Dungeon Corridors

 Just read an old blogpost by DIY and Dragons about numbering corridors in a dungeon. Instead of commenting on an 5 year old blogpost I'll write my response here. 

Corridors should feel dangerous. Most adventurers move around quietly hoping to take out the dungeon denizens in small groups. Corridors provide the danger of discovery. The PCs are exposed with nowhere to hide and potentially multiple doors for enemies to pour out of. Fighting is also constrained in a narrow area that could make combat far more interesting

Because of all that I think the way most games handle dungeons is sort of wrong. It creates a static environment. Adding numbers to hallways just adds to that static feel and does nothing for times the players return to a corridor later.

Long ago RuneQuest had a different system. They had the GM roll for every room and listed which inhabitants were there depending upon the results. This was a bit too much. My answer is somewhere in between.

Imagine two things:

1. Random encounters are written up with as much care as a room encounter except any dsecriptions will likely be of the encounter moving around. So encounters aren't just weird monsters that don't fit the theme of the normal dungeon denizens but instead are mostly watchful patrols and groggy beasts looking for the bathroom or off to where they prepare food. 
2. Maps have notation (star or something) that you drop on the map everywhere you want the GM to roll for random encounters. Remember there is always a decent chance no encounter is present. We want the surprise of popping out in the hallway and ... is it safe? We want notations because some corridors are going to be busy and others isolated. If you don't have a notation, or you linger in an area you follow normal random encounter roll frequency. 

You could even have different notations for different Random Encounter tables creating a ripe environment for factions or providing 'action' for the encounters that is encounters in the rear of the dungeon and near the entrance have the same actual encounter table but near the rear all indicate encounters are waddling off the bathroom full of beer while near the entrance they are likely ready to go out on a raid and ready for battle. 

Hopefully that sort of thing gsive the place life and a feeling of danger with minimal overhead, at the table at least.