Thanks for taking the time to look at this. Here's my issue.
I'm currently in a Pathfinder group running an adventure path that we're now a couple of books and several months of sporadic gaming into. I have had a regular group of gamers I play with for a LONG time, but recently a couple of them went on hiatus, so we started a new group. This group started out with a group of five: 4 players and the GM. Four of us work together @ the same place, and the fifth is a long-time buddy of mine I've been RPG'ing with for 10+ years. We decided to pick up another player to even out the group for a party of five. So, we decided to ask another guy we work with to join us (New Guy #1), as he'd expressed interest in playing and had similar tastes, etc. (dragons all over his desk, paints warhammer minis, etc etc) He said that he'd love to and that he'd played before but not in a few years or so. (no biggie)
So, over the course of the last few months we've been playing, things got kind of weird. First off, the new guy came and for the first session or two got into it pretty good. By the fifth month, he'd missed a couple of sessions, but he'd also gone out and dropped $100 on a core rulebook, bestiary, etc. But when it came to his turn on at the table, he would often not know the rules, have to take five minutes to get the layout of the combat, cast spells he didn't have memorized (as we found out later), and the like. Between turns, he'd have his laptop open (for Hero Lab supposedly) and was on Facebook, YouTube, etc.
(Bear with me, I know this is lengthy.)
Now, one night we're playing @ work after hours (conference rooms with projector, whiteboards, and bigass tables ROCK) and another guy we work with comes in and asks if he can watch, as he's never seen role playing games before. So we're all good with that, but I go out for a smoke break at one point and when I come back 10 minutes later , New Guy #2 is making a character to play! Somehow, someone invited him to sit in, they whipped him out a character and everything was on the roll. Now our group has 7 people! I don't want to be the d-bag in the room, so I just go with it, but the game slows to a crawl at this point. New Guy # 2 however, quickly picks up the game faster in ONE NIGHT than New Guy #1 did in the prior six months.
Now, 4 sessions later, our group is up to EIGHT people including the GM! Our long-time buddy is off his hiatus, and we'd like him back in the group. By this time, we've come to discover that NG#1 isn't really putting his all into the game, learning the rules, etc. He's also getting a little annoying. NG#2 keeps showing up for sessions, and puts more effort into it than NG#1 by a long shot, but he's still a total n00b, we're not sure of his commitment to the group or the game, and he's kind of an ass @ work, so we're not sure how long he'll be cool to play with.
So now, we're faced with a dilemma. We would like to trim our group back to the original , taking out NG#1 and 2. However, dilemmas:
1) NG#1 spent $100+ on RPG stuff to play with us
2) NG#1 isn't a douche or anything, he just doesn't click with our group well
3) NG#1 and 2 keep talking about how much they like playing
4) We work with both of the guys we are thinking of cutting out
5) We want to bring back Hiatus Player to the group
6) We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings (see #4)
7) Group size is KILLING the game to the point where a couple of the core players are thinking of quitting due to size
8) We don't have enough free time to run 2 groups to fit everyone
9) We introduced them to the game and now feel like we're taking it away
10) How do you tell someone 'It's not us... it's you.'
Anyone else experienced an issue like this? It's killing me! I'd love to be able to make everyone happy and leave no hurt feelings, but it's gotten out of hand. With the exception of the two NG's , everyone else at the table has been playing for years and years as well, so when it's the core group, everything just *clicks* into place. Our last two sessions have been chaos.