A great way to introduce your players to D&D's mechanics is to just let them roleplay. As players, it's their job to pick what they want to do - as Dungeon Master, it's your job to figure out how they'll do it mechanically. So shoulder all the burden of the mechanics, let them worry about what they want to do, and talk to them about how it works as you go along. Your players will begin to pick up how things work after a little while.

The best way to see how this works is to see someone else doing it. Go listen to a couple of episodes of [Penny Arcade Podcasts][1], **season one.** This is a 4th Edition game run by a couple of guys from Wizards of the Coast R&D. The players are Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik from [Penny Arcade](http://penny-arcade.com/), and Scott Kurtz from [PvP](http://www.pvponline.com/). Scott has never played D&D before. Jerry and Mike have, but they've never played 4e, since this was before 4e was even released. Watch one or two episodes of that, and you'll understand how you can show players new to the game the mechanics.

[1]: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/podcasts.aspx