u/SITS198

Episode 3 did not go according to plan. For the longest time, everyone who tried to guess got it correct, so despite a low player count, my punishment has remained the same! Here's what the rule was, or rather both ways of getting at the rule:

[Output is the number of digits in the factorial of the input.]

[output = roundup(log(fact(input)))]

Student performance was interesting once again:

• u/Ashamed_Still_5298 surrendered and accepted their punishment.
• u/Rex_dpp was finally defeated. Rather than accepting the punishment, being disinclined towards spankings, they proposed a Double Or Nothing in a game of my choice. If he wins, we both walk away with no punishment. If I win, he does another upvote with a vote doubler attached. I 2-0'd him in Battleship, and that post will be up sometime tomorrow~
• Several students failed to turn in their papers on time and thus owe me punishment. They are u/dppthrowaway778, u/honest__rater, and u/Master_Of_Gamez! Keep an eye out for those punishment threads and don't go easy on them!
• u/SmartDynamo figured out the trick in 7 hints, while u/Ordinary_Budget6937 figured it out in 12, both with a single guess.
• Special shout out to u/spell-pig-backwards, who took 8 hints but was also the first to name both rules, earning a bonus point for her and a curse for me!
• Another special shout-out to u/TheFabulousFizban. They took 16 hints and 2 guesses to succeed, but they still managed to figure out the rule in the end without having to take any spankings from me. It's admirable in a series where many people bow out without even taking a swing at the rule.
• Finally, for our summa cum laude, we actually have a three way tie! u/BigRumbling14, u/Victoria85s, and u/Sl4veAndProud all figured it out in 6 hints and 1 guess. Each of them can give me a curse for their trouble.

And now it's time for my punishment to build up once more...

Episode 2 went almost exactly as expected! The rule was much harder to guess, but unfortunately the influx of students means my punishment would be exactly the same even before the curse! Here is the rule that I had written in my head:

[The output value is equal to the number of steps it takes to go from the input value to 1 when following Collatz Theorem.]

You know what I love about this one? Anyone with a serious interest in mathematics has probably heard of it, but they've probably also conditioned themselves not to think about it! Because it's a cognitohazard and a nerdsnipe that makes you try out numbers for like a week.

But yeah, I decided early on that if anyone referred to Collatz with a guess, even if they didn't spell out that it's about the number of steps, even if they used another name for it, they would get credit. In fact, the bonus point this time around was for if anyone referred to it as the Syracuse Problem (the first name I ever heard it called, even if every reference I've seen since has been Collatz or simply 3n+1).

This one had some interesting variation in student reactions. Let's go over them a bit...

• Two students this time did not meet prereqs to join my class, and failed to figure out the rule anyway, so they will be getting double punishments when they're finally allowed to post. If you see my spanking upvote from u/FragPokemonSissy (8H/0G) or u/SluttingForThreats (9H/3G), show them no mercy!
• u/puppyjackie (9H/4G) made more guesses than anybody else, but still couldn't figure out the rule. Come punish them here!
• u/NaturalTwenty1209 and u/justcuriousisware were both 8H/3G but had to surrender in the end. To give them their spankings, come here and here.
• u/Civil-Let-650 (8H/2G) talked a very big game. When they were running out of guesses, they boldly took every curse I had available to max out their guesses, risking a quadruple punishment with an additional upvote tacked on. Their last messages was almost exactly 25 hours ago, and I feel I've been more than generous waiting for them to finish. But papers are due, and when next they're online, their ass will pay the check their mouth wrote. Don't go easy on them!
• u/Huh-58 (5H/2G) misunderstood the rules and thought it was 3 hints and 8 guesses oh no. They spent their first guess with 0 hints used, and another guess after just 1 hint, and by the time I corrected things, their heart wasn't in it any more I guess. They've not made their punishment yet that I can see, but I'd request you to go easy on them actually.
• u/Ecstatic_Annual_4726 (11H/1G), u/gwynftw (9H/1G), and u/Entropic_Ideal (8H/1G) all took a stab at solving, but ultimately failed, and didn't feel like risking things when they felt so uncertain of any rule they could think of. They can be punished here, here, and here.
• Several users surrendered without even attempting a guess. u/Scarlet_Girl77, u/Natural_Song1657, u/nebula-fb, and u/sextoyforuse all took 8 hints and 0 guesses. u/LeilasLife took 10 hints and 0 guesses, but couldn't perform any better. They can be punished here, here, here, here, and here.
• Our first weird edge case is u/Ok_Sort8091 (8H/1G), who could kinda see the pattern, but couldn't remember the name or the mathematical rules of it, even after some minutes of prodding. I felt really bad about this, because as you can see they're like right there but I'm not convinced they could turn input to output on their own. All the other winners I know they could do it, they understood the rule even if they had trouble explaining it fully, but here? Mostly I feel bad because this was clearly a bit triggering for them in a not-fun way, and so I'm declaring this one a draw. They got close enough to not deserve punishment, but didn't really get it properly so I won't be punished extra for them either.
• Our second weird edge case is u/Otherwise_Pay1569 (6H/1G). They admitted to looking it up to try and figure out the answer, only to be met with something they would never have guessed, and felt compelled to admit that the quiz beat them. I think outright cheating is deserving of double punishment, and won't count against me, yes? Oh but one thing: they're the only person who referred to it as the Syracuse Conjecture/Theorem/Problem, so they got the bonus point and may give me a curse. They also need to make that punishment thread still.
• From here we can move on to our unambiguous winners! u/Ashamed_Still_5298 (7H/3G) actually figured it out a couple guesses earlier, but deliberately got it wrong because they wanted to earn curses from me. When I learned what a naughty little curse-slut they were, I gave them one off-the-menu - not as punishment, but just because I knew they were gagging for it. There's also going to be a rule change going forward thanks to them: if you already have all the curses from my list, you can take a second copy of them for extra guesses if you want~
• Several people got it in one guess. u/spell-pig-backwards (11H), u/Master_Of_Gamez (10H), u/BabyBrown067 (8H), and u/Organic-Elk-2431 (7H). That last one in particular I found impressive because while every other winner seemed to have heard of Collatz before and that's how they figured it out, Organic Elk seems to be unfamiliar with Collatz but had just the right hints to reverse-engineer the rules of it anyway!
• For summa cum laude, we actually have a tie! Both u/Rex_dpp and u/Prestigious_Crow_735 figured it out with just 4 hints and 1 guess, recognizing the infamous pattern almost instantly! I feel it's only fair that both of them get to give me a curse.

