Lack of Maps and Enthusiasm

I thought last night was a particularly good session, at least from my perspective.  The party is still making their way through the caves. Their first obstacle last night was an underground lake. Tyr shifted into a crocodile, Hal road on his back, and Carter waded through the water a ways until they discovered a boat where the water started to get deeper. Hal is still in possession of the demon dagger and so the demon Agiel tried to have him stab Tyr while riding on his back but Hal was able to overcome its influence. Tyr remained a crocodile and when a boat of drow came their way he flipped the boat of them and drowned the two who didn’t sink under the weight of their armor.

The dagger is an extremely fun tool to me. You see Hal’s not happy about my not using maps and using theater of the mind instead and he’s just not engaging in the quest like the others. Having the dagger forces him to participate more, though not necessarily in the manner the others would like him to participate. Later as they worked their way into a cobwebbed part of the cave the dagger compelled Hal to let out a wolf-like howl, alerting three driders to their presence. The battle was pretty intense and Hal was one failed death saving throw away from the character grave yard. They narrowly defeated the driders and made it to the entrance of the drow town they are searching for.

I’m at a loss though for how to really handle Hal. He never takes the lead in any situation and usually, when he does weigh in on a scenario it’s just to shoot down ideas without proposing an alternate course of action. How do I get him into the game? I understand he’s a combat, combat, combat kind of guy and I try to split my quests into part combat and part roleplaying so it’s not always his favorite style. It seems like since I’ve taken away the maps from combat that I’ve ruined his favorite part of the game. The thing is I hate using maps and they really aren’t doable for the situations/terrain they are playing in. Things are climbing on walls and ceilings and the terrain isn’t a level flat plane. There are too many objects around for me to portray them in a map. I just can’t make maps work for this and honestly I just don’t want to. By not using them I’ve discovered just how deep my loathing is for them. Tyr has said flat out that he is preferring the theater of the mind. Carter has said he’s enjoying the game. I sent him a text this morning asking him directly how he feels about the map situation. If he would prefer maps then I may have to consider going back to them later. Honestly I think Hal is out voted because I know that Carter is enjoying not having to deal with the whole moving his token problem. Carter is frustrated with Hal and I’m afraid that if I don’t find a way to get Hal more involved then Carter will get to the point where he just doesn’t want to play. I’ve got to give this some thought.