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The Mummy Teaches Dungeon Masters That Adventure Should Be Fun

In last week’s post, The Thing Teaches Dungeon Masters That Trust Is an Encounter Mechanic, we explored how paranoia, uncertainty, and suspicion can turn an ordinary encounter into a terrifying experience. This week, we’re heading somewhere a little different. We’re trading the frozen isolation of Antarctica for ancient tombs, deadly curses, forgotten treasures, and an adventure that reminds us why we fell in love with fantasy in the first place.

Stephen Sommers’ 1999 film The Mummy is a wonderful example of what happens when you combine horror, action, comedy, exploration, and a little romance into one big adventure. Rick O’Connell, Evelyn Carnahan, and their companions travel to Hamunaptra in search of ancient knowledge and treasure. Naturally, they awaken an ancient evil, unleash a supernatural plague, and find themselves racing against an increasingly powerful monster.

It is a ridiculous amount of fun.

And that’s exactly why Dungeon Masters should study this movie.

There is a tendency in tabletop roleplaying to treat every adventure as if it needs to be serious, gritty, and consequential. We build complicated political factions, morally ambiguous villains, tragic backstories, and horrifying monsters. Those things can make for fantastic campaigns, but sometimes we forget that an adventure should also be exciting. Players should get to explore strange places, discover incredible treasures, narrowly escape terrible dangers, and occasionally do something spectacularly foolish.

The Mummy reminds us that an adventure doesn’t need to choose between being dangerous and being fun. In fact, the best adventures often manage to be both.

Give the Players Somewhere They Want to Explore

One of the first things The Mummy gets right is its destination. Hamunaptra is not simply a location where the heroes happen to fight a monster. It is a place that promises adventure before the characters even arrive.

The lost city is filled with ancient secrets, buried treasure, forgotten history, and the possibility of discovering something that should have remained undisturbed. It is dangerous, but that danger is part of its appeal. The characters aren’t being dragged into an adventure because the local lord has ordered them to investigate a cave. They’re going somewhere because there is something extraordinary waiting to be discovered.

Dungeon Masters can learn a lot from that distinction.

Think about the locations you introduce in your campaigns. Are they places the players want to explore, or are they simply places they need to visit to complete the next quest? A ruined temple can be more than a collection of rooms and monsters. It might contain the tomb of a legendary queen, a library of forbidden spells, a treasure vault that has remained untouched for a thousand years, or a mysterious machine whose purpose nobody remembers.

Give the players a reason to be excited about going there.

This doesn’t mean every dungeon needs to contain legendary treasure or a world-changing revelation. Sometimes the promise of a strange place is enough. A forest where the trees grow upside down, a sunken city visible beneath a frozen lake, or a mountain monastery whose inhabitants have not aged in centuries can all create a powerful desire to explore.

The important thing is to make the destination interesting before the characters arrive. Let them hear stories, see maps, discover old journals, or meet people who have attempted the journey before. Build anticipation around the location.

When the players finally step through the entrance, they should feel as though they have arrived somewhere special.

Exploration Should Be Full of Discoveries

A good adventure doesn’t reveal everything immediately. The Mummy understands the pleasure of discovering a place one piece at a time.

The characters don’t simply walk into Hamunaptra and find the answer to every mystery. They uncover clues, decipher inscriptions, explore buried chambers, and gradually realize that the city contains far more than they initially understood. Every discovery gives them another reason to keep going.

This is exactly what makes exploration so satisfying in D&D.

A dungeon should not feel like a series of locked doors waiting for the players to roll high enough on their checks. It should feel like a place with a history, a purpose, and secrets that can be uncovered. A room might contain the remains of an expedition that came before the party. A collapsed passage might conceal an entrance to an older section of the complex. A mural might reveal that the people who built the tomb feared something far worse than death.

Not every discovery needs to be a clue to the main plot. Sometimes a hidden chamber contains a collection of strange artifacts. Sometimes the characters find a forgotten shrine or an unexpected shortcut. Sometimes they discover something that raises more questions than it answers.

These discoveries reward curiosity.

One of the best things a Dungeon Master can do is prepare details that players can find without requiring them to follow a single predetermined path. If they investigate the strange symbols on a wall, give them something interesting. If they examine the statues, perhaps one of them has been moved recently. If they decide to explore the flooded passage instead of the obvious staircase, let that choice lead somewhere worthwhile.

Exploration becomes exciting when players feel that their decisions reveal the world rather than simply advance a checklist.

The Environment Should Be Dangerous

Hamunaptra is not a safe place to visit. Even before the ancient evil awakens, the ruins are full of hazards. The characters are dealing with unstable structures, buried chambers, ancient traps, and an environment that is actively trying to kill them.

This is a great reminder that a dungeon doesn’t need to rely entirely on monsters to create danger.

