A door is a door is a door

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I use different statuses for doors in my own quests although there is no reason why any of these could not be added to pre-generated quests but they are not randomly generated statuses but part of the Quest set up. The four statuses are Closed, Open, Locked and Secured (Barred or Bolted). Chests are also assumed to be locked and the TOOL KIT is needed to handle locks in addition to its traditional role of disarming traps. These new door statuses create some additional actions once you have tried to open the Door as discovered that it is Locked or Secured;

[*]BREAK DOWN DOOR – If you try a door and it turns out that it is secured (i.e. barred or bolted) you have the option to break the door down as an action. Roll a die on a score of 4 or more the door is broken down and your turn continues, on a roll of less than 4 the door remains closed until the end of the Heroes turn at which point it is opened and the EWP’s turn begins (if no monsters are revealed then the noise has attracted a Wandering Monster that can be placed by the EWP as normal).

[*]FORCE LOCK (on a DOOR) – If you try a door and it turns out that it is locked you have the option to force the lock to open the door as an action. Roll a die on a score of 3 or more the door opens and your turn continues, on a roll of 1 or 2 then the door remains closed until the end of the Heroes turn at which point it is opened and the EWPs turn begins (if no monsters are revealed then the noise has attracted a Wandering Monster that can be placed by the EWP).

[*]PICK LOCK (on a DOOR) - If you try a door and it turns out that it is locked and you are equipped with a TOOL KIT you have the option to pick the lock to open the door as an action. Roll a die on a score of 3 or more the door opens and your turn continues, on a roll of less than 3 the door remains closed and your action is finished and on a roll of 1 a Wandering Monster can be placed by the EWP.

[*]FORCE LOCK (on a CHEST) - Chests are always locked and can be forced open and looted (i.e. emptied) as a single action but forcing a chest will automatically trigger any trap.

[*]PICK LOCK (on a CHEST) - Chests are always locked but if you are equipped with a TOOL KIT then you can pick the lock and loot the contents as a single action. Roll a die and on a score of 3 or more you are successful, on a roll of 1 or 2 then you have triggered any device attached to the chest (obviously if no devices exist then you have had a lucky escape).

[*]DISARM Trap – If a device or trigger is spotted or uncovered as part of a search then if you are equipped with the TOOL KIT then you may attempt to disarm the device. Roll a die on a three or more the trap is disarmed and removed from the board on a roll of 1 or 2 you have inadvertently triggered the trap.

[Daedalus]

I think Heroquest could do with locked or otherwise impassable doors. I'm in Goblin-King's and Mitchiemasha's (and Milton Bradley's) camp where they are handled in the Quest Notes section.

For my game, a tool kit can generally open locked doors and chests where the lack of access penalty is treated as a trap (Dwarf is allowed a reroll.) A standard remove trap action opens the lock. I don't allow breaking down or forcing a door as a rule, though an occasional exception in the Notes section would be fine.

I think a key can work okay with a locked door as long as the map design doesn't require long backtracking (boring.) Executed thoughtfully, a jump in the Quest flow can provide added interest when a new part of the map is unlocked. Trap doors achieve the same result, but finding a key with a search for treasure (perhaps on a boss) is more active and rewarding, in my opinion.

A bonus of a specially obstructing door is it can also call for the casting of a Genie spell to open it. As the spell is a finite resource, there is a decision involved in the casting. For instance, the key to the Quest-objective room can be gotten after a lot of hard battle, or all that can be bypassed by opening the locked room with a Genie spell.

From The Genie topic:

Like Mohawk said, opening locked or otherwise impassible doors is the main purpose of that part of the spell. I believe the wording was originally more useful in the prototype version of the game. In the British TV commercial, the Fire of Wrath spell was differently worded:

This spell may be cast on any
object or door in the same Room
or Passage. The object and
anything in it will then be
destroyed. The spell may not be
cast on Monsters or Players.

This indicates a need to not only open but also destroy a door, probably due to it being locked or otherwise impassible....

As the proto-version of Fire of Wrath indicates, Hero Quest originally was designed with a spell specifically directed at destroyng doors. This implicitly points to more than the simple open-and-closed-door options that Baker was required to reduce down to by MB marketing execs. Fortunately, much of the original vision can be easily restored in the Notes section or through a bit of house ruling.

[cynthialee]

I use locked doors all the time.
Keys can be found on a specific NPC in the quest notes or can be discovered in the course of the quest if a 'Key' card comes up. (planted in the deck)
Locked doors can also be breached by a Dwarf with a tool kit. The Dwarf will roll as many dice as they have Mind points +3 Dice for the tool kit. If the Dwarf rolls a Black Shield the doors lock is picked.
A Spell caster can use a Genie spell to open any locked door but this breaks the door. The Barbarian (or other Hero with 7 or more Body Points) may sacrifice a Body Point to get a roll to break the door down. Roll Body Points maximum. If he rolls a Black Shield the door is breached. However these broken doors may not be closed. (I allow for heroes to close doors.)