Micro 1091 - Prism v. 1L Year [Game Over]

[Prism]

Prism v. 1L Year

, 1091 M.S. 1 (Mayfair Club 2023).

Modded by Prism and fferyllt.
Reviewed by fferyllt and Isis, ruleset unashamedly plagiarized from Hectic, and for formatting I am greatly indebted to northsidegal.

Cast out of Eden after a disastrous undergraduate career, Prism has dreamed of this moment for years: his first day of law school. Starting over at a new city, at a new school, with a new set of peers. But a fresh start is not enough. Deep down, Prism still dreams of academic redemption.

Law school is a competitive environment, but no one succeeds alone. Will you help Prism survive 1L year, or will you relish seeing him cave under the pressure?

Game Status

Game Over! And the result was...

Spoiler:

A victory for The Curve!

Players

Spoiler:

1. SirCakez
2. Meuh
3. Bell
4. Dunnstral
5. Alisae

RH9

catboi

6. Ydrasse
7. PookyTheMagicalBear
8. Lukewarm

elle (1L)

9. GuiltyLion

In Good Standing

Spoiler:

1. SirCakez,

The Career Services Dean

,

Town One-shot Roleblocker

, was endgamed!
2. Dunnstral,

The Gunner

,

Mafia Two-shot Tracker

, survived and won!
3. PookyTheMagicalBear,

A Typical FedSoc Member

,

Town Miller

, was endgamed!
4. GuiltyLion,

Prism's Civil Procedure Professor

,

Mafia Goon

, survived and won!

Placed on Academic Probation

Spoiler:

1. Ydrasse,

catboi

,

Vanilla Townie

, was eliminated on Day 1!
2. Bell,

Prism's Property Professor

,

Vanilla Townie

, was eliminated on Night 1!
3. Alisae,

Tom

,

Vanilla Townie

, was eliminated on Day 2!
4. Lukewarm,

The Perpetually High-strung Stressball

,

Town Two-shot Tracker

, was eliminated on Night 2!
5. Meuh,

Prism's Legal Research and Writing Class

,

Town Miller

, was eliminated on Day 3!

Events

Day 1 Start | Day 1 End
Day 2 Start | Day 2 End
Day 3 Start | Day 3 End
Day 4 Start | Day 4 End
Endgame

[Prism]

Ruleset

1. Fundamentals

• All site-wide rules apply. Read and respect them.
  
• This is a game. Have fun, and keep the game fun for other people. This might be the most important rule.
  
• There is no personal communication regarding this game outside of this gamethread & associated PTs.
  
• Do not quote any private communication (either real or fabricated) with the moderator, co-moderator (fferyllt), or fellow players. Do not reference timestamps of private communication.
  
• Quoting directly from your role PM is not allowed.
  
• Heated discussion and debate is allowed, but personal attacks are not. I reserve the right to protect my players, and all other community members. Please PM myself and/or the backup moderator, fferyllt, if you feel something needs our immediate intervention.
  
• Play to your win condition.

2. Phases & Activity

• Days will have a 10 day deadline with the possibility for extensions for replacements. All Night phases will last 48 hours.
  
• Please post at least once every 36 hours. If you fail to do so, you will be prodded.
  
• At the time you would receive a third prod, or fail to respond to a prod by posting in thread within 24 hours, you will be force replaced.
  
• Votes must not be spoilered and should be formatted as VOTE: Player or
  Vote: Player
  , or they will not be counted. Abbreviating someone's name is acceptable, so long as I can discern who you were voting for without trouble. If I think it should count as a vote, it will.
  
• Unvoting is not required, but is much appreciated.
  
• The following is a list of outlawed shenanigans:
  • Using invisible text, codes, cryptography, etc.
    
  • Using provable randomness (eg. dice tags)
    
  • Editing your posts (if you have the power to do so)
    
  • Quoting any PTs you may have access to
• If any of these offenses are committed, I have the right to force-replace you from the game, or, with listmod permission, modkill you.

3. Miscellaneous

• My mod colour is #2F66A9; don't use it or anything similar. Do not attempt to impersonate me.
  
• Feel free to address me in-thread, but if there is a particularly egregious mistake please PM me. Small matters like errors in the votecount can be posted in-thread.
  
• I have the final say on any issue. If you disagree with any action or inaction taken by me, feel free to PM myself or a listmod of your choosing. Note that the normal listmod, SirCakez, is a player and should not be PM'd under any circumstances.
  
• While I have tried to be thorough, I reserve the right to take corrective action with or without warning for any issue I feel was omitted in this ruleset.

[Prism]

Setup & Mechanics

The setup for this game is a closed micro theme that can generally be expected to follow Normal guidelines in its mechanical design.

Non-Normal elements of this game include the flavor and the ability of The Curve to request flavor fakeclaims to match any desired roleclaim.

The following information about the setup is known:

• This setup is the
  Prism Well-wishers
  (Town) against
  The Curve
  (Mafia).
• The Curve have daytalk.
• The Curve have multitasking.
• The Curve have been provided initial flavor fakeclaims, and can always request more so long as these requests are within reason.

Sample VT Role PM:

The school promised you they'd let you retire last year. They promised you the year before that, too. Somehow, you're still here, going to long-term university strategic planning meetings, making phone calls to institutional donors, and having to cook up ways to improve the law school's US News Rankings. All mandatory. No replacement in sight.

It makes you want to puke. The only saving grace is that since you're the dean, you get to teach whatever you want, whenever you want, and the start of a new school year means a brand new cohort of pupils.

It's an interesting crowd. The students really do get better and better, and you're optimistic for the future. For all your gripes about being the dean, you secretly love your job, and you can't wait to see how the year shakes out. It should be a lot of fun, and you want only the best for your students, even that cussed rapscallion Prism.

fferyllt, you are

The Law School Dean

, a

Vanilla Townie

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Sample Power Role PM:

Sometimes people make mistakes. Institutions make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are people.

Look, it's tough and we over-enrolled. Nobody is taking the scholarship money offer to defer their matriculation by a year. We're getting desperate. We've got to cut one more person ASAP unless we want students sitting on bar stools in the lecture hall.

Isn't there anyone...questionable in the class? Someone whose enrollment we could revoke? Who was the one guy with the hysterically bad record? The one whose transcript we put up on the wall?

...Prism was it? Looks like I need to take a trip down to the Registrar's Office...

What's that? Someone finally deferred and we're at our target number? Whew. Well, Prism, it looks like today's your lucky day...

Isis, you are

The Law School Admissions Office

, a

Night 0 Vigilante

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• Night 0 Vigilante:
  On Night 0, you may target a player via PM. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be nightkilled.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

[Prism]

All Role PMs have now been sent. The game will start when all players have confirmed.

