w00t!  My D&D 4e Core Books arrvied yesterday!  I am still not speaking to Amazon.com yet, but I think that we will be friends again in the near future, but I will be weary of pre-ordering from them for now on.

So everyone has reviewed the Core Books, so I won’t even try to rehash that, but I will point you to a few of my friends, that have done a great job of reviewing the books:

• Martin Ralya’s review of the Core Books on Gnome Stew is fantastic.
• The Chatty DM’s Initial Thoughts and his Review of the Dungeon Masters Guide.

My own impressions are brief but I did want to make them:

• The books look amazing.  I was blown away when 3.0 came out, and how much better the artwork and books looked than the 2e blue and white artwork.  I have the same feelings about the 4e books.  The clean white pages, the headrers, the chapter artwork…all amazing.
• I love the Warlord!  Was the first character I made.  I love the concept, I love how he can fill in for the Cleric.
• Streamlined skills…still not 100% sure I love this, but I think I do.  I like that everyone gets better with their skills as they advance in levels.
• Rituals.  Yes!
• Power are just cool.  Being a fan of Iron Heroes the concept of Encounter Powers appeal to me.  Things that you can do every fight, is just fun.

I will be reading the PHB for the next few weeks, and if time permits before GenCon, I will read the DMG as well.  My excitement for 4e is at the same level all those years ago when 3e released.

Viva la 4e!