I’m still in the PHB, but:

The new alignment system (LG,G,E,CE,”unaligned”) sucks. Really. The new cosmography also sucks, but, hey, I *liked* the Great Wheel. The new races…well, I miss half-orcs. Gnomes can suck it. Dragonborn? HELLO MUNCHKINVILLE. Eladrin? WTF? Like Regular Elves weren’t cool enough? Tielflings, well, again HELLO MUNCHKINVILLE but they were Planescapeish, so they’re slightly forgiven.

This might be fun, but it isn’t D&D, case study 1: No “Fireball”–gratuitously renamed to “Fire Burst”.

This might be fun, but it isn’t D&D, case study 2: No “Wish.” Seriously. WTF? No “Wish”, or “Miracle”, or indeed, “Resurrection” or “Reincarnate.” “Raise Dead” is apparently it, and it doesn’t actually cost a level, but it penalizes you a bit.

Ritual Magic: it’s about time. I’m not sure I agree with all the spells that are rituals now, but the basic idea is sound.

I’m not sure about the rationalization of “Level”–there’s no “Fireball” (uh, “Fire Burst”) is a 3d level spell anymore. Instead it’s a Level 7 Encounter Spell–so you can get it at 7th Level (which is about right, since 30th is the new 20th (which was the new 18th)). I think in this case, though, the new-and-streamlined-mechanic probably does make sense and I’m just being a grumpy curmudgeon.

I think Actions probably make a lot more sense. I *never* understood how Attacks of Opportunity, or indeed Grapples, were supposed to work. The new stuff looks easier.

Platinum pieces are now worth 100 gp, and “Astral Diamonds” are 100pp. Yay! We finally have some reasonable way to carry around the wealth required to buy high-level goodies.

The Four Roles (Leader, Defender, Striker, Controller) make a certain amount of sense, although the Wizard is the only Controller, which is a problem. The names are weird. Clerics and Warlords (new class) are Leaders, but Leaders basically buff the party (see, I’m doing it now too). Fighters are “Defenders”, and Rogues and Warlocks (sorta like Sauciers, only not really) are Strikers. So are Rangers–who suck less than in 3E. The ranger is what you now play for either Rapidfire Arrow Guy or WHIRLING DUAL-WIELDED BLADES OF DEATH. What exactly this has to do with tracking goblins through the woods is unclear, but whatever.

The new art looks cool, but everything is designed so that it LOOKS COOL rather than having, you know, some FUNCTION for its FORM. Like GINORMOUS SWORDS A LA FINAL FANTASY that no one could possibly wield, or these shields in Cool Spiky Complicated Shapes that, because they look like cookies with bites out of them WOULD NOT ACTUALLY COVER YOU if you were interposing them between you and a weapon.

“Vorpal” has now lost its roots. It just means “Does a hell of a lot of damage.” Lewis Carroll cries! So do I. Decapitation is cool.

Actually, that last one sort of sums up everything that’s wrong with 4E. It’s completely lost all sense of its history. It’s clear that this edition was designed by people (whippersnappers, I’m sure) who play a lot of World of Warcraft, and played 3E, but never actually played any of the earlier D&D or AD&D editions. So they know that “vorpal weapons” are top-of-the-line magical, but not *why* that seems to have something to do with decapitation, and they felt free to throw away that special feature. Nor have they read any of the ur-texts: no hint that Jack Vance still has anything to do with the system (Ioun has become the goddess of magic. Really). They know Conan and Middle-Earth through the movies, not the books. In fact, fundamentally, D&D has become much less textual and that makes me very sad. I am reminded of http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/28

As far as the actual game: sure, I’ll give it a go. But, well, this is the first edition that is not, in fact, recognizable as a lineal descendent of _Chainmail_. For all that Hasbro showed some class by getting the dedication to the memory of E. Gary Gygax printed in the books (which, as last-minute changes to a giant print run go, is a good one to have made), this is not the same game. And you know what? I *liked* that game, deeply flawed as it was. Not so sure about this one.