Wizards of the Coast has released a free PDF with the basic rules for their latest (the fifth, if you're keeping count) edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
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In this tabletop gaming landscape populated by Fiasco and Dungeon World, games where the players are on an equal footing with the storytellers (or have, in fact, absorbed the role entirely into a communal experience), Dungeons and Dragons must have started to feel a bit like one of the game's very own ancient artefacts. Big tomes of rules, grid-based combat, a dungeon master behind a screen telling the players what's going on - more and more, these are relics of a by-gone age. How to pick up the slack? Easy: start giving it away.
D&D design veteran Mike Mearls talks about how Wizards just wants the game in as many hands as they're able to put them, as quickly and easily as possible. No quicker and easier way than a direct download of a small PDF file! The basic rules are divided into three parts: character creation, the basic mechanics of die rolls for exploration, combat and skill use, and finally magic. All three sections will be quite interconnected, depending on and referring to rules from the other sections.
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If you like this pared down system (I played an early beta last year and must say I quite enjoyed the speeded-up, no-grid-needed combat) and are hungry for more, you'll be able to get the D&D Starter Set that'll see general release for $19.99 from July 15 onward.