That's all for now! I'd love to make another thread, but this has been an exhausting couple of days keeping up with everything, and also I suspect for some reason that I'm going to have trouble sitting comfortably for a few days to come. Something to do with how my first punishment has given me 651 spankings to do, and how this one has double the participants and double the punishment~

I'll probably have episode 3 up sometime Monday but I make no promises. If you're interested in playing again, it might be a good idea to follow me so you don't miss out.

BIMBO MATH is a game I've been turning over in my head for a little while now, but I wanted it to start out free of curses to avoid any potential issues. I've got a good game format in my head, and four rules already conceptualized that I think will be fun. Here's how it works for Episode 2:

• At the start of the episode, I picked a secret rule. This rule is the same for anybody that plays Episode 2 with me. Anyone who wishes to participate can DM me. I will get to you when I can, but this ended up being far more popular than initially anticipated, so please be patient!
• All players start episode 2 with 8 hints and 3 guesses remaining.
• To use a hint, a player must tell me a positive integer. I will apply my secret rule to that number, and tell you the number that results from my secret rule. The number given should be smaller than 1 googol, for the sake of keeping calculation time manageable. T he format of my hint will be [your input]:[my output] i.e. during Episode One a number of people wanted a hint at 10, which is written as ten and thus has 3 letters, so I replied 10:3.
• To use a guess, a player simply states what they think the secret rule is. You do not need to guess the exact wording I have in my head for the secret rule - you just need to get close enough that I'm confident you've actually figured out the trick. The secret rule does not require advanced mathematics to apply - there are no weird symbols or letters that would confuse a child uncomfortable with algebra.
• Sometime tomorrow, I will make a post. It will list all players who played against me, how many hints and guesses they used, how many punishments they accumulated, and whether or not they succeeded. If anybody guessed the rule correctly, this will be a 24 hour upvote post whose effects are multiplied by the number of people who guessed correctly, and the end of Episode 2. If nobody guessed the rule correctly, it will be a challenge post announcing Episode 2's extension.
• Obviously, no helping your classmates cheat! Do not share hints or guesses in comments or DMs.

So, what are the punishments for failing?

• Anyone who runs out of guesses without guessing the rule has to make a 24 hour upvote post announcing that they flunked out of Professor u/SITS198's Bimbo Math class. They will use the same upvote punishment.
• A player can gain an additional hint by accepting an unfair rule and unfair stake in a future game against any opponent. They may take this option multiple times with no maximum limit.
• A player can gain an additional guess by accepting a curse from the following list: Bimbo's Curse, Double Up Curse, Ultimate Loser, Upvote Slut Curse.
• Ah but not all the punishments are for my students! The student who gets the rule in the fewest guesses (or if multiple get it in the same number of guesses, the student who gets it in the fewest hints) will be allowed to give me a curse once the next punishment thread gets finalized.
• Additionally, there is a bonus point available. The first student to achieve the bonus point will get to give me a curse of their choice. If you were slow at signing up or guessing...sorry. Really, I am! I just really don't wanna get curse-dumped just because a bunch of people are exceptionally smart! >.>

If you think you're clever, come see if you and your classmates can make my ass glow bright red tomorrow! And also, if you haven't already, come punish me for being a bitchy bimbo brat professor!

