I know, I know, that was the D&D 3e motto, not that of 4th edition. And in fact, I’m not even going to talk about 4th edition in this post at all. If you want some edition wars discussion, try EN World.

I’m going to talk about an idea I had while watching The Mummy (Brendan Fraser version…incredible movie) this morning. If you haven’t seen the movie, there are mild spoilers herein.

The first act of the movie climaxes with the group’s first entry into the catacombs beneath Hamunaptra. They go through many rooms and encounter a lot of danger. Some of the rooms are empty, or at least hold no encounters, but you get a glimpse of them as they make their way through the dungeon.

In the third act, the characters and BBEG make their way back to the catacombs, where more adventures ensue and the film resolves. There are repeat dangers (scarabs), escalated dangers (more mummies, more powerful Imhotep), and some new dangers (trapped rooms, Anck-su-namun). Also, some of the rooms that were just passed through the first time become central to the latest delve. This way, the filmmakers were able to use their ultra-cool sets more than once in the film, and tie the third act to the first. This is an interesting and fun way to stretch your prep time to the limit. If you think about it, you get almost twice the bang for your buck.

Double Dip That Dungeon Trip
Who says that every room in a dungeon has to be cleared the first time the PCs get through it? A single map can be the location of two or more adventures simply by making a later delve dependent on PC actions or new information that comes to light after the first foray. A dungeon in which every room features a combat or danger isn’t very realistic, and it also takes some of the suspense out of things…players knowing every room has a danger is as boring as them knowing that every room doesn’t. Using this technique lets you build a more flexible, realistic dungeon without wasting a lot of effort.

Let’s take a look at some ideas on doing this, with examples from the movie.

Empty Room Becomes Key Location: In the movie, the PCs walk right through the mummification chamber, because it’s inert and has been for thousands of years. Once they awaken the Mummy and he kidnaps Evie, suddenly that chamber becomes *very* important.
    Using it in a Game: Don’t just make it a 10×10 empty room, it’s got to have character even though it’s empty. Rick *knew* the mummification chamber was significant even though there were no encounters there. Perhaps some oddly shaped stone tables, a pool of black water that appears frozen in time (rather than just frozen), or paintings on the walls that seem to tell a story but shift every time a PC tries to read them.
The thing that triggers the room to become important must occur outside the dungeon sometime after the first delve. It should relate to the delve, though. Perhaps an artifact that was retrieved activates when the PCs return to town, or they unleash a monster who activates something in the dungeon after the PCs leave. The players should get a kick out of returning to a familiar room only to have it be completely different as well. (”I knew we should have broken those statues!”)

Shifting Passageways: One way to surprise and delight the players on their second foray is to change the map on them in a logical way. In the movie, the characters find secret doors their second time through, and also discover a huge treasure room that they missed the first time.
    Using It in a Game: Secret and concealed doors could shift the dungeon’s geography behind the players as they are opened and explored. Old traps that failed to trigger on the first go round might do better the second time, or if the PCs set off too many boomsticks, bridges and wall supports might have collapsed behind them, or be ready to collapse if they go over them again.

The Key Was There All Along!: In the movie, the characters unleash the Mummy with something they find in their first foray, and he ends up causing all sorts of havoc. The key to defeating him is found in a clue that couldn’t be deciphered until the characters had gone once into Hamunaptra and then come back out again. Of course, that clue led them right back to Hamunaptra to a statue that they hadn’t considered important the first time around.
    Using It in a Game: This one’s good because it can provide you with a reason to send the PCs in the first place. They go into the dungeon with the goal of finding a key of some sort that will help them decipher some clue. Of course, while they’re in the dungeon they pass right by it without knowing it’s important. Once they come back out and decipher the clue, they realize they’ll have to go back. By that time, things have changed inside…

The PCs Can’t Have All the Fun: In the Mummy Returns, it’s the bad guys that return to Hamunaptra. It seems the characters left something behind that they shouldn’t have (namely: the freakin’ Mummy!!!).
    Using It in a Game: So the PCs cleared out your dungeon…make sure and keep track of exactly what they did, and where. Then, look at it from a new bad guy’s perspective…did the PCs just conveniently clear out a spot for him to take up residence? You can even seed the original dungeon with traps or challenges that make the place more hospitable for a bad guy. For example, the PCs had to open a portal to some elemental plane in order to defeat a monster…can the new bad guy now use that? Or, maybe the PCs left behind a ghost that the new bad guy can utilize as an ally.

Conclusion
All of these ideas require some foresight and pre-planning on the DM’s part, but not as much as it would take to create a brand new adventure location. Plus, the familiarity and subtle changes will delight the players, as it will help immerse them into the game world rather than making each adventure a fire-and-forget scenario that leaves no real impression. Using the same dungeon more than once will make the campaign very memorable, in some of the same way that AD&D dungeons are now fondly remembered as shared experiences among gamers. Plus, it will make your PCs a lot more careful the next time they’re going through a new dungeon…after all, their actions have consequences. That’s a new one.