It's great, I had a lot of fun playtesting, I'm eager to try it for real when it comes out.
BUT!
It took Matt Rundle an hour to make a character.
The adventure I ran him through has a save-or-die trap on the front door.
I'm going to tuck my usual complaining under the break: here's my hacked solution.
Level 0: Get ability scores, Race, Background, and d6+Con HP. Get equipment from your background, and use the rest of your gold to buy Armour and Weapons. You can have proficiency with whatever you buy, because you're shit enough already, but you'll have to with your class proficiencies once you hit first level.
This took me ten minutes, and Matt half an hour. If you get 50 XP, you can level up to:
Level 1: Choose a class, and gain all it's associated benefits and suchlike. You upgrade to the HP of your class, rather than adding it to your level 0 HP. This part took me fifteen minutes.
D&D Next thinks it's fun to read through thirteen spells and choose the best three. Roll on these tables if you don't.
Wizards:
(3 Spells, 3-4 Cantrips)
Clerics:
(2-3 Cantrips, All level one spells (Jesus Fuck))
Level 2: Get everything you normally receive on level up. Choose a Specialty, and gain the feat it gives you.This took ten minutes again.
Tada! From level 2 onward everything works exactly as normal, and your characters will be just as powerful as everybody else. The level 0 characters may have a tough time with the monsters from D&D Next, but if it's too much of an issue you can just use AD&D monsters until you get to level 1. They may be weak Next characters, but they're excellent AD&D PC's.
For extra old school, try:
XP for Gold: Just get the XP values from all the monsters in the area, and convert that number into gold. Carouse that gold away and you earn XP, of course. Season to taste.