Note that I have added a Sample Power Role PM in addition to the Sample VT Role PM in the above post.

Players have 36 hours to confirm before I seek a replacement:

(expired on 2023-08-28 12:15:00)

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.0

Scene from 1973's "The Paper Chase" starring Timothy Bottoms

Actual photo of Prism attending his first lecture

Prism shuffles into the lecture hall for his first day of class. First up is Property.

90 people. Isn't that a bit big? It doesn't look like any of his friends from orientation are here...Actually, is that one way up there in the back? That's way too far.

Near the front, but not too close. The professor's CV is impressive, but she's seemed nice enough. Just sit tight and pay attention. Remember, set good habits from Day 1. Slow and steady.

Prism is sure some of these people are going to be lifelong friends. Ideally, everyone succeeds and learns together. Isn't that what we're all here for? Isn't that what everyone wants?

Still, one or two A's doesn't sound half bad.

Player	Votes
Not Voting (9)	SirCakez, Meuh, Bell, Dunnstral, catboi, Ydrasse, PookyTheMagicalBear, elle (1L), GuiltyLion

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Day 1 has begun, and you may now post. The deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.1

Pierson v. Post

, 3 Cai. 175 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1805).

It all starts here: the canonical case in American property law.

Lodowick Post was out hunting a fox on a New York beach when it was shot and killed by his local archrival, Jesse Pierson, instead. A fierce debate ensued about who the owner of the poor departed fox's mortal remains should be, and Post took his nemesis to court demanding return of the fox. Post spent a lot of time and effort chasing after that fox and all but had it within his grasp, but Pierson was the one who actually killed it and grabbed the carcass first.

"By the pleadings it is admitted that a fox is a "wild and noxious beast." Both parties have regarded him, as the law of nations does a pirate, "hostem humani generis [enemy of mankind]," and although "de mortuis nilnisi bonum [of the dead nothing but good is to be said]" be a maxim of our profession, the memory of the deceased has not been spared."

A fiery split developed within the court about creating an outcome which would provide hunters with the right social incentives: Do we want to incentivize efficient hunters by giving it to Pierson, or reward those who expended the first significant effort like Post? Mere pursuit isn't enough, but what about a mortal wound?

Pierson v. Post is a rite of passage for law students everywhere. The court's adoption of the "law of capture" would go on to have widespread ramifications when it was later extended to deciding who owned oil reservoirs underneath adjoining lands.

Player	Votes
elle (1L) (3)	Bell (82), GuiltyLion (146), PookyTheMagicalBear (147)
PookyTheMagicalBear (2)	Meuh (12), SirCakez (139)
Bell (1)	Ydrasse (32)
Ydrasse (1)	catboi (137)
Not Voting (2)	Dunnstral, elle (1L) (122)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.2

Summers v. Tice

, 33 Cal.2d 80 (Cal. 1948).

Speaking of hunting, it's time for some Torts...

Three men go quail hunting on a Tuesday. They wind up with no quail, but they do wind up changing the entire fields of negligence and products liability.

You see, Charles Summers's friends, Tice and Simondson, weren't the brightest. Summers instructed them on how to hunt and to be careful when firing the shotguns with another person nearby. Unfortunately, neither of them listened. A quail flew above Summers's head and both defendants shot at it. Some of the bird shot from one of their rounds hit Summers in the face, injuring his eye and upper lip.

Summers wants to be "made whole" for the damage to his face with a fat stack of cash. Both of the defendants were negligent in firing their shotguns in the direction as another person, Summers sues, what's the big deal? Surely he goes home with the $$$?

Well, you see, in order to recover money from someone, the plaintiff (Summers) has to show a defendant is responsible for the damage with greater than a 50% probability. Nobody knows which of Tice and Simondson actually shot Summers. The evidence is ambiguous. The chance of either being responsible is 50/50. Classically, Summers gets no money from either. Huh.

So the California Supreme Court decided that because it was definitely one of the two that shot Summers, and it makes no sense to tell Summers "Sorry that happened, pay your own medical bills and get over it," to instead shift the burden onto Tice and Simondson to show that they WEREN'T the one that shot Summers, or else they're both liable to pay for the damage. It turns out this became very relevant for products liability later down the line as an example of shifting the burden of proof onto a better-informed defendant.

Maybe they should've just stayed at home and played cards.

Player	Votes
elle (1L) (3)	Bell (82), GuiltyLion (146), PookyTheMagicalBear (147)
Ydrasse (2)	catboi (137), SirCakez (259)
PookyTheMagicalBear (1)	Meuh (12)
Bell (1)	Ydrasse (32)
Not Voting (2)	Dunnstral, elle (1L) (122)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

elle (1L) has been prodded. She has 24 hours to post before I begin searching for a replacement.

[Prism]

I'm in the middle of moving cities. I expect to still be around periodically, but if you have an emergency in the next day or two, please be sure to CC fferyllt on any PMs.

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.5

R. v. Faulkner (1877) 13 Cox CC 550.

Today, we're headed across the pond to the United Kingdom a lesson in criminal law!

Our tragic hero Faulkner was employed on a cargo ship loaded with rum, sugar, cotton, etc. Unfortunately for our hero, he didn't own any of it. A sharp man displeased with the current state of affairs and dreadfully thirsty, he decided to revolt against this unjust state of affairs.

He snuck down to the hold and bored a hole through the rum barrel in mere effort to stave off his dehydration. Step one of his plan complete, our hero needed only to drink up the rewards of his labors.

The hold was very dark, but fortunately for Faulkner, he's again a sharp and intelligent man gifted with incredible powers of foresight. He had come prepared. He lit a match to create some light so that he could see where the rum was flowing. The match hit the rum. The rum instantly caught flame, lit the whole barrel on fire, and brought the entire ship down with it. Somehow, our crafty protagonist made it out with some luck and quick thinking.

The prosecutor brought charges of larceny for stealing the rum and arson for setting the ship on fire, and Faulkner was convicted of both charges. However, on appeal, the arson conviction was overturned. Arson is a crime that requires intent, while our hero intended to steal away with some rum, he never intended to set the ship on fire. Our hero was thus lacking the prerequisite mens rea for the crime, and thus could not commit it.

Player	Votes
GuiltyLion (3)	Meuh (356), Lukewarm (427), Dunnstral (490)
Lukewarm (2)	GuiltyLion (146), SirCakez (463)
Dunnstral (2)	catboi (482), PookyTheMagicalBear (484)
Bell (1)	Ydrasse (32)
Not Voting (1)	Bell (468)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.7

Hardy v. Sw. Bell Tel. Co.

