I started holding an RPG game with five friends long ago. I'm the host for this activity. Out of these five friends, two proved to disturb the game in some way, but it wasn't an issue then.
We started playing again some months ago and, in an unwise move, I added two more friends. They are a couple that really wanted to take part of it, so I saw no reason to deny them.
So at this point in my game I had:
- Five friends which know each other, three "good", two "problematic".
- A couple who are acquaintances of mine.
This has caused a performance issue in the game, making it unfun for everyone, as it has become really slow. Also the two problem players have yet caused more problems, this is part of the feedback I got from the group. One of them throws tantrums when things don't go their way, another shows a concerning lack of preparation/involvement (e.g. not having their Character Sheets on them). It's not that I don't want to play with them, but the quality of the game goes down for the "normal" players, quality already in danger by their sheer number.
Now my idea is that the ideal number resides in (3-4) people as players. I decided on this number as I now understand what I can work with. So I want the three good (no problematic players) in one group, and the rest of them in another.
The three good players know of this future arrangement and see no problem, but I don't know how to lay this out for the other two "problematic" friends. I believe that creating a group out of them and the couple, separated from their other friends, will make them question the reason about groups being divided like this, and may not like the answer. We could extend the discussion of the matter to the whole group, I'm just afraid it will devolve into an argument or that the couple may feel like baggage and decide to leave.
In the end I don't mind if these two friends drop from the game, but I don't want any hurt feelings or relationships because of it. How can I do this?
Update: Due to the pandemic the availability of some players had lowered considerably, so I was able to reduce the number of players to four, with no division, without hurting my relationship with them. This was a mere consequence of current events rather than an action on my part, so I'll leave the question open just in case someone may find it useful.
