Isaac Chalk
Explorer
This being said, here are a few comments on your posts, specifically (not on the game). Take them as you will, but they are meant constructively.
I always try to listen to constructive criticism. It's only polite. (If I tried to heed all the criticism I get, of course, I'd be in a rubber room.)
A proper "here's what's good, here's what's bad, this many stars out of five" review is difficult at present because the game only just left playtest and what I talk about may change dramatically by the time the game lands in three months. I can say that it's not perfect - no game, with the exception of PARANOIA, can be - but the "here's what's not perfect" list I have, I posted half of it here, and sent all of it to Pelgrane Press. If my comments were valid enough, then my complaints may not exist in short order.
Right now, what is set in stone, as stated in the playtest, is 13th Age's overall design ethos, mixing rules-light systems in combat and out of combat. It's that ethos I feel safest commenting on. I doubt that how they'll handle backgrounds or One Unique Thing will change that much, and these are concepts that excite me a great detail.
I wrote the first two posts the way I did because most of what I learnt about original posts (OPs) comes from Something Awful, where an exhaustively detailed opening post is the mark of a popular and informative thread. I'll be updating them in the days and weeks ahead as I gather up more writing on the playtest now that the NDA is lifted. Some of this will be criticism, even criticism I don't agree with.
As for my attitude towards D&D, I think the game invites comparison, by design. It's described as a love letter to D&D by its own design team. Whether or not my comparison is fair is up in the air, but I think it's a valid subject to broach. My perspective is that of a gamer who didn't come into gaming via D&D or its derivatives - my formative RPGs were Palladium (I was 12, shut up,) GURPS, Champions, Storyteller and Marvel Super Heroes. I only got into d20 during the inflation of the d20 bubble, so I don't have a lot of memories of filling in my 20 siders with crayons or poking every inch of a dungeon with a ten foot pole like I'm playing Ye Olde Minesweeper.
This might not be a perspective shared by that many people, especially on a D&D heavy site like ENWorld, but it's the only perspective I can bring, since it's all I've got. To me, D&D is a game - no more, no less. To me, D&D is a specific type of RPG, instead of RPGs being specific derivations of D&D. It's RPGs overall that are my hobby and my passion, and if an RPG comes along that interests me more than D&D, I'll play that without a moment's hesitation. 13th Age, from my experience, looks like that game.
As for Icons, I'll get into them once I'm back from the movie. (In this movie, Robert Pattinson shoots himself in the palm with a handgun. I think all movies should feature this, including the next Cars sequel.) Like I said before, the setting didn't immediately grip me - but the Icon system itself did. I'll concoct examples to illustrate points.