, 910 P.2d 1024 (Okla. 1996).

Normally, within the realm of negligence and tort, the defendant has to be responsible for the plaintiff's harm in order to be liable. There are a few carveouts, though, one of which is the "lost chance of survival" doctrine for medical malpractice. A doctor may not have been the cause of the patient's death, as they had a likely-terminal disease, but if the doctor's treatment is so negligent that it extinguished any chance of survival, it turns out we might want to hold them to account for it.

One plaintiff in Oklahoma decided to test the limits of this doctrine, arguing that it should apply for simple negligence against a telephone company. You see, the plaintiff's wife had a heart attack and died at the family home in Tulsa. He administered CPR, but was unable to dial 911 and call an ambulance: the phone lines were too busy and had jammed. Eventually, he managed to get through to an operator who connected him to emergency services, but it was too late. His wife passed away in the hospital later that day.

What was the cause of the phone jam?

Garth Brooks tickets had just gone on sale, clogging up the phone lines. If tomorrow never comes...

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma declined to extend the doctrine beyond its traditional application to health care professionals, letting the telephone company off the hook.

Player	Votes
GuiltyLion (3)	Dunnstral (490), SirCakez (590), Bell (699)
catboi (2)	GuiltyLion (527), Meuh (582)
Dunnstral (1)	PookyTheMagicalBear (484)
Bell (1)	Ydrasse (32)
Ydrasse (1)	catboi (603)
Not Voting (1)	Lukewarm (504)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-06 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Cool it regardless of any combination of alignments. This is your only warning.

[Prism]

Searching for a replacement for catboi.

[Prism]

I also want to issue a reminder of the site rules.

Do not post after you have made the decision to replace out.

[Prism]

UNVOTE:

Please note that this post came after the replacement request and therefore the unvote will not be counted.

[Prism]

RH9 replaces catboi. Welcome!

[Prism]

It has come to my attention that at least one player, Lukewarm, is having trouble accessing the thread to post.

Given the thread access issues and the two replacements, I have decided to add 24 hours to the deadline. More may be added if technical issues persist, but this is not guaranteed.

Please let me know if you are affected so I can avoid prodding you until it is resolved.

The new Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-07 12:30:00).

[Prism]

As far as I know the issue has been resolved, but please PM me if it is continuing to pose an issue.

[Prism]

GuiltyLion has been prodded. He has 24 hours to post before I begin searching for a replacement.

[Prism]

SirCakez has been prodded. He has 24 hours to post before I begin searching for a replacement.

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.9

Breunig v. Am. Family Ins. Co.

, 173 N.W. 2d 619 (Wis. 1970).

Normally, one has to be able to have prevented or foreseen a harmful outcome in order to be held responsible for the damage. If you know that you're prone to seizures but drive anyway, that's dangerous and an accident was easily preventable. If you have a totally unexpected and sudden seizure, not so much.

What about a sudden onset of hallucinations and total delusion while driving? This was the question faced by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1970 after a car accident. I'll let the Court tell it:

"The psychiatrist testified Mrs. Veith told him she was driving on a road when she believed that God was taking ahold of the steering wheel and was directing her car. She saw the truck coming and stepped on the gas in order to become airborne because she knew she could fly because Batman does it. To her surprise she was not airborne before striking the truck but after the impact she was flying."

In the end, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that given the suddenness of Mrs. Veith's mental illness, the accident was unforeseeable and she was off the hook. This case was closer to an unexpected seizure than a predictable one. Her insanity was totally sudden and she had no forewarning...even though "[Prior to the accident] she felt it had been revealed to her the end of the world was coming and that she was picked by God to survive. Later she had visions of God judging people and sentencing them to Heaven or Hell; she thought Batman was good and was trying to help save the world and her husband was possessed of the devil."

Eh, let's not sweat the details.

Player	Votes
Ydrasse (4)	Bell (759), Dunnstral (823), PookyTheMagicalBear (886), GuiltyLion (891)
SirCakez (3)	Lukewarm (825), Meuh (835), RH9 (845)
GuiltyLion (2)	SirCakez (590), Ydrasse (893)
Not Voting (0)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-07 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 1.10

Wickard v. Filburn

, 317 U.S. 111 (1942).

With most of the Founders scared of strong central authority, most of the Constitution's restraints are placed on the federal government. Generally, states were left to manage their own internal affairs.

One broad way Congress manages to enact comprehensive legislation is through the commerce clause, which empowers Congress the ability to regulate interstate commerce. Early on, the commerce clause was interpreted very narrowly: federal authority was limited to things like managing navigation between states, and through what is called the dormant commerce clause (more on that later), prevented states from leveraging tariffs and the like on goods coming from another.

If Congress in the 1800s wants to regulate how goods are manufactured in a single state, how people live in their homes, etc.? Nope, entirely within the state, can't do it. Too local.

Cue the Great Depression. It turns out many Americans really wanted a strong federal authority, national economic programs, and strong regulations. It also turns out the Supreme Court hated this idea and (rightly) considered it as opening up the door to virtually unlimited and unchecked federal power, and so they kept striking down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's programs. After he threatened to pack the Court in his favor, the justices started to become a little more friendly to the idea, or at least retired to make room for someone who was.

The limits of the new commerce clause, and more precisely what constituted local economic activity, were tested in Wickard v. Filburn. One New Deal act limited the amount of wheat that could be grown. Filburn, a farmer, grew in excess of that amount, but stated that the extra wheat to be used on the farm and thus wasn't in violation of the act. Not a bushel was to enter the marketplace at all.

Well, too bad. It turns out that if you're growing wheat yourself, you're still conducting interstate economic activity because you're not participating in the national market, and Congress has the authority to compel you to participate. The dawn of a new era!

Player	Votes
Ydrasse (5)	Bell (759), Dunnstral (823), PookyTheMagicalBear (886), GuiltyLion (891), Lukewarm (975)
SirCakez (2)	Meuh (835), RH9 (845)
GuiltyLion (2)	SirCakez (590), Ydrasse (893)
Not Voting (0)

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to eliminate.

An elimination has been achieved! Day 1 is over, stand by for resolution.

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Day 1 End

FLAVOR

Prism's first few weeks were rough. Already wracked with self-doubt, he came down with COVID and fell further behind. He could feel his dreams slipping away.

1200 miles away but a moment away on Discord, Ydrasse had problems of her own to worry about. Her mom wanted her to visit family this weekend but the shower's been broken for months, Ydrasse was all out of SpaghettiOs, Tom Brady was having a rough year, and worst of all the new episode of Eternal Boys sucked.

Whatever, all of those were problems for later. At that moments, she was trying to focus on Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but her Discord just keeps going off. God, it's not even something interesting like the r/anime server. It's this shit again.