Episode One was a rousing success! Most of my students got the rule correct on their first guess, matching my expectations that it was a relatively easy rule to figure out. Here's the rule as I had it in my head:

[The output number is equal to the number of letters when the input number is written in short-scale English.]

There was a bonus point available if anyone guessed specifically short-scale, but alas nobody even requested hints for numbers high enough for the difference to become evident. There's a bonus point for my next episode as well - and the first person who gets it will be allowed to give me a curse then as well.

But yes, the reason this rule had to come first is that I wanted to make it clear that it's not just math skills, but math knowledge that matters here. This isn't just a game of who's the best at algebra necessarily. And as you can see from the winning guesses, I'm not here to play technicality word games where you didn't guess the exact sentence I had in my head - all of these players clearly understood what the rule was, and so they all passed.

...but enough chit-chat! It's long past time for you to hail down blows on my poor backside, in celebration of my students' successes! Here's the list of students and how they performed:

• u/FragPokemonSissy is very naughty! They snuck into my class without meeting the qualifications. Unfortunately, the results are about as you'd expect for someone missing prereqs: even with 8 hints and 3 guesses, they couldn't figure out the rule. When they're finally allowed to post, their first post will be my upvote punishment with everything counting double. And of course, they'll be easy pickings with all those unfair rules and stakes they owe.
• u/themazda-scrumwagon had a very poor time of it, but with 6 hints and 0 guesses, surrendered to punishment without even attempting an answer. Come here if you wish to help teach them to shoot for the stars~
• u/Ecstatic_Annual_4726 did a little better, with 6 hints and 1 guess, but still couldn't quite figure it out. Their punishment is being carried out over here.
• u/Ashamed_Still_5298 figured out the rule with 6 hints and 1 guess! They now owe just a single unfair stake and rule, but managed to avoid reddening their own bottom!
• u/Distinct_Low9987 figured out the rule with 5 hints and 1 guess, avoiding all punishment!
• u/Rex_dpp figured out the rule with 5 hints and 1 guess, avoiding all punishment!
• u/spell-pig-backwards figured out the rule with 5 hints and 1 guess, avoiding all punishment!
• u/subbyw figured out the rule with 5 hints and 1 guess, avoiding all punishment!
• u/nebula-fb figured out the rule with 5 hints and 1 guess, avoiding all punishment! Additionally, they requested the highest hint number of 2000000. There's no reward for that, beyond being mentioned here.
• And finally, our summa cum laude u/Organic-Elk-2431 figured out the rule with 4 hints and 1 guess! As a reward for being the best in class, they get to give me a new curse of their choice!

Now get to punishing me! And also come check out Episode 2!

BIMBO MATH is a game I've been turning over in my head for a little while now, but I wanted it to start out free of curses to avoid any potential issues. I've got a good game format in my head, and four rules already conceptualized that I think will be fun. Here's how it works for Episode One:

• At the start of the episode, I picked a secret rule. This rule is the same for anybody that plays Episode One with me. Anyone who wishes to participate can DM me.
• All players start episode one with five hints and two guesses remaining.
• To use a hint, a player must tell me a positive integer. I will apply my secret rule to that number, and tell you the number that results from my secret rule. The number given should be smaller than one googol, for the sake of keeping calculation time manageable.
• To use a guess, a player simply states what they think the secret rule is. You do not need to guess the exact wording I have in my head for the secret rule - you just need to get close enough that I'm confident you've actually figured out the trick. The secret rule does not require advanced mathematics to apply - there are no weird symbols or letters that would confuse a child uncomfortable with algebra.
• Sometime tomorrow, I will make a post. It will list all players who played against me, how many hints and guesses they used, how many punishments they accumulated, and whether or not they succeeded. If anybody guessed the rule correctly, this will be a 24 hour upvote post whose effects are multiplied by the number of people who guessed correctly, and the end of Episode One. If nobody guessed the rule correctly, it will be a challenge post announcing Episode One's extension.
• Obviously, no helping your classmates cheat! Do not share hints or guesses in comments or DMs.

So, what are the punishments for failing?

• Anyone who runs out of guesses without guessing the rule has to make a 24 hour upvote post announcing that they flunked out of Professor u/SITS198's Bimbo Math class. They will use the same upvote punishment.
• A player can gain an additional hint by accepting an unfair rule and unfair stake in a future game against any opponent. They may take this option multiple times with no maximum limit.
• A player can gain an additional guess by accepting a curse from the following list: Bimbo's Curse, Double Up Curse, Ultimate Loser, Upvote Slut Curse.

The rules will be similar for later episodes, albeit with different secret rule, maybe different starting hints/guesses, and maybe gaining new hints/guesses at a different rate. I've not run this game before, so I'm kinda balancing it as I go. This rule feels to me like it could be easy to guess which is why the hints and guesses may seem a bit low, but if it turns out to be a difficult one...guess y'all are gonna have trouble sitting for awhile huh?

Anyway, if you think you're clever, come see if you and your classmates can make my ass glow bright red tomorrow!