I've got three players in my game. Two of them have developed some back story and motivations for their characters, the other is a little more bland (mercenary who looks for work). For example, in our last game session, the characters had several weeks of downtime. The cleric used this time to help combat the growing disease plaguing the city, the sorcerer sought out a mentor to explain why she seemed to share a bond with a rat (her familiar). The fighter (mercenary) said, "I booze and look for work."
Now, there's definitely things I can develop with a fighter who does nothing but drink and look for mercenary work, but to me, that's just not a realistic character. I don't really want to award XP for individual roleplaying, because I want to keep the characters all at the same level.
Let me hasten to add that this player is not unimaginative in the least. When the characters have an active goal, he's usually the one coming up with creative solutions that I never anticipated. Outside the game, he's my go-to person when I want to bounce fiction ideas off somebody.
What can I do to encourage him to put a little more thought into his character's motivations and activities? Subtle solutions would be best, I think, so that he actively wants to do this, rather than having an attitude of, "I'll do it because my GM asks me to."
Thanks for any suggestions.
