Almost every campaign out there has featured at some point the party going head first into a forgotten tomb, ripe with treasures of the past and dangers of the undead variety. These places are often almost unrecognizable from a stereotypical surface dungeon, and generally are well stocked with period correct currency and magical potions that do what the potions down at Fantasy Drug and Bar do.
Tombs should be a section of the world that are a doorway to the past of a certain kind of people. They should be a place that helps establish a regional setting around it and inform the players about the people who once lived in the lands around it. If anything the fact that a tomb is around proves that the region has multiple historic layers. This heritage can be expressed in many ways that both affects the players on a mechanical level and on a personal level.
The easiest thing one can do to make a tomb immediately echo its age is any currency the players find is 'unique'. Gold coins of a different shape, weight, or even with other metals on their face are one of the easiest ways to bring this about as it gives the players something 'liquid' that they will feel they can take advantage of. It provides a doorway in-character for anyone in the party with street connections or metalworking experience to flex their skills. Suddenly what could of been 50 gold pieces is now something that may need to be smelted down and sold as bars, of could even be given to a private collector or a museum. One could even go farther and argue that it gives the party rogue/'face' a tool in which to barter with common men and women, arguing the rarity of the coin doubles the value. If a DM is feeling adventurous, they could instead make all of the currency in the tomb be crafted from Electrum, a metal alloy that is essentially 'unrefined gold'. During ancient times it was known for being more durable, and easier to craft and obtain than straight gold, but also had poor conversion costs globally with silver being deemed 'superior'. This sort of metal could be a great role-playing opportunity as the players would need to find a way to refine it, or even sell it off as is or in an ingot state. A DM could even go as far as using the sudden talk and appearance of this 'lost currency' as a mini adventure, bringing forth followers of the ancient ways who wish to meet those who sullied the good name of a local tomb.
Within the walls of a tomb it should be noted that more than wealth would be present. Taking a note from the Egyptians, many tombs were stocked with everyday goods such as bowls, utensils, clothes, and furniture. These objects were buried alongside the body throughout the tomb in order to help with the afterlife, and later were replaced with statues known as shabti, which were said to help the person in the afterlife by doing work for them. Many tombs had multiples of these statues, some numbering into the hundreds! For the players, such statues could represent past gods, or could even be clever traps that spring to life and attack would be robbers. Tapestries and paintings on the walls could tell tales of the person located in the tomb, their past deeds, life, and even how they will live in the afterlife. These can be either extremely simple for DMs who like to generate as they go, or they could be complex and tell an even deeper tale of how those in the past were viewed in society based on their actions.
While tombs are often explored because they have been 'sealed for many years' or just happen to be where a plot device is located in order to proceed with the main quest, a DM willing to give his players a challenge could also have the tomb be inhabited with more than the undead. Wild animals from the surrounding countryside could find an easy, dry, and warm home in the halls of the once sacred burial grounds, leaving proof of their lair by means of animal bones and dropping. Other tomb robbers such as small packs of highway men or aspiring adventurers sick of the everyday peasant life could be found stumbling along the corridors, in various states of cooperation with the party. The intrusion of such life should also affect the state of the wealth and items in the tomb. Past robbers could of taken the items out of a chest, but left the odd looking coinage due to weight and time constraints. Dead bodies with more recent goods on them could be found in hallways and within areas where animals live, providing possible hints of traps ahead or dangers abound. One could even branch out of the tomb and have tunnels poorly dug from outside of the tomb used as a way in for especially dedicated tomb robbers that were unable to break the door's seal. This tunnel could lead to a bandit hideout, or even to another tomb nearby.
Many tombs in fantasy lore are filled with traps and dangers that help keep the riches and valuable goods inside free from the hands of robbers. Often these traps are one shot in nature, but are often deadly. They provide the party rogue with the challenge of disabling these obstacles in order to allow safe passage. A good change of pace for a tomb if one finds their players to be expecting traps around every corner is to hide the traps in more than just triggered effects. Statues that animate upon life entering a room or touching them, gems that turn into poisonous vipers upon leaving the burial site, even cursed weapons are all good alternatives to the basic arrow or blade trap. For those who enjoy the classic style of traps that are more concrete, room flooding devices can provide quick tension for the party and force them to either quickly disable the mechanism or be sent running out of the tomb with what they have so far. Dried mixtures of poison could be covering key sections of the tomb, such as the lid of the main sarcophagus or the handles of doors. These poisons could be lessened in effect with age, only implying minor penalties on the player affected hours later after the initial delve, a reminder of the acts they had just committed.
Layouts of tombs throughout the period of human history have usually been a few rooms connected with varying lengths of tunnels. Even the Great Pyramid, despite its scale only has a few rooms inside of it. Small tombs in an adventure setting often get blown through within minutes of game time, so a DM must make them bigger and more like a traditional dungeon or ruin. To help keep with the theme of a tomb setting, it is important that one makes the rooms themed to the time and the person being buried. One could have multiple rooms dedicated to past family members complete with paintings, ashes in urns, or even their bodies in open air coffins. Rooms full of cheap offerings from people once ruled over, providing the party with an even bigger historical window into the past. An early room of the tomb itself could be out of place, upon further inspection revealed to be a break area for workers who dug or constructed the place. A central great hall with large statues of the person entombed there complete with now extinguished fire pits could serve as a central point of the tomb. Passages could be so small that only smaller races can enter and exit, meaning that the party needs to either employ magic to shrink down to enter, or risk sending one or two members in to see what lies beyond. Some passages could be collapsed and blocked to the party unless they wish to hire diggers or employ magic to clear the area.
For many people the above suggestions are common place, and when reading probably think to themselves 'well yeah, all of that is cool and most tombs have them'. Unfortunately it is easy to forget that tombs themselves are cultural in significance and often play a role that is far greater to the people living near it during their time of construction than we think of today. They are generally symbols, tokens of thanks and good luck in the afterlife to those who lay within. Many tombs in games could be re-labeled as a ruined building or a castle, and only have the monsters within possibly be the only connection to its once tomb designation. As a DM, having a strong tomb with many echoes to the past brings immersion to the game world and provides a sense of depth for the players. For more open minded Dms who like narrative changes, it can even provide hooks for players to use to help establish their character backgrounds. With a strong historical view into the past players could claim that they share ties with such past cultures, using it to entrench the murderhobo into the local history.
Hopefully someone out there will take a few queues from this and implement them to great success! :)
