I'm running a homebrew game with 4 really well-thought-out PCs. They have decent backstories and personalities, and know what interests them.
Well, mostly.
One of them, the player who is usually most engaged and grabs all the plot hooks, is currently playing a fighter. His backstory: He used to be a bodyguard, but failed and his former employer died. So he hightailed it out of the country. The game is taking place a couple hundred miles away from where this happened. Now his PC is kind of an alcoholic, kind of doesn't like to discuss his past, and is kind of impossible to find a plot hook for.
He goes along with the plot hooks everyone else takes, but I get the sense the character is not that enthusiastic about them.
I like the character and think he has potential, but I don't know how to motivate him! What can I do to interest this character?
I'm running a homebrew game with 4 really well-thought-out PCs. They have decent backstories and personalities, and know what interests them.
Well, mostly.
One of them, the player who is usually most engaged and grabs all the plot hooks, is currently playing a fighter. His backstory: He used to be a bodyguard, but failed and his former employer died. So he hightailed it out of the country. The game is taking place a couple hundred miles away from where this happened. Now his PC is kind of an alcoholic, kind of doesn't like to discuss his past, and is kind of impossible to find a plot hook for.
He goes along with the plot hooks everyone else takes, but I get the sense the character is not that enthusiastic about them.
I like the character and think he has potential, but I don't know how to motivate him! What can I do to interest this character?
Appeal to their morals or their pockets(gold), or their logic. I would have him write come with a list of things his character cares about. If the player has no such things for his character then it is hard to write for him.
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I'm running a homebrew game with 4 really well-thought-out PCs. They have decent backstories and personalities, and know what interests them.
Well, mostly.
One of them, the player who is usually most engaged and grabs all the plot hooks, is currently playing a fighter. His backstory: He used to be a bodyguard, but failed and his former employer died. So he hightailed it out of the country. The game is taking place a couple hundred miles away from where this happened. Now his PC is kind of an alcoholic, kind of doesn't like to discuss his past, and is kind of impossible to find a plot hook for.
He goes along with the plot hooks everyone else takes, but I get the sense the character is not that enthusiastic about them.
I like the character and think he has potential, but I don't know how to motivate him! What can I do to interest this character?
Easy have his old employer's family show up as the next quest giver. Then make the quest *hard*, he'll have the choice of pressing on or failing his employer a second time.
I'm running a homebrew game with 4 really well-thought-out PCs. They have decent backstories and personalities, and know what interests them.
Well, mostly.
One of them, the player who is usually most engaged and grabs all the plot hooks, is currently playing a fighter. His backstory: He used to be a bodyguard, but failed and his former employer died. So he hightailed it out of the country. The game is taking place a couple hundred miles away from where this happened. Now his PC is kind of an alcoholic, kind of doesn't like to discuss his past, and is kind of impossible to find a plot hook for.
He goes along with the plot hooks everyone else takes, but I get the sense the character is not that enthusiastic about them.
I like the character and think he has potential, but I don't know how to motivate him! What can I do to interest this character?
Obviously I don't have much info on the fighter's backstory, but does he know who killed his former employer? Is he trying to find out who did if they do not? What did they think of their former employer, did they like them or was it just a job? If the former employer was well liked then revenge would be an angle, but for all I know he might have hated his former employer.
TOZ... that could backfire badly.
Why not simply ask the guy himself? Ask him what his character's motivation is. If he is unenthusiastic it may be that he thinks you already know. Part of a good background is their reason to be out there facing danger and the likely possibility of a violent death. If protecting others is his motivation then give him people in need of protection like has been suggested. But just ask the guy first. He probably has a motivation that he just hasn't put into words yet.
This is why I always add a line to describe your character's motivation on the character sheet. So you can think about it during character creation. Heck I even have a deck of cards with random motivations just in case you have writers block.
Throw a little girl in a sticky and dangerous situation. That motivates the most Chaotic of rogues. Should be more than enough to motivate a man whose job it was to protect people.
...I like the character and think he has potential, but I don't know how to motivate him! What can I do to interest this character?
I would have him occasionally get a glimpse of the dude that killed his former emplyer. But just a glimpse in a crowd, on a balcony of a building he doesn't have access to, on a boat going under the bridge he is on, etc... The dude is always gone by the time he can get there.
This gives you 3 options. PC is going crazy. Someone is trying to drive PC crazy with illusions. Or you can actually have the dude there for some nefarious plot the PC will feel compelled to foil.