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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6361916" data-attributes="member: 996">Am I hearing this right?  You have to 'hand hold' players because they don't know the rules in one edition, which is terrible, but in another, you have to handle all the mechanics for them because they don't know the rules, and that's great?Well, if that's your experience. My experience with casual play (D&D Encounters since Season 2, I think it was) has been that 4e, and even Essentials, were ideal for it.  New players pick up the basics very easily, they have what they need on the compact pregen or character sheet, and it's all very intuitive.  Players casually missing sessions or changing tables doesn't hurt, because party composition isn't as vital (something 5e hasn't un-done as badly as teh playtest sometimes made it look like it was going to by reinstating niche protection).  And, the default encounter guidelines aren't too unforgiving, while still being fairly interesting.  It's really the first time casual play - including new and casual players - has seemed practical to me.  Of course, you could always have pickup games before, you just needed players familiar with the rules (and able to quickly adapt to your personal version of them in the case of AD&D) and willing to play whatever class was needed so you could get a functional party together - which is certainly casual, though in a different sense - a causal gathering of serious players.</blockquote>