Hello, players abroad!

I'm a DM of 5, finding myself in a deteriorating situation in which my players are either:

A. Losing Interest

B. Fading away from D&D

Now, I have kept a fairly strong story together with multiple events, side quests, action, puzzles, and suspense.  I would be willing to bet that option B is the root cause I face, as one has already gone rogue.  Half of my players are new to the game, which simply just may not be for them.  The others are increasingly absent for gaming sessions (once/week) to the point where I'm about ready to clean slate and drop the campaign.  

I've got 2 staple players who are hooked and intrigued, but at what point does a DM take action?  Would I drop the campaign and move along to another group fresh, or would I find others interested and plug them into the campaign as new companions?  Has anyone faced these challenges in the past and experienced successes/failures in regards to such?

Please share!

First option, its possible that once a week is too much to commit to. My current group only plays semi-regularly. Sometimes we will play three weeks in a row, some times we might just play once the whole month. Everyone has a life and needs down time. And being that our group all works together, sometimes our schedule is messed up by our work commitments. Gotta pay them bills.

Second option, cater your game to the two who are hooked and still interested in your campaign. Maybe tweak things down for just two players for a bit while you try to find others who might want to join. I'm sure if those two are having fun they are telling their friends all about it, ask them if they know anyone interested in joining. If so, you have a new party with the added benefit of meeting a few new people. Have a few pregenerated characters ready. Maybe your two regular players hire a guide or bodyguard to accompany them, and hand the new person a character sheet for that NPC. Let them play it for one session, and if they want to come back, let them either take it over as a PC or let them roll a brand new character of their own.

I hope these suggestions help, just the first couple of things that came to mind.

Unfortunately, not every game works out long-term. It sounds like that may be the case here. Perhaps ask the two regulars if they know of any friends, or try to recruit more players via these forums and other venues, then start out with a clean slate (keeping on those 2, dropping everyone else). You can keep up the current campaign in the meantime (even if only those 2 show up for sessions) until you figure out where to proceed from there.

Have you talked to the other players yet? Ask them for their honest opinion and whether they're interested in continuing but just can't commit due to reasons, or if they're only showing up because they'd feel guilty about it otherwise. If a player can only do once every other week, and you can run every week, then consider doing that but letting them know it's ok that they only show up every other week. Similar "compromises" can let the player know that you're willing to help them out and work with them for scheduling issues, or that if things are simply not working out then it's ok to just leave.

I agree that balancing act is super difficult. I think the most important thing to stress that was mentioned in the two previous posts is communicating with your players. What are the parts that are causing your two committed players to love it? What is it about the campaign or the game in general that is pushing your others away? 

Maybe it's something you can fix, throw something into the campaign that helps them stay. Maybe they just don't enjoy your style of DMing and that's okay too, maybe you just need other players who will enjoy your stuff more. Maybe it will push you to change something in your DMing that is a weakness. Above all, communication will help you in this situation I think. 

Have you talked to the group to find out what the change in interest is from?  It might just be that they have things going on that have them to distracted to focus on the game. You could suggest changing the game from every week to every other week.  It might just be that the are suffering from game fatigue and don't even realize it.  Spacing the sessions out like that might turn them around.  If that doesn't work then maybe it is not so much about the campaign per say..but the team dynamic.  Maybe bring in another player and see if that helps.  There are little tweeks that can be done to try and adjust the group mood.

Talking to them though would be the first step.

PLaying smaller campaign, each focusing on a particular aspect of the game, might help to understanding where the players' interests are.

But, yes, first thing feedback from the players.

Advice is great!   Find out what interests them or what they want.  Well said above and I have only one thing to add;

MAKE IT EPIC!!!!

D&D, especially for new players is about being heros.   Anyone can "kill 10 rats", but the best adventures are those that gain reknown and gratitude.   Look at the DMG for other rewards (medals, land grants, commissions, etc.)  Something as simple as an adoring village that calls them the "the Hero's of XXXXX" can make the difference.  

Talk to them. Could be as simple as the day you play. If you have guys who work five days a week, it might be hard for then to commit to a weekly game as they have other things they want to do in addition to the game. 

I've always had the issue that other players didn't like one of the other players (who sadly was always the consistent player.) Could be the case. Pay attention to the actions one of the players take and see if it sits well with the other players. 

Might even be that they want to hang out with friends who aren't invited to play in the game. Lots of reasons beyond the story that could play a role. 

Of course maybe what you think is an awesome story the players think it's lame. 

Some players might hate the puzzles. Sitting there for 30+ minutes trying to figure it out could be boring to them. 

Also pay attention to how much time you spend on each player. If one player is just sitting there not doing anything for 20+ minutes and then doesn't get any focus themselves that could be an issue. 

Also is someone always dying early in combat and spending like 4+ rounds sitting there? 

Biggest deal is to just ask them. 

Not to dogpile but I am going to dogpile. I would be willing to be that the root cause is actually the frequency with which you play. As we get older we have more demands on our time and other interests we want to attend to. I would bet if you went to a semi-monthly or monthly schedule your flock would well, flock, back to your game.