand experience), but hey, I know that nerds have their jerks too. 
Your humor was fantastic, and I couldn't get enough of it; between Awesome Flyer/Super Flyer/Super Awesome and his son Super Awesomer with the constant name changes and Scott the pegasus, it was very solid because it just happened, you didn't go out of your way to point out the joke.
Oh yeah, and there was this:
I think you pretty much just summed up half the Internet. Anyways, like I said, splendid entry, thank you so much for taking the time to write this and enter it into our contest, and best of luck with your future writing! Here, have a like and favorite.
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Ooooh, stahpit, you.
Many thanks! This was fun to write, and I'm glad I managed to finish it.
Wow this was so cool! I really enjoyed reading it! A grammar error/awkward sentence tripped me up a little bit while reading it, but overall it was a thoroughly engaging and entertaining story to read. It's even more engaging IMO than "Divergent".
I really love the message you put into it, which is one thing I personally struggle with when it comes to writing: You don't have to write a perfect story. Thanks for that, I found this story rather inspirational.
My only disappointment regarding this story is that it is so obscure. A brilliant oneshot, and possibly an excellent base for future stories. Loved it. I prefer action, but that was something special. 9.5/10, would definately read again or pursue similar works.
6345157
Hey, quick question: what did you have in mind for Road Map and Fair Dice's cutie marks? Sorry for the randomness of this, I'm just curious is all.
6647967 Much appreciated! If you want to help fight the problem of obscurity, I wouldn't mind another person spreading a link to the story. ;)
6652943 I...actually never really thought about it, I think. If you want to come up with them, that is totally fine by me.
6658226
OK, I was just curious if you had an idea just because the staff is trying to come up with cutie marks right now for the rest of the mascots. We're going with the one you came up with for Wordplay, just really seems to fit him to a T. Oh and don't worry about coming up with ones for those two, like I said, I was just curious.