Brian Ballsun-Stanton

44,781 reputation

587207

bio	website	denubis.wordpress.com
	location	Sydney, Australia
	age	29
visits	member for	2 years, 7 months
	seen	29 mins ago
stats	profile views	1,251

Dr. Brian Ballsun-Stanton is a Philosopher, Information Technologist, and Game Theorist exploring the Philosophy of Data. He has a Ph.D in Philosophy from The University of New South Wales in addition to a MS & BS in Information Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

He has developed a new methodology (The Social Data Flow Network) to explore how individuals in the field understand the nature of data. Currently, his research is exploring the social construction of technology, focusing on the user-driven change of technological tools, in addition to his research of data warehouse ETL strategies for disparate data sets.

Beyond philosophy, Dr. Ballsun-Stanton has experience in haptic research, specifically the use of gesture control of human computer interfaces and an abiding interest in robotics as seen in his flying robotic cable-array manta-ray.

His interests include the academic study of Role-Playing games, the exploration of how science fiction literature transforms reality, and the social consequences of a technological world outpacing society's cultural assimilation of its consequences.

He is a long time gamer, having helped to design the indie game Pax Draconis. He has been running an Ars Magica game for the last 6 years and has extensive experience with indie games and both 3.5 and 4e D&D.

Papers you may be interested in:

Brian Ballsun-stanton, Samuel Russell (2012) Constrained Optimization in Dungeons and Dragons : A Theory of Requirements Generation for Effective Character Creation.
Brian Ballsun-stanton, Ernest Mueller, C Ross Eskridge (2012) Clerics , Magic Users , Fighters and Thieves : Theoretical Approaches to Rules Questions on the Role-Playing Games Stack Exchange.
Brian Ballsun-Stanton (2010) Asking about data: Experimental philosophy of Information Technology, 119-124. In 5th International Conference on Computer Sciences and Convergence Information Technology.
Brian Ballsun-Stanton, Kate Carruthers (2010) #c3t the command & control of Twitter: On a socially constructed Twitter & applications of the Philosophy of Data, 161-165. In 5th International Conference on Computer Sciences and Convergence Information Technology.

	44,781 reputation	bio	website	denubis.wordpress.com	visits	member for	2 years, 7 months
587207 badges		location	Sydney, Australia		seen	29 mins ago

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Nov 17	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? I completely disagree, but politely so. The nature of reactive stealth means you should mention to your GM the SOP of starting in cover. Basically gnomes like to hug walls and obligatory fiddily bits. Tell your GM that your character would look to ways to start in reactive stealth in almost all combats. Furthermore, actual cover is trivial to get in almost anything but a plain 8x8 room. Combine that with the request to the DM, and it should be quite feasible.
Nov 16	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? That is the fundamental question here that must be posed to the DM.
Nov 16	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? Yes, that also amuses me. On the other hand, we are merely reenacting the hundreds of posts on the community forums about this topic. Yay, efficiency!
Nov 16	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? I believe we have both stated our cases. Let's see how the community votes :)
Nov 16	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? More, I'm noting the second part of " and neither allies nor enemies give cover against melee, close, or area attacks." indicating that while allies grant cover to allies in the way for purposes of ranged attacks they do not grant "true" cover as defined in the first aspect for things like being hidden.
Nov 16	comment	Does 'Reactive Stealth' allow a gnome to become hidden using the partial cover of a companion? Did you mean ally provides cover for ranged attacks from an enemy? Or is that something that hasn't been propagated to compendium yet?
Nov 16	comment	Does resurrection heal ability damage? While that's an interpretation, the power does not explicitly say that, and as it references Raise Dead that does have specific ability healing (though limited) there is little support for that interpretation. You are welcome to post that as an answer, however.
Nov 16	comment	How late in history can I set a campaign based in the US without cars and telephones being widespread? @Dave: The era across the globe was called `The Belle Epoque.` en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_%C3%89poque
Nov 15	comment	How can you build a character based on Lord Voldemort? Might as well do one of these for 3.5, too. Wow, this made me feel dirty.
Nov 15	comment	What is the upgrade path for characters generated with the Red Box Starter kit? Sorry, you need to refine your question then. What are you looking for? Red box uses the HoFL character classes.
Nov 15	comment	How should treasure parcels be adjusted to account for permanent character death in Dungeons and Dragons 4e? Your edit is about what I was looking for. The only quibble is that the parcel distribution tends to be a lot chunkier at low levels, depending on party composition, as there are fewer "items just for you" possible. Also, adventure timing (the thing we had last night) was items dropping that were worse than what we had, as they were intended as part of the normal upgrade cycle.
Nov 15	comment	How can I format a Dungeons and Dragons 4e character sheet such that players are more likely to remember (and use) their class features? Yes, but that's outside the scope of this question. Once a month is not a problem, high death rates are because of some poor role choices as well as unfamiliarity. I am addressing that problem here.
Nov 14	comment	How can I format a Dungeons and Dragons 4e character sheet such that players are more likely to remember (and use) their class features? What ways would you recommend automating the process?
Nov 14	comment	What class features or items can be given to a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 4e to allow him to parry as his mark punishment? Oh, I know how to refluff powers, but the mechanics don't match the requirements. The Aegis of Shielding doesn't match the idea of parry very well.
Nov 14	comment	How much treasure is missing from the Keep on the Shadowfell? And as they're completely different published adventures, shouldn't this be 3 different questions?
Nov 14	comment	What class features or items can be given to a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 4e to allow him to parry as his mark punishment? The swordmage aegis is interesting, but doesn't neatly capture the flavour of a parry (as redirection of attack or penalty to attack) rather than arcane sigils.
Nov 14	comment	What class features or items can be given to a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 4e to allow him to parry as his mark punishment? @Michael There are a couple ways, being discussed on meta. I decided it was interesting to explore how it works in practice.
Nov 14	comment	How should treasure parcels be adjusted to account for permanent character death in Dungeons and Dragons 4e? The deaths tend to occur before treasure drops, or during those final fights.
Nov 14	comment	What class features or items can be given to a fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 4e to allow him to parry as his mark punishment? Intentionally using a different D&D tag and a hyphenated house-rules tag, to see if it works better.
Nov 12	comment	How can you build a character based on Lord Voldemort? @LeguRI there you are, more details, including how to do the lich thing without an ED.