We have been successful in using non-playing roles to help some very different non-gamers became social gamers. This is a followup to the theories in this post:

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/2475057#2475057

I'll also be speaking in very general terms so it doesn't sound like I'm singling anyone out.

The first case involves those who have trouble understanding the game for various reasons: age, inexperience, short attention span or language barriers. The second case involves those who are being dragged into a game party unwillingly and thus have an incentive to limit their engagement as a matter of pride.

We were playing Diamant when they arrived. Since I didn't want to interrupt the game flow with another rules explanation, we had each person "team up" with existing players. How successful this strategy is depends largely on who they team up with: a good partner will - as much as possible - let the new player make as many of the decisions as possible (i.e. don't partner newbies up with control freaks who put winning above everything).

I don't know how successful teaming up was for Diamant (I was busy ordering pizza), but for Pacific Typhoon and Loot it has been outstandingly successful, as it let people get to know each other better (social experience being the primary draw of these parties) and I've seen very reluctant and confused players become game winners on their next session.

The highlight of the night, though, is always Werewolf. Due to the increased size of our groups, we stopped revealing identities on death to increase the variety of roles available.

Unlike games like Pacific Typhoon and Loot, it is not possible to team players up in Werewolf. Furthermore, the rules state that dead players are supposed to keep playing despite being eliminated. Forcing frustrated non-gamers to participate after they "lose" can result in mutiny, so I instead give players the option of either continuing to play or simply reveal their role and observe the rest of the game.

Werewolf deals with many unknowns and and a lot of misinformation, adding up to enough chaos to cause newbies to give up and lose interest. They find they are completely unable to defend themselves against lynching accusations, and as a result die quick, confused deaths, feeling that they never had a fair chance at the game.

The other type are those who were forced into coming, and here opposition takes form even quicker. A quick glance at the demographic apparently confirmed their dreary perception, and you could almost see them roll their eyes and think, "This is so lame" before I even started explaining the rules. Once the game began, they had enough good grace to abide by the rules, but nevertheless made it a point to adopt subversive strategies (such as always voting to lynch themselves) in addition to defiantly miserable body language.

When such non-gamers are the first to die, you can guess they eagerly jump at the chance to take a vow of silence and step out of the game (we provide pizza, which helps them stay in the party). Here, though, is where the game starts to work its magic, because - no matter how unengaging the game may have been - it is truly impossible to not be curious about who the werewolves really are, then to not be amused at how the wolves are lying their teeth off. With the bird's eye view, the light goes on, and they find themselves nodding in appreciation, thinking, "Ah, that was clever" or, "Ouch, that was vicious!". Finally, as they watch longer, they see others make poor decisions, and they can't resist thinking, "Geez, that was stupid - if I were him I would have done this". By the time they are thinking that way, they are completely hooked and are itching to get back into the game.

This theory is born out by the drastic change in behavior by the 3rd game. Previously unwilling players became very engaged and passionate, espousing increasingly complex theories and scenarios. One good sign was that they happily distanced themselves from previous actions ("Wait a sec, didn't you say you ALWAYS vote to lynch yourself?"), but the strongest proof is in the fact that they consistently elected to keep playing after being eliminated!

The previously lost players, on the other hand, became subtle and deadly quite suddenly after numerous games of blank stares. I don't know what happens - I guess something just clicks - but as the moderator I go from thinking, "Don't do that... that person is on your team!" to, "Ouch, that's cold". In particular, they won a very difficult victory with a Werewolf "Lover", where they tricked both villagers and wolves and wiped out the entire town!