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I'm back from my first GenCon.

After almost a year of saving and planning and anticipation, I can now count myself among the lucky few who have wandered the halls, rolled dice, attended panels, and braved the exhibit floor. I am a GenConner.

And it was awesome.

I initially thought about doing a "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" regarding GenCon, but I can honestly only think of a short nitpicky list of "bad" let alone "ugly". I feel fine and seem to have avoided most Con Crud, and encountered little gamer musk. While I did smell my fair share of odours, these were mild to what I've encountered on, say, public transit or at other cons. Even the low point of my trip (losing my iPod) turned out to be a false alarm (it had slid out of sight when I closed a drawer and has been recovered).

I hadn't planned on blogging about DDI. Regardless of the "new web-based tool" I had been planning on letting other blogs handle the news and opinions. But with the release of the new online Character Builder I'm finding it truly hard not to rant. Not that I'm the first. You can read gargs454's comments on the subject here.

Firstly, the disclaimer. For reasons of financial belt-tightening and the lack of updates, I decided not to renew my DDI subscription. The magazines seem to be offering mostly D&D Essentials content that I have a limited interest in reading and the programs lacked updates. Plus my wife is on maternity leave reducing us to a single income so a little belt tightening was needed.

The Compendium

I hadn't mentioned the revised Compendium for a very good reason: I had nothing