Ydrasse looks up at her Larry Bird poster. Legend, give her strength.

As the notification counter ticked up to 12, Ydrasse finally decided that it was better late than never. The Cheetos-encrusted mouse didn't want to click for a second, but after spitting on the button to moisten the debris, soon the deed was done. Her Discord contacts went from 1 to 0.

Sweet, sweet silence. Now where did she put her 'Mats CD?

Ydrasse has been eliminated! She was...

Spoiler: Ydrasse

Thirteen years ago, you were nice to a kid playing an online video game. It was the greatest error of your entire life, one you continue to suffer the consequences for every single day.

All you want in this life is to sit at home, play video games, watch anime, and listen to The Replacements. You want to do it all in peace without anyone bothering you. Instead, Prism is texting you all this random shit you don't care about basically all of the time. Nothing has served as an effective deterrent.

None of this stuff about journal applications and car batteries makes sense, but what makes even less sense is that you put up with it anyway. You've grown rather fond of the kid, and are even kind of rooting for him at the end of the day.

Ydrasse, you are

catboi

, a

Vanilla Townie

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Night 1 has begun. The deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-08 09:00:00).

[Prism]

Day 2 Start

FLAVOR

The weeks are starting to fly by quickly. The first assignment has come and gone, and Prism's off to a rough start. Let's just say that first memo didn't go so hot. Getting offtrack is risky, and it's time to be proactive.

After lecture, Prism stops by the office of his favorite professor for some advice and assurance. She mentioned earlier that statistically, some of the class would fail, but that doesn't HAVE to happen, does it? Isn't knowing the law good enough to pass, even if not everyone gets an A?

"Prism, look: it's great that you've been given this opportunity, but remember your moral worth doesn't hinge on doing well on a memo or test at the end of the day. Historically, I've been a generous grader who tries to avoid failing students, but let's just say this was not a...popular decision among the faculty. I've been there and fought that battle, and I lost. Some things are just out of my control."

As Prism exits the office, much less assured and much more terrified, a final piece of advice echoes through the hall.

"Law school sucks, the curve sucks, but remember: all you have to do is learn how to kiss the ring!"

Bell has been eliminated! He was...

Spoiler: Bell

Ah, the start of the school year is such an exciting time! You love your research, but you also love teaching. So many students with so much potential, all climbing over each other and wracked by anxiety in their quest for a 4.0. It's a great big beautiful mess all right.

It's amazing how fast the students grow, and you regret that it all has to be so competitive. You genuinely want to see everyone succeed, and you hate to play favorites.

Still, there are some that you hope do well. Prism is one of them, but there's so many others to look out for, and there's only so much you can do for him with a blind graded final exam.

You're sure he'll be fine without too much help!

Bell, you are

Prism's Property Professor

, a

Vanilla Townie

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Day 2 has begun. The deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-18 12:30:00).

[Prism]

Vote Count 2.0

Unfortunate fun fact: the following flavor is a true story.

Prism leaves the office of his property professor and decides to go for a walk outside to help calm the anxiety. It kind of helps, but he's really starting to worry about the next assignment. A repeat performance would be a disaster and his academic career is threatening to spiral out of control. Still, the wind is really nice today.

He walks into the restroom to wash his face before class starts. Standing at the sink is John, hunched over the sink with a Ziploc bag of white powder and a scoop. John looks like a deer in the headlights and in a panic almost drops the scoop.

"IT'S HUEL IT'S JUST MY HUEL"

"...What?"

"After you brought that bottle of Huel I realized how much time I was wasting that I could spend studying. So I went and bought about $400 worth, enough to last me the semester. I haven't eaten solid food in two weeks. Say, did you have any digestive issu-"

"Sorry I've got to go." God, please have mercy on this den of damned souls and wretched sinners.

Player	Votes
Not Voting (7)	SirCakez, Meuh, Dunnstral, RH9, PookyTheMagicalBear, Lukewarm, GuiltyLion

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 2 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-18 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 2.1

Keeble v. Hickeringill, (1707) 103 Eng. Rep. 1127 (K.B.).

The classic followup to yesterday's Pierson v. Post. We established in that case that the hunter in pursuit doesn't own the fox, only the hunter who has it in hand. It's time to take another trip across the pond to England.

Samuel Keeble owned a meadow that he used to catch ducks via an elaborate system of nets and diverting water channels. He makes a good living out of it. Enter Mr. Edmund Hickeringill, his lovely new neighbor and noted eccentric. At some point, the two got into a dispute, perhaps over Hickeringill's earlier construction of a competing decoy pond, and Hickeringill became determined to annoy Keeble however he could.

Regretfully barred from becoming a true Florida man by a lack of temporal alignment, Hickeringill still did his best to channel the same energy. With nothing better to do, he waited outside all day on his own property, watching for ducks venturing into the adjoining Keeble's pond trap. He would then shoot his gun to scare the ducks away. Keeble sued alleging deprivation of his personal property-the ducks.

Unfortunately for Keeble, just like the fox pursuer in Pierson, Keeble didn't actually own the ducks yet. Hickeringill wasn't trespassing or depriving him of his property by scaring the ducks away.

However, just like in Pierson v. Post, the Court thought heavily about the incentives of the case. After a lengthy discussion about the value of the pond for its role in supplying the tables of England, and the principles of fair and unfair competition, the court instead found against Hickeringill by calling it a private nuisance: Hickeringill was depriving Keeble of the quiet enjoyment and profitable use of his land.

Player	Votes
SirCakez (2)	Meuh (986), RH9 (1008)
RH9 (1)	SirCakez (1089)
Not Voting (4)	Dunnstral, PookyTheMagicalBear, GuiltyLion, Lukewarm (1010)

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-18 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 2.2

Int'l Shoe Co. v. Washington

, 326 U.S. 310 (1945).

How do you terrorize a law student? The answer, as always, lies in civil procedure. Simply say the words "Erie", "Pennoyer", and "International Shoe", and you will watch any 1L disappear in a flash. These words are the sacred names of boogeymen that are unfortunately all too real.

International Shoe is the modern foundation for the authority of American courts to decide a matter and call a defendant to account, or to establish the court's personal jurisdiction over the defendant. Historically, in a simpler time, it was very simple for a court to decide whether it had authority to make a judgement against a defendant: Was the defendant served with notice of the lawsuit while withing the state's boundaries? If so, they needed to show up and answer to the court.

