We had our first session tonight. In a 3-and-a-half hour session that involved character creation from scratch for a large group including D&D newbies, we actually got through putting characters together fast enough to spend the majority of the session playing, made it through our first combat without a hitch, and had time to reach town and put in another hour or so's role-playing around town.
I don't remember ever having a campaign start as smooth as that - and this is with a new system!
Or to put it more succinctly... BUMP.