I'm wishing I'd thought to do this before I quit drinking: get a pack of rubber bands and shoot them across the room at (1) whatever targets you set up or (2) random stuff that you shouldn't be shooting at.
Obviously this requires a little foresight and planning. You've got to have the rubber bands before you can shoot them.
You're on the train currently? Oh wow, bonus opportunity: a few discreet but well-placed rubber bands across the train at good-looking passengers. It might help if you gave them a couple to shoot back with. A meet cute in the making!
Pregame with music or even a tv show that makes you feel social, makes you want to go out and about.… you can also pregame with a lil liquid courage if you feel inclined. I would say just focus on not bailing on this one dude as opposed to focusing on fixing your perceived overall tendency to bail. Have fun!!
Have a bowl set up somewhere (I always do the bathroom) with questions in it. they can be funny, they can be earnest, they can be whatever your heart desires but just have a shit ton of them written out in the bowl. Have your guests answer them throughout the night. Bonus points if you can have an iPad by the bowl so people can record their answers - i always get lots of laughs out of watching them the next day.
Also throw youtube karaoke on your tv
this is worthy of celebration: the lack of video—autoplay video, noisy inane video, panicky video, algorithmic, dumb video, rabbit hole video, any video—on pi.fyi is a good thing