How do we dispel the notion that dungeons are nothing but long

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Make one that isn't that way?

>>50789619
Design them with purposes other than connecting random encounters together.

"Vault" dungeons should be designed to keep things out (unless you want to play with the theme and design them to keep something from getting out).

"Lair" dungeons should be designed to be lived in.

"Sewer" dungeons should be design with the idea that they are intended to remove waste materials from a large residential area.

>>50789619
I go with the notion that a "dungeon" is any self-contained area for the PCs to explore, fight in, and loot.

A traditional dungeon with long dark hallways and pointless rooms is a dungeon, as is a design based on an actual castle.

In a cyberpunk game like Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun, an underground corporate lab with a few thousand square feet of space would be a dungeon. In a zombie apocalypse game, a trailer park spread out over a square mile would be a dungeon.

The PCs are doing the same thing in every instance: exploring, fighting, and looting.

A brightly lit, nanotech research facility with security checkpoints and cybernetic AI defence grids is a dungeon.

the opulent castle of the vampire lord is a dungeon, with velvet tapestries on the walls.

The verdant forest glade with its bowyers of trees, populated by the elven king is a dungeon.

The brooding techno-gothic citadel of Ming The Merciless is a dungeon for the heroes to make their way through.

dungeons are only long, dark, combat hallways, if you have no imagination.

>>50789744
Bingo, unless there's a reason for the builders to create a "long dark combat hallway" (a trial for the heroes chosen by prophecy perhaps?) the dungeon shouldn't look like that because there's no reason to build it like that.

"Crypt" dungeons are built to house corpses, the walls are filled with coffins or urns, or you can take inspiration from the Catacombs of Paris. It could also have been built to intern some legendary figure in which case traps may have been included in the original design (the Pyramids included anti-theft measures). Otherwise traps would be built by new occupants, magical traps might be ideal here as they could be deactivated easily with the proper ritual. In whatever case, it should make sense as something other than a playground for murderhobos.