This worked really well in the 1700s and 1800s, when jurisdiction hopping was difficult and commerce very restrained. As the industrial age powered on full steam ahead, this rule became less practical. Visiting motorists were hitting pedestrians then driving home, out of reach of the state's courts, giving rise to the idea of implied consent to lawsuits and jurisdiction. Next, the International Shoe Company hired salesmen in Washington, but purposely kept its decision-making apparatus and officers outside of the state and kept no permanent mailing address in Washington as a means to dodge its state employer taxes.

But what were the Washington courts to do about it? Taking up the question of how fair this arrangement really was, the Supreme Court declared a more liberal limit on personal jurisdiction in the modern era: it is reasonable for a state court to exercise jurisdiction over a defendant when they establish "certain minimum contacts with [the state] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice".

Everyone, law students and Supreme Court justices alike, has been trying to figure out what that vague jumble of words means ever since.

Player	Votes
RH9 (2)	SirCakez (1089), Lukewarm (1289)
Dunnstral (1)	Meuh (1182)
Meuh (1)	Dunnstral (1303)
Not Voting (3)	PookyTheMagicalBear, RH9 (1136), GuiltyLion (1246)

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 1 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-18 12:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Alisae replaces RH9. Welcome!

24 hours have been added to the deadline. The new deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-19 12:30:00).

[Prism]

I am aware of the above posts and think they require no action.

I am currently out. Flip to come later tonight/early morning tomorrow.

[Prism]

Vote Count 2.4

Hamer v. Sidway

, 124 N.Y. 538 (N.Y. 1891).

Contracts are important to the economic function of society, specifically the enforcement of contracts and the ability of parties to rely on it. Imagine making specialized gears for a buyer without being guaranteed they'll pay you for them, working for an employer without a legal guarantee of future payment, or merging two large companies without an extensive enforceable agreement on the terms of acquisition. (Here's looking at you, Elon!)

At the end of the day, though, a contract is a promise, and it turns out we don't really want to enforce a lot of promises, like those made on the spur of the moment, or those that are entirely unilateral and intended as gifts. One example of a gift promise would be telling my nephew I'd buy him a Hot Wheels car, only to remember I already spent all of my money at Isis's Riverside Pub. Stop crying, there's always next year!

One of the critical elements of figuring out an enforceable contract as opposed to an unenforceable gift promise is the idea that there should be mutual exchange of value, whether that be money, an item, or a future service. This is called "consideration". The question in Hamer v. Sidway was determining what constitutes valuable consideration: William E. Story promised his young nephew a sizable lump of money if the nephew abstained "from drinking liquor, using tobacco, swearing, and playing cards or billiards for money until he should become 21 years of age".

The nephew kept his end of the bargain, and when he strayed from this straight and narrow path, he quickly found himself in debt. He gave his claim to the money to someone he owed money to, and when the uncle died, the lender tried to collect on the uncle's estate. The court had to evaluate whether the uncle's promise was an unenforceable gift promise or whether the nephew had given up "valuable consideration" and therefore this was an enforceable contract.

Long story short, it turns out that the nephew's abstention from such morally dubious actions constituted giving up something of value and thus this was an enforceable contract. Remember that next time a family member promises something for good behavior! (...But also remember also that this game's flavor is not legal advice from an attorney barred in any state!)

Player	Votes
Alisae (4)	Lukewarm (1289), Meuh (1332), Alisae (1508), SirCakez (1525)
Meuh (1)	Dunnstral (1303)
Not Voting (2)	GuiltyLion (1350), PookyTheMagicalBear (1466)

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to eliminate.

An elimination has been achieved! Day 2 is over, stand by for resolution.

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Day 2 End

FLAVOR

The first semester is almost over, for better or for worse. The library's 2AM population continues to grow. At least two people have had their engagements called off. Reality has slipped out of grasp, the idea of life outside of law school a hazy and very distant memory.

Prism's hair has grown long and disheveled. A once-balanced diet has turned into a steady stream of Clif Bars and Uncrustables. Above the fray, sitting undeterred, has been his law school rock, Alisae. In a world of chaos, there is Alisae.

One day, e stops showing up. No one notices besides Prism: not the professors, not the other students. Completely nondescript and virtually a ghost, Alisae's loss is of little consequence to the law school. But to Prism and Prism alone, sanity hanging on by a thread, the loss is immense.

All that remains of Alisae is a text.

"I dunno. Seeing how miserable everyone else was made me think this wasn't for me. I talked to my girlfriend and we've decided to just go work at a fun board game cafe in Wisconsin instead. Good luck, I know you'll make a great attorney!"

Alisae has been eliminated! E was...

Spoiler: Alisae

The everyman of law school and its unsung hero. That's you.

You showed up here expecting to learn the law and write some stuff, and that's exactly what's happened for the most part. You read the cases, show up to lecture, and go home. You don't really know why everyone else has 7 extra textbooks for every class and at this point you're too scared to ask. You figure this isn't really that much different from undergrad, even though it's been awhile.

Sometimes when class gets boring you and Prism play around on Cool Math Games to pass the time. Law isn't the most exciting, but it's not bad really. It'd be nice to change some things one day. Hopefully you and your friends do well on the exams, but it's not like a B+ would be the end of the world.

You genuinely have no clue why you're in a Mafia game.

Alisae, you are

Tom

, a

Vanilla Townie

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Night 2 has begun. The deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-19 12:45:00).

[Prism]

Day 3 Start

FLAVOR

"Every 1L gather in the main courtyard. One hour" read the single-line email from the dean. Huh. What could this be about?

After finishing lunch with friends, Prism trekked down the stairs. Things weren't going so hot, he thought, but it still wasn't the end of the world. The first memo didn't go well, but he'd have other chances. He still had time to catch up on his readings before finals. Plenty of time to turn things around. His thoughts swirled as he stepped into the courtyard, not at all ready for the main event.

The dean had arranged for a temporary platform in one of the corners and was standing at a podium. After quieting the gathering crowd of 1Ls, he began to speak into the microphone.

"Now as you all know, I hate being the dean. It comes with all sorts of administrative meetings that make me want to shoot spitballs at bureaucrats, but that's not the worst part of the job. This part is."

"Lukewarm, do you mind coming up on stage for me?" Luke, standing next to Prism, was one of his best pals. He could be a little intense and insecure, but he was a good guy at the heart of it. Prism was sure this wouldn't help Luke's anxiety, whatever it was, and felt a tinge of pity.

"Now everyone knows our US News rankings rise has been unprecedented. It's taken a lot of hard work to get here, both by the faculty and by the students. We all want you to succeed, but when someone doesn't keep up to the standards, it creates difficulties for all of us."

The dean continued. "Some of you seem to think that you can write horrible memos, real blights on society, and get away with little to no consequences. You might be telling yourself 'What's a C or F in the long run?', thinking you'll be all right at the end of the day even without good grades, a good job. There's always your parents' house, right?"

