tabletop roleplaying for people with social skills

Roleplaying games aren't just for nerds. Like a lot of things though, people get into them through word of mouth and tribal knowledge, with an experienced player taking a new person under his/her wing and showing them the ropes. Rulebooks are hard to dig through at first, and the non-initiated have only heard of DnD. What about some shortcuts to getting started, or an introduction to other systems (Cthulu, D20 Modern, Shadowrun)? There's fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, horror, detective/noir, western, espionage.

Maybe this could even be a BoF session?