One of the typical location that is used as an excuse to build a dungeon is The Ancient Tomb ™.
I often struggle building dungeons that are credible tombs, in terms of rooms disposition and type of rooms contained. It seems to me that either my dungeons are realistic but boring, or they are entertaining but quite unrealistic as tombs.
Is it even possible to build a realistic tomb that is still entertaining for players?
I would like to know if someone could provide some examples/ideas for realistic-but-enjoyable tombs (possibly based on real tombs).
I'm doing a bit of research myself, but I'm not finding workable ideas. Eg, the tomb of Tutankhamen would be rather disappointing as a dungeon:
This tomb consists of three small rooms and a hallway; this would allow for only a few encounters/traps/riddles. An action-oriented group might find a dungeon like this a bit disappointing. Also, I feel that a small dungeon makes harder to build a sense of mystery and exploration.
Also, since I was asked to better define "realistic" vs "entertaining":
For the purpose of this question, I will say that a dungeon is realistic when its features (room types, room dispositions, the furniture) make sense in an imaginary world loosely based on historical civilizations, or periods and places in history. As an example, it is conceivable that an ancient tomb would contain defenses against intruders. In an imaginary/fantasy world, these defenses becomes traps, animated guardians, riddles, curses. It is coinceivable that an ancient tomb would contain a treasure chamber, and in certain cultures, it is conceivable that a tomb would contain vast amounts of goods that belonged to the deceased in life; in an imaginary/fantasy world, a tomb containing magical items, esoteric and forbidden text, weapons etc. does not break the suspension of disbelief. On the other hand, why would a tomb contain, say, a torture chamber? While it would be possible to imagine more or less elaborate explanations ("this culture believed that torture chambers were needed by the deceased in the afterlife, to punish the intruders, and thus were routinely built inside of tombs), I feel that a torture chamber in a tomb does not readily "make sense" and would break immersion.
A dungeon is entertaining when challenges the players and allow room to build a sense of danger, mystery, and exploration of ancient and forgotten places. In an entertaining dungeon I expect a number of combat encounters, a number of clever traps, several rooms and hallways to explore, and a treasure.
While I asked the question with D&D in mind (I'm currently DMing a 3.5 campaing), I would like to keep the question as system-agnostic as possible.
Best Answer
Fantasy fiction tends to exaggerate features of the natural world. Instead of spiders, you have giant spiders. Instead of house fires, you have sentient fire elementals.
Similarly, fantasy tombs are larger and more dangerous than real-world tombs. I'd suggest two options if you want to balance realism and fantasy fun like you describe: use a tomb of realistic proportions and make it more intricate, or start with a realistic tomb and enlarge it.
Take King Tut's tomb as a starting point.
Realistic Scale
You can make each room in King Tut's tomb full of detail. The first hallway might be guarded by a sentinel statue, and then in order to enter the front door the party has to solve a hieroglyphic riddle. Then, in the main chamber, once they defeat the naga living there, perhaps the sarcophagus area is hidden by an illusory wall that requires them to enter the first side chamber and placate an ancient spirit, and so on.
Describing details and having interesting objects can make each room feel like more than just a box. A single urn could provide as much interesting gameplay as a whole room if it's intricate enough.
Enlarged Scale
Instead, you could model your tomb after King Tut's tomb, but transform each original room into several fantasy rooms. The initial hallway could have various alcoves and guard posts. You could split the main room into a complex of several rooms. You could have each side room be its own collection of areas, and have the sarcophagus contained in a huge hall instead of a simple side chamber.
This way you're basing your tomb on a real one, but embellishing it to fantasy scale. That way, it's in proportion with your dramatic spellcasters and superhuman warriors.