But, here's the thing. I dig 4E & always felt that 3.x was more Rolemaster than D&D. I missed OD&D, AD&D 1E, BECMI, B/X all of that. C&C is cool, but misses the mark for me. I used to vehemently disagree with ANYONE who felt that Feats & Powers stifle roleplaying. But I dont now. Its not intended in design, but if you make a Feat, to balance you can't let someone narrate that effect. Its not fair to the person who took the feat. And Powers, IMHO are cool & flashy, but instead of focusing on doing cool stuff our group just resource manages our abilities. Now we're all spellcasters. The ideal thing is that we can choose all these different rules that are, originated from, or were inspired by these different editions of D&D or Chainmail. So, our group has played 4E for awhile now & we're looking at trying something less constrained, in our humble opinion. We want to let our imaginations, not Feats or Powers guide our fates. I think 4E is whats best to bring younger players in. Its slick & has terms they understand. I'm apparently a newly formed grognard, because I want to say "I'm doing X." And my DM can say well then add your Level or don't add your Level & let's see what happens, not look over my sheet for the Feat it requires or see which Power to use next.

On rpg.net, regarding "AD&D 3rd Edition"