A collapsing ceiling can be just as memorable as a fight with a mummy. A chamber slowly filling with sand can create more tension than a group of skeletons. A narrow bridge over a bottomless pit can force the party to make difficult decisions, especially when they are carrying valuable treasure or trying to escape something pursuing them.

Environmental hazards also give characters opportunities to use their abilities in creative ways. The barbarian might hold up a collapsing support beam while the others escape. The rogue might discover a way to disable an ancient mechanism. The wizard might use magic to redirect a flow of water or stabilize a dangerous passage.

The key is to make the environment interactive.

A trap that simply deals damage when someone steps on a pressure plate is functional, but a trap that changes the entire room creates a more interesting encounter. Perhaps activating the mechanism causes stone walls to slide into place, separating the party. Perhaps the floor begins to tilt, sending loose objects sliding toward a deep pit. Perhaps a chamber starts filling with poisonous gas, forcing the characters to find an exit before they can safely recover their fallen companion.

The environment should give the players problems to solve, not just damage to absorb.

And don’t forget that hazards can become more interesting when combined with other threats. A group of undead guardians is dangerous enough on its own, but what happens when the fight takes place in a chamber where the floor is slowly collapsing? Suddenly, the characters have to think about more than which monster to attack next.

Curses Should Have Personality

One of the most entertaining aspects of The Mummy is the curse itself. The ancient evil isn’t just a powerful undead creature waiting at the end of a dungeon. Its awakening changes the world around it. Strange events begin happening, people suffer supernatural consequences, and the threat grows as the story progresses.

That is a much more interesting way to use a curse than simply telling a character that they have disadvantage on ability checks until someone casts remove curse.

Curses are an opportunity to create stories.

Imagine a party that steals an artifact from an ancient tomb. At first, nothing happens. Then one character begins dreaming of a city they have never visited. Another finds that their reflection occasionally moves a moment after they do. A third discovers that insects seem to gather wherever they sleep. These effects might be harmless at first, but they become increasingly disturbing as the party travels.

Perhaps the curse is trying to lead them somewhere. Perhaps it is slowly transforming the character who carries the artifact. Perhaps it is warning them that something else has awakened.

A good curse creates questions and consequences. It gives the players a reason to investigate and an incentive to do something about it.

You can also make curses more interesting by connecting them to the history of the location. Perhaps the tomb was sealed because its inhabitants feared what would happen if the dead were disturbed. Perhaps the treasure was stolen from a god, and the curse is the price of taking it. Perhaps the original builders deliberately created a curse that would follow anyone who tried to remove a particular object.

The curse becomes part of the adventure rather than a punishment for opening the wrong treasure chest.

Of course, the players should have ways to learn about and address the curse. Its effects can be dangerous, but they should not be arbitrary. Give the party clues about its origin, its limitations, and the possibility of breaking it. The most satisfying curse is one that makes the players eager to uncover its secrets.

Let the Villain Grow More Dangerous

Imhotep is a great example of a villain whose threat evolves throughout an adventure.

At the beginning, he is an ancient evil that has been awakened from a long slumber. As the story progresses, he becomes increasingly powerful and gains access to abilities that make him a much greater threat. The heroes aren’t facing the same opponent in every encounter. They are watching a danger grow.

Dungeon Masters can use this approach to make recurring villains more memorable.

Rather than introducing a powerful monster and immediately having the party fight it at full strength, consider letting the villain develop over the course of the adventure. Perhaps it begins as a weakened spirit that can only influence dreams and manipulate small objects. Later, it gains the ability to possess people, summon undead servants, or command the elements. By the final confrontation, the characters are facing something far more dangerous than the creature they first encountered.

This creates a natural sense of escalation.

It also gives the players opportunities to learn about the villain before confronting it. They might discover its weaknesses, learn the rituals that empower it, or uncover the reason it was imprisoned in the first place. They may even realize that some of the events they have experienced were caused by the villain long before it was physically capable of attacking them.

A growing villain also creates urgency. The players know that every delay gives the threat more time to become powerful. They have to decide whether to spend another day investigating the ruins or risk confronting the creature before it reaches its full strength.

That is a much more interesting choice than simply telling the players that the final boss is waiting in the last room.

Rivals Make Treasure Hunting More Interesting

The heroes in The Mummy aren’t the only people interested in Hamunaptra. Other treasure hunters have their own plans, motivations, and ideas about what the expedition should accomplish.

This is an important detail that Dungeon Masters can easily overlook.

When the party explores a dangerous location, why should they be the only people interested in it? Ancient ruins attract treasure hunters, scholars, cultists, mercenaries, collectors, and adventurers with their own agendas. Some might want the same treasure as the party. Others might be looking for something entirely different.

Rival adventuring groups can add a tremendous amount of life to an exploration campaign.