"Luke, would you move a little to the left? Thank you." Luke shuffled over nervously. Prism feels so bad for him. He must feel so humiliated right about now. Prism thinks about taking Luke for ice cream afterwards to console him.

"I am here to tell you you are wrong."

The dean reached under the podium, pulled out a gold-plated Desert Eagle, and fucking shot Lukewarm in the head.

Lukewarm has been eliminated! He was...

Spoiler: Lukewarm

Thanks so much for coming over tonight to study, Prism. I'm feeling so bad about Contracts. Oh my god that cold call from Jessica was brutal. I would have died if that were me. I didn't get called this time but I'm so glad I was ready just in case. I stayed up until 3 AM last night just doing practice problems. I'm glad I didn't go out last weekend, I'd never catch back up.

But man when Blake answered...I heard Blake read the entire textbook cover to cover over the summer. Say, what supplements are you reading Prism? You're a good dude but I don't know how you're going to pass if you don't highlight your book more. Why don't we study after Torts tomorrow?

I saw Nolan's notes and they were terrible. There's no way he's going to pass if he keeps doing that. He's not focusing on the right things, you know? It's all about focusing on the right things. My outline is up to 273 pages. If we don't apply to jobs this weekend we probably won't get anything for the summer. I heard all the good jobs are gone by week 3.

Vivek is so smart, way too smart. We've got to work harder if we're getting graded against Vivek. You know they say 1L fall is the most important. You should come over on Saturday and we'll work on Property together. Do you want to know who I saw studying in the library at 5 AM on Sunday last week?

...Leaving already? I know sleep's important man but I'm telling you, if you don't study more...

Lukewarm, you are

The Perpetually High-strung Stressball

, a

Town Two-shot Tracker

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• Two-shot Tracker:
  Each Night, you may target a player via PM. Assuming no interference with your action, you will be told who that player targeted that night. This ability is two-shot.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Day 3 has begun. The deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-29 14:30:00).

[Prism]

Vote Count 3.0

Oh holy shit.

Prism left the courtyard and booked it right back up the stairs and into the library to start on his memo. Forget the ice cream. The next memo is due next week.

As he settles into a desk, Anna arrives and helps herself to the adjoining one. She seems unbothered.

"I can't believe it took this long. I knew I should have went to Harvard. I heard they start doing it week 2," Anna says as she takes out her laptop and some pencils.

Prism sweats nervously. "Haha, yeah. They've gotta keep us motivated somehow, I guess."

Anna starts putting in headphones. "For real. I wrote such a bad memo but still got a 3.94 on it. I don't see how anyone fails out of here. It's like they can't even read."

Prism thinks about the printed memo in his bag, stamped with a "2.94" on top.

"Yeah, the memos are such a joke. I'm going to try and hammer mine out right now, so let's talk another time, okay?"

Oh god, what did the caselaw say? Is that really the right holding? Is the period after an "Id" citation italicized? Oh god oh fuck.

Player	Votes
Not Voting (5)	SirCakez, Meuh, Dunnstral, PookyTheMagicalBear, GuiltyLion

With 5 players alive, it takes 3 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 3 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-29 14:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Vote Count 3.1

Philadelphia v. New Jersey

, 437 U.S. 617 (1978).

Ah, New Jersey. A beautiful coastal state, vibrant with wildlife and lush with flowers, like the violet. This place was beautiful, once, before mankind got its grubby little industrial hands on it.

New Jersey's greatest economic advantage is its location. It's sandwiched right between two major cities in Philadelphia and New York City, widely considered more desirable places to live. Those cities have their own problems, though: problems that New Jersey is uniquely suited to solve. Philadelphia and NYC make trash. A lot of trash. A LOT of trash. Neither wants it around, and fortunately there's this total wasteland of a state right nearby. Thanks, New Jersey!

While the owners of landfills were living large, as large as one can in New Jersey, it turns out most of the state's residents really didn't like this arrangement, aspiring to be something more than the NYC/Philadelphia dumping ground. The state enacted a protectionist bill banning the importation of trash from other states in an effort to buck its status as a second-class state.

Unfortunately for New Jersey, this ran afoul of the Constitution's "Commerce Clause" which reserves such powers for the federal government. Part of Congress's ability to regulate interstate commerce implies that their lack of action is itself a Congressional choice on policy, and this is really going to come into play with any sort of tariff, import ban, etc. from one state to another. This idea is called the "Dormant Commerce Clause". The Founders were very wary of blatant protectionism and the idea of one state economically discriminating against another.

And so New Jersey continues to be the nation's landfill to this day. Remember to thank any residents you know for their service!

Player	Votes
Dunnstral (2)	Meuh (1661), GuiltyLion (1716)
Meuh (1)	Dunnstral (1648)
Not Voting (2)	SirCakez, PookyTheMagicalBear

With 5 players alive, it takes 3 votes to eliminate.

No elimination has been achieved. The Day 3 deadline is in (expired on 2023-09-29 14:30:00).

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

It's late. I'm tired. Sorry but flip won't come until morning or early afternoon.

[Prism]

Alright sorry I forgot I had an assignment due in the evening but TONIGHT THE FLIP WILL COME I PROMISE

Thank you for being patient ;_;

[Prism]

Vote Count 3.2

Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co.

, 26 N.Y.2d 219 (N.Y. 1970).

One of my favorite cases and accompanying legal analyses of all time came from a dispute over cement. Sitting in the background of many of our cases has been a theme of "Who bears the costs?" When Pierson lost the fox to Post, he was forced to bear the costs of his failed hunting expedition. When the phone company filled the lines selling Garth Brooks tickets, Mr. Hardy and his wife bore the costs of her heart attack and the jammed phone lines.

Perhaps no case make the economic analysis and cost-bearing decisions more explicit than Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co. Cement is a critical ingredient to the infrastructure of modern society. It makes up America's roads, buildings, dams, etc. However, creating cement kind of sucks. It pollutes the air around the entire factory, worsening public health and lowering property values, so some of the property owners sued the plant, alleging it was a nuisance.

This put the court in a bit of a pickle. Clearly, the concrete plant was a nuisance to the nearby houses, but it was also providing a very important economic service for the country and the community. Many of the same people harmed by the pollution benefited from the factory, either directly by working there or indirectly by running a business which benefits from the cement plant's presence. Even worse, typically in lawsuits one side wins and one side loses. EIther shut down the plant or tell the homeowners to suck it up. How do you even begin to leverage the property interests of the homeowners against the property interests of the plant owners?

