GenCon is over. And now I've got a huge pile of loot sitting in my gaming room, just waiting to be read. Amazingly, there's not a single Dungeons & Dragons book to be found among the stack, not even the Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, which I was sorely tempted to buy, but resisted at the last moment.

As the morning sun shone on the final day of GenCon I arrived at my last game of the convention, a Savage Worlds game taking place in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting called Sundered Skies. After liberating a dragon from the deathly bonds of necromancer, I returned to the exhibition hall to complete one final quest: the search for a new set of dice.

I woke up far too early on Saturday to get to an 8 a.m. Star Wars d20 game. The game let out early, which gave me time to wander the exhibit hall until exhaustion sent me retreating to my hotel room … only to be called back by a phone call from Erilar about a Pirates of the Spanish Main game that was just starting. Rounding out the day was the well-attended RPG Podcaster Party and an all-out zombie assault on a French-built shopping mall.

Thursday's D&D 4E buzz subsided by Friday morning, though a bunch of the special 4E t-shirts could be found in the convention hall. I will say there weren't nearly as many as when 3E was announced in 1999, though admittedly the t-shirts for that edition were much, much cooler (listing all the major changes being made to 3E; we'd kill for that kind of list for 4E).

By the end of the day I'd noticed a grassroots buzz building for an entirely different game: Savage Worlds. By then I was also recognizing just how hard it was going to be to find open wireless at the convention.

The big buzz around the con today is the anticipated announcement of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, when the game will arrive, how it will be different from 3E, and what this means for the hobby.

And that's just what I heard while waiting in line for coffee. Then again, maybe they should have just read the official press release, which states the game will launch in May 2008. Which is way, way too soon for my tastes.

Looks like Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition is coming; there's an GenCon event at 6:30 p.m., Aug. 167 in the Sagamore Ballroom. In the meantime, the Dungeons & Dragons home page is a countdown clock labeled "4Dventure". I was at the 3.0 announcement in 1999, and that makes me want to go to this event ... but not enough to blow off my Godlike event.

Sue dropped me off in Indianapolis at 1 p.m. after deftly navigating around "Janitors for Justice" protest just next to the Indy Hilton. They were protesting someone -- not exactly sure who -- for higher wages and healthcare benefits. After meeting up with fellow Blackrazors Cory and George, we checked into our rooms, hauling my cache of food to the ninth floor and then waiting for the rest of our group to show up.

When they arrived -- Erilar, Jon and Nate -- we headed over to the convention center to pick up our swag bags -- all of us had our badges mailed to us earlier -- and then Nate and I began the 45 minute long dance of doom that was customer service at GenCon.

Gaming Report's announced that Margaret Weis Production's Battlestar Galactica RPG will debut at GenCon 2007. According to the press release:

The Battlestar Galactica RPG uses the Cortex System (the same game rules featured in the best-selling Serenity Role Playing Game) and emphasizes a fast pace, role playing, and character development. Players can join the action as the characters from the show, or create completely original characters independent of the core storyline explored in the television series. The book also reveals information about the universe, ships and space travel, Cylons, and storytelling styles in the BSG universe.

It's been five years since I've been to GenCon. A lot has happened since then -- the convention's moved from Milwaukee to Indianapolis. I've had two kids. I've changed jobs. And I've found myself wanting to play games that aren't Dungeons & Dragons.

I'll end up carrying about as many books as I did for D&D, but it'll be a much more diverse selection. In my backpack are five rulebooks: Savage Worlds which is used in about half the games I'll be playing at GenCon, Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook 3.5, Star Wars: Saga Edition, Godlike and Spycraft 2.0.