Imagine the party arrives at a ruined city only to discover that another expedition has already established a camp nearby. The rival group might be friendly at first, offering to share information and trade supplies. But as the characters explore deeper into the ruins, they discover that the other expedition has been concealing something important.

Perhaps the rivals have found a map to a hidden vault. Perhaps they know how to bypass the ancient traps. Perhaps they have already awakened something and are desperately trying to hide the evidence.

Rivals don’t have to be villains. They might be competing for the same reward while still being perfectly reasonable people. They might even become temporary allies when the real danger emerges.

This creates opportunities for negotiation, deception, competition, and unexpected cooperation. It also means that the players have to think about more than the monsters in the dungeon. They need to consider what other people are doing while they explore.

A good rival group makes the world feel larger. The party is no longer the only group of adventurers capable of making things happen.

Comedy Doesn’t Make the Danger Less Real

One of the things that makes The Mummy so enjoyable is its sense of humor. The characters are constantly getting into trouble, making mistakes, arguing with one another, and finding themselves in situations that are both dangerous and ridiculous.

Yet the comedy never completely removes the stakes.

The ancient evil is genuinely terrifying. People are in danger. The heroes can fail, and their mistakes have consequences. The humor comes from the characters and their reactions to the situation, not from pretending that nothing matters.

This is an important lesson for Dungeon Masters.

A campaign doesn’t need to be relentlessly serious to have meaningful stakes. Players can laugh during a dangerous adventure. An NPC can be ridiculous without being useless. A villain can have an absurd weakness and still be frightening. A character can make a terrible decision that is hilarious in the moment and disastrous five minutes later.

In fact, comedy can make serious moments more effective. When players have spent several sessions laughing at a recurring NPC, seeing that NPC in genuine danger can create an emotional response that a completely humorless character might not.

The trick is understanding where the humor comes from. Let the players and characters be funny. Let situations become absurd. Allow unexpected outcomes to create moments of comedy. But don’t assume that every serious moment needs to be undercut with a joke.

The best balance allows both tones to exist. The players can laugh while exploring a tomb, then become genuinely concerned when the ancient guardian wakes up.

Give the Players a Chance to Be Spectacular

Perhaps the biggest lesson The Mummy offers Dungeon Masters is that an adventure should give the heroes opportunities to do incredible things.

Rick O’Connell doesn’t spend the entire movie carefully considering whether every action is tactically optimal. He takes risks, improvises, gets into trouble, and finds ways to survive situations that should probably kill him. Evelyn is not simply along for the ride, either. Her knowledge and curiosity are essential to understanding what is happening.

The characters have different strengths, and the adventure gives each of them opportunities to matter.

D&D should do the same.

Give the fighter a chance to hold off a horde of undead while the others escape. Let the wizard decipher an ancient ritual that nobody else understands. Give the rogue a dangerous mechanism to disable while the chamber fills with sand. Let the bard negotiate with a rival expedition or distract a supernatural guardian with a story about the ancient civilization.

And sometimes, let the players come up with a plan that is completely ridiculous but somehow works.

Not every challenge needs to be solved through a carefully balanced combat encounter. A daring leap across a collapsing bridge, a desperate attempt to outrun a sandstorm, or a plan to lure an ancient monster into its own trap can create moments that players remember long after the campaign ends.

The goal isn’t to make every character invincible. It is to create situations where their abilities, personalities, and decisions can shine.

A great adventure gives players the opportunity to become the heroes of their own pulp fantasy story.

Adventure Is the Point

There are plenty of lessons Dungeon Masters can take from The Mummy. Make locations worth exploring. Fill dungeons with discoveries. Let environmental hazards create problems that monsters alone cannot. Give curses personality, allow villains to grow more dangerous, and populate the world with rivals who have their own ambitions.

But all of those ideas lead back to one larger lesson.

Adventure should be fun.

That doesn’t mean every session needs to be lighthearted or that danger should never have consequences. It means remembering that players come to the table to experience things they cannot experience in everyday life. They want to explore forgotten civilizations, discover incredible treasures, battle ancient evils, and make daring decisions that change the course of a story.

Sometimes they want to save the world. Sometimes they just want to steal something from a tomb and get chased by a giant supernatural creature.

There is room for both.

The Mummy reminds us that fantasy roleplaying can be thrilling without being grim, dangerous without being miserable, and funny without losing its sense of wonder. The next time you’re preparing a dungeon or planning an expedition, think about what makes the players excited to enter it in the first place. Give them something mysterious to discover, something dangerous to overcome, and a few opportunities to do something spectacular.

Because the best adventures aren’t just about surviving the things waiting in the darkness.

They’re about having an incredible time getting there.

And next week, we’re trading ancient tombs for a very different kind of hunt. In our next installment, we’ll look at Predator and explore how to build monsters that force players to abandon their usual tactics, adapt to the situation, and learn how to survive something that is hunting them.

Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!