Enter law and economics. This case was a landmark attempt in using economic analysis to try to fashion a solution that worked for all parties and fine-tune the court's idea of maximizing social utility. The court decided that they would temporarily shutdown the plant until the plant paid for a set amount of damages, then allow the plant to continue operating. They effectively created a license for the cement company to pollute, requiring a one-time payment for the privilege to internalize the costs of pollution that they had been externalizing onto the homeowners. Nifty!

Player	Votes
Meuh (3)	Dunnstral (1882), SirCakez (1918), GuiltyLion (1920)
Dunnstral (1)	Meuh (1888)
Not Voting (1)	PookyTheMagicalBear

With 5 players alive, it takes 3 votes to eliminate.

An elimination has been achieved! Day 3 is over, stand by for resolution.

Combined Prism & fferyllt Mod ISO

[Prism]

Day 3 End

FLAVOR

The first final exam, the first real barrier. Prism was nervous. Too nervous. He had been on edge the last two weeks, so anxious he couldn't bring himself to study. Still, he knew what was going on, at least he thought. Shouldn't that be enough? The finer points were a bit slippery sometimes, admittedly, but...Oh god, it's starting. Why is this one exam worth 100% of the grade?

As the proctor announced the start of the 3-hour exam, Prism cracked open the booklet. The multiple choice were filled with statements he couldn't make heads nor tails of. What happens when O gives M the title to Blackacre for life, then to O's oldest living grandchild? What was the difference between a licensee and an invitee? Prism flipped through the book to no avail.

Already an hour behind by the time he finished the multiple choice, Prism finally looked at the essay. A neighborhood association, a purported conservation easement, zoning laws, and some sort of recording system all rolled into one? He barely manages to to jot down the phrase "equitable servitude" before time is up.

What on earth was that?

When Prism returned home, he hopped straight into bed to try and forget what just happened. Surely everyone else had the same struggles, right? He wanted to go home. Why did he come to law school just to fail again? With his face on the pillow, he began to hear a faint buzzing. It grew louder, and louder, until it eventually became deafening.

He rolled over and they were there: a giant swarm of Southern yellowjackets, the Vespula squamosa. A large queen hovered gently above his face, and Prism was suddenly struck by a wave of understanding.

"We've come to get you," she said to Prism. He nodded in acquiescence and in terror. They lifted Prism up and out of bed to start the long journey home.

Prism jolted awake. What a nightmare, but it had just begun. Two exams to go, but it was already over. His last three years were for nothing. It was time to start all over. Maybe he'll take more trip to Isis's Riverside Pub before he goes.

Academic expulsion. Case dismissed.

Meuh has been eliminated! She was...

Spoiler: Meuh

You are the bane of every law student's existence. After a full week of studying for the actually important classes, there you are waiting for them on the weekends. Ungraded but required, you force all the 1Ls to watch scores of how-to research videos and write boring memorandums for essentially no reward. In the short-term, you represent time spent aimlessly circling the drain.

You've got a much broader view of the world. You know that you are in fact the most useful class in the entire bunch. Prism may hate you now, but you're his best friend whether he knows it or not. No matter how many times he calls you stupid busywork, you're committed to looking out for him in the long-run.

Meuh, you are

Prism's Legal Research and Writing Class

, a

Town Miller

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• Miller:
  You will appear to be aligned with
  The Curve
  when investigated by a Cop.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

A win condition has been achieved!

Prism has caved under the pressure and been academically expelled!

The Curve, consisting of Dunnstral and GuiltyLion, have won Micro 1091 -

Prism v. 1L Year

! Congratulations!

SirCakez has been endgamed! He was...

Spoiler: SirCakez

You've got one of the coolest positions on campus. You hang out and help students fulfill their dreams, guiding them on how to get where they want to be. You don't care where people are on the grading curve. Everyone came to law school for a reason: some people just need help finding it.

Unfortunately, you've got a real problem child this year. Prism has insisted that you remove him from the career center email list and is refusing to apply for anything. Look, you get it. Nobody wants to apply for jobs while they're studying for finals, but you've got statistics to report to US News and the ABA.

It's your job to get everyone a job whether they want one or not. Sometimes that means roping students into your office with the promise of free coffee and insisting they not leave your sight until they've mailed out 20 applications. Extreme? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely.

SirCakez, you are

The Career Services Dean

, a

Town One-shot Roleblocker

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• One-shot Roleblocker:
  Each Night, you may target a player via PM. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be roleblocked. This ability is one-shot.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

PookyTheMagicalBear has been endgamed! He was...

Spoiler: PookyTheMagicalBear

You don't understand why you've got such a bad reputation on campus. You wrote an amazing essay on the exam explaining why government toll roads and airline regulations are a plague on society and would have the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves, and that liberal professor gave you a B- anyway just because it was a civil procedure exam and you didn't apply the law to the facts.

Some criticize your worldview as lacking in nuance and practicality, but those people just aren't as committed to intellectual consistency. If your judicial philosophy isn't realistic in the year 2023, it's the world that needs to change, not your ideas.

For all your flaws, you generally don't mean any harm to people. Somehow. We're all here to learn, right?

PookyTheMagicalBear, you are

A Typical FedSoc Member

, a

Town Miller

aligned with the

Prism Well-wishers

.

Abilities:

• Miller:
  You will appear to be aligned with
  The Curve
  when investigated by a Cop.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism passes his classes, and by that I mean when only players aligned with the Prism Well-wishers remain alive. At least one player aligned with the Prism Well-wishers must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

Dunnstral survives and wins! He was...

Spoiler: Dunnstral

Don't get me wrong: It's enough if you succeed, but boy does it feel great if everyone else fails too and makes you look that much better.

You are a testament to your own greatness. Law school exists primarily as a mode of your superior expression. You relish the competitive nature of 1L, because not only are you more talented than everyone else, you're harder working to boot. The professors are always left stunned at the quiet but immense intelligence running beneath the surface of your humble questions, and it frequently takes them a moment to gather themselves and digest the subtle yet definite connections between your carefully curated topics and the day's readings.

There are only so many passing grades to go around. If Prism thinks one could be his, he better think again. They're reserved for you and for those lucky enough to breathe next to you. With your effusive charisma and widely-envied talents, you've got your ways of keeping tabs on people and keeping your competitive edge.

Dunnstral, you are

The Gunner

, a

Mafia Two-shot Tracker

aligned with

The Curve

.

Abilities:

• Two-shot Tracker:
  Each Night, you may target a player via PM. Assuming no interference with your action, you will be told who that player targeted that night. This ability is two-shot.
• Cold-called:
  As a member of The Curve, you have a factional nightkill available to you every Night. You must specify which member of the faction will perform the kill. You may additionally talk with your partner at any time here.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism caves under the academic pressure, and by that I mean when players aligned with The Curve equal or out-number any remaining Prism Well-wishers. At least one player aligned with the The Curve must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

GuiltyLion survives and wins! He was...

