Perhaps he could GM for a session or two and see if he enjoys that more?

Always make the attempt to talk it out but at some point you have to face the truth of the situation, some people just aren't interested in role playing or just not this particular game. It's not being harsh to drop a player that doesn't want to play the game in front of them. I'm not suggesting taking the guy out back and putting him down I'm just saying life is too short to F'around with people that don't get it, it just makes everyone involved unhappy. So if this guy isn't getting it and doesn't want to get it then drop him from this game and do something else every other session that he and everyone else is more happy to participate in. You and the rest of the group get to play EotE one week and all of you play something else the other week.

Beyond just 'a repeating blaster to blow stuff up with' I think the question 'what does the player want from the game that he's currently not getting?' should be discussed constructively. Not a specific goal, but rather a root-cause analysis. The player may not even know the answer to this without some guidance or time to brainstorm and bounce his thoughts off you.

When players tend to act out this egregiously, there's probably some need that the game isn't meeting for them.

Yeah mostly just seems that he has the wrong Motivations.

1) Work with him to determine what is actually important to his character. He will probably have fun roleplaying when he actually cares about his character's motivations.

2) If he continues to ignore his motivations after you've done this, maybe have the discussion about what a roleplaying game is intended to be. Not to shoehorn anybody into anything, of course, but if you're not actually role-playing, I'd venture to say, "You're not doing it right."

I would try to see what make him ticks and use that in a specific scenario.

May be bring an NPC telling his character that he has heard of him and his sniping abilities. That NPC would like to hire a sniper for a job but is not sure he is the good guy, there are others snipers available. Make the job attractive to the player but make him roleplay to get the job. How will he convince the NPC, he is the man for the job. A rival sniper is in town and wants the job also, how will he deal with that? He could role play meeting the rival and/or try to ambush the other sniper which could create a nice sniper combat.

Later on, the NPC could explain that he is worried, several people have been asking question about him (hint, the bounty hunters are on his trail), reduce his strain. May be the rival sniper will get the job because this strain reduction is too much or because he will be too busy handling some bounty hunters.

You could also put some role play opportunities for him in order to get the best shot. Negotiating with an NPC to get access to an apartment that is really well located to shoot his target. Breaking in would be too risky.

In other type of scenario

You could bring situation where a sniper is needed with a twist

• shooting a control panel to allow the rest of the team to access an area
• shooting to save someone, but whom to save. Make it a difficult decision.
• shooting a target in front of his/her familly
• while he is aiming, suddenly another sniping shot put down his target
• ...

May be use his lack of roleplay as the way his character behaves. You could bring a sort of marshal telling he has heard of him and of his attitude (I heard you care for no one, is that true?). He wants to confiscate his weapons and will keep an eye on him...

My guess, and I could be wrong, is that the problem isn't that the Player is content to sit back and wait for the next combat to start but actively steers the situation into combat so they can do what they want without much regard for the story they are part of.

It is always hard to deal with the 'numbers' players. Your best bet is to try to establish a system and adventurers that reward players for proper character roleplaying and trim combat encounters for a few sessions. If the hint isn't taken, a simple honest conversation about what expectations there are for your game might be the only option, with failure to understand being 'Please find another group'.

Either way, good luck!

It is always hard to deal with the 'numbers' players. Your best bet is to try to establish a system and adventurers that reward players for proper character roleplaying and trim combat encounters for a few sessions.

Mechanical optimization and good roleplay are not mutually exclusive. In this case you have someone ignoring or uninterested in a story aside from fighting and killing. That doesn't mean all optimizers suck at roleplaying. We don't even know if his character is optimized for combat, just that he doesn't care to do anything but kill people. Those are different issues.

He is optimized at combat and a few non-combat skills also. I'm transitioning him to another group where he can do whatever he wants and the GM doesnt mind. They tend to run a hack-n-slash game with a few cutscenes in between.

Best of luck to you and him enjoying your games!