Well, your definition of "real world" seems to be a little different than mine. They'll play
Vampire but are worried about Dresden?
When folks ask me about
Dresden Files, I list off a few modern-day source materials that they may or may not have heard of. Sometimes in the middle of the list they have an "ah ha" moment and start to nod -- they kind of see what we're about here.
Consider these:
Movies and Television* Charmed
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* Kindred TV miniseries
* The mystical parts of Indiana Jones
* Kolchak: the Night Stalker (TV in the '70's)
* John Carpenter's Vampire$
* Underworld
* Resident Evil is full of zombies (created by science)
Books and RPGs* Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Changeling
* Monte Cook's WOD (d20 version of the above)
* Call of Cthulhu / Lovecraft fiction
* "An Old Friend of the Family" by Fred Saberhagen
* Adept series by Katherine Kurtz
* Diana Tregarde books by Mercedes Lackey
* Laurell K. Hamilton
* Vampire books by Anne Rice
* Kelley Armstrong and Kim Harrison books.
* Lord Darcy books by Randall Garrett
Heck, the list keeps going. Modern-day vampires and magic isn't a new thing at all. (Harry Dresden's just the best of the lot, in my opinion.)
I think that all of these are set in the "real world" in one way or another. Or in one time period or another. All of these make use of some form of supernatural events and/or creatures, and playing the DFPRG could be done with any of the above as a primary inspiration for a campaign.
I don't see that Dresden is any worse than any of the others.
So ... give 'em the list. See what aspect of the game seems best to them. If they'd rather play Dresden more like an episode of Charmed (my wife is into this) then do it that way. If they'd rather play a
Vanhelsing monster hunter, then do it that way instead. Get 'em in the door and you can let plotlines drift the way you like once you've reeled 'em in.
That's my two cents worth.