Spoiler: GuiltyLion

Look, you want your students to succeed as much as anybody. They're bright, yes. Talented, even. Some are really quite clever.

But something doesn't quite sit right with you about this Prism fellow. Bit of a jokester, isn't he? Whether it's the way he dresses, something about his speech, something about his manner, nobody but you knows. He'll make a fine lawyer one day to be sure, but he just doesn't seem to be keeping up with the high standards of the profession, and part of your job is to serve as a gatekeeper to this honorable trade.

The Curve may not be perfect, but there is method to the madness. Prism is about to find out that it serves its role quite effectively, oh yes.

Now Prism, I wish you all the best, of course, but good grades would be worthless if they went to everyone, now wouldn't they?

GuiltyLion, you are

Prism's Civil Procedure Professor

, a

Mafia Goon

aligned with

The Curve

.

Abilities:

• Cold-called:
  As a member of The Curve, you have a factional nightkill available to you every Night. You must specify which member of the faction will perform the kill. You may additionally talk with your partner at any time here.
• The Socratic Method:
  You have your voice and your vote. Use them wisely.

Win Condition:

• You win when Prism caves under the academic pressure, and by that I mean when players aligned with The Curve equal or out-number any remaining Prism Well-wishers. At least one player aligned with the The Curve must be alive to fulfill this win condition.

[Prism]

All topic links can be found here.

Main thread
Mod PT
Office Hours (The Curve Mafia PT)
Bar Review (Dead/Spec PT)

elle (1L) Notes PT
Bell Notes PT
RH9 Notes PT

Release of Notes PTs will be optional. Please tell me if you would like them released.

The game is over, and you may now post.

[Prism]

So first off, a huge thank you to everyone for playing, especially my replacements in RH9, Alisae, and Lukewarm. Thank you to everyone for accepting the invitation to play, and thank you to the replacements for answering the call for help. I really hope you enjoyed the game, the theme, and each other. Thank you also for being patient: I know my VCs could be sparse and my flips a bit slow.

Second, an immense thank you to fferyllt, who was supposed to be a backup mod but wound up serving instead as a co-moderator. She started out making vote counts when I requested but ended up doing them proactively, and I appreciated that she went out of her way to add some flavor of her own. She also helped design the setup!

Third, thank you to Isis for more setup help and for running Isis's Riverside Pub. Everyone in the dead thread should be grateful that she didn't kick us out even after we ran out of money.

[Prism]

Overall — and feel free to disagree — I'm extremely happy with how this game played out mechanically. It basically worked the way I hoped it would, and I think it was very fair.

The final setup was:

3x VT, 2x Miller, 1x Town Two-shot Tracker, 1x Town One-shot Roleblocker, 1x Mafia Goon, 1x Mafia Two-shot Tracker

The mechanical theme of this game was maximizing player agency while punishing Day 1 claims. Tracker and RB are strong roles that provide huge upside if they target correctly, but both need to stay hidden to work effectively given the only protection is the 1-shot RB itself.

The millers were put in this game for two interlocking reasons, and a third reason which is yes, I thought it'd be fun.

First, the double millers provided a mechanical spark right off the bat to drive conflict, but it was also a huge dayplay opportunity. Correctly townreading both millers puts town in an insanely strong position, chain eliminating both millers puts town into an awful position, and eliminating exactly one puts them somewhere in between. I suspected scum would play too passively around the claims and I believe that was right: scum didn't push the millers early, erring on the side of caution instead of pushing the "at least one is scum" narrative, and it was a big opportunity for the town that almost sunk them even with so much else going for The Curve.

Second, the double millers served to narrow the PR pool instantly. The meta is for millers to claim Day 1, and I wanted to do something to counteract that meta while still not sinking town if they look at dayplay. Scum's only counter to the PRs were the tracks, the kills, and forcing out claims. (See point #1).

I hope you think the idea was interesting and aren't too frustrated. I really wanted to make claims and the dayplay around them matter, while still giving night actions and mechanical choices huge gravitas. I like to think this game used "red herrings" in a much more fun and engaging way than other notorious Normals that seemed to punish players for even trying, but perhaps you disagree, and I am open to feedback if that is the case.

I thought the parallel trackers would be an interesting dynamic, and it was. Something like the Dunn tracking Luke gambit was exactly what I was hoping for: Town getting punished for forcing their PRs out early, allowing scum to counter. I knew this could happen, but I thought even just getting a one-way track would be rare and difficult. I was very pleased to see the two-way tracks.

[Prism]

Two other notes.

First, scum asked me for a Beholder fakeclaim overnight. This made me absolutely lose my mind because I explicitly said this game was mechanically Normal in 4 different places. Part of me wanted them to claim it and get wrecked, but the idea of it succeeding was horrifying. I'm still mad about Dunnstral believing Luke's gambit in Mafia Invictus Redux, and it's been over a year, so if people had gotten away with this again I would have lost my mind.

And then RH9 randomly speculated there was a Beholder?

Second,

this is the only post in the entire game worth noting

you know what would be wild

if there's a scum tracker and town tracker and they targetted each other

as in luke thinks his target is protecting him but really his target is tracking him tracking his target

truly some law school shenanigans

what the fuck

please note that dunn hasn't claimed yet, luke hasn't outed his track, not the target not that it was to luke

what the fuck

the bear is actually magical

legitimate god-tier prediction

[Prism]

The dead thread is also a ride. Thanks to everyone who kept me company at Isis's Riverside Pub.

You can see me having a solipsistic mental breakdown over the combined Pooky god-tier mech speculation and RH9 beholder speculation on page 6.

I also convinced the entire dead PT it was Pooky/Meuh and made this meme:

[Prism]

no one is thanking ffery

please thank ffery she was a godsend

[Prism]

Oh shit and fireisredsir won the Day 1 avatar bet by correctly guessing that 2 mafia were in a pool of 4. At the last second, fire submitted a guess of Pooky, catboi, GL, and Dunnstral.

Fire gets to pick my avatar for the next week, congrats ;_;

[Prism]

This is funny because my fear was the zero thought chain-elim. My takeaway from that balance conversation was "Oh so I shouldn't be too worried about the chain elim" instead of "ffery worries it's townsided"

I always thought a mutual townread between/of the Millers would be a well-earned advantage, a feature of the design, rather than viewing it as something to fear or as a potential bug.

I forgot to mention earlier that another purpose of the double millers was to reward a scumteam who discerned there was no cop by allowing them to claim it.