Skill Cards for the Heroes

A set of Skill Cards for the four heroes is something I've been working on for quite some time. I changed this deck several times, at first they were intended to be split in two sets of generic skills: Heroic Skills (available for Barbarian, Dwarf and Elf) and Magic Skills (Elf and Wizard only). The Elf was the only hero allowed to pick cards from both decks. But this project was shelved for some time and finally saw the light this year (although I am posting something about it only after several months).
The final deck features now 45 cards in total and is split in four sets of 11 cards each and as always there is one additional instruction card. Each hero has now his own unique set of skills, different from his companions. The artwork were commissioned through the years to several artists (for some of the artworks I even have alternate drawings). The cards are available in both North American and European layout and in different languages: English, German and Italian. I am planning to make a French version since some pleople asked for but a French translation is still required. The North American version of the cards measures mm 56x89 (approssimatively) while the European is 54x80. A modern 2021 style adaptation is also planned but too early to talk about it at the moment.
Check the Online Shop section to find the links to my DriveThruRPG, Etsy and eBay shops. Now let's see how thes deck of Skill Cards work!

The rules: I've always loved to homebrew my HeroQuest since I was a kid but as usual I didn't want to alter the mechanics of the original game too much. So the rules for this deck are quite simple. Since I always try to balance the Wizard on the level of the other heroes, I decided to link the skills to Mind Points. A hero may collect as many skill cards as the number of Mind Points he has. According to this rule, a Wizard player may have up to 6 Skill cards in his hands to have fun with (even more if he's owning an artifact increasing Mind Points). But each hero starts drawing only one skill at random from his own Skill deck and each  card is discarded after it is used. If this skill is not used during a Quest, it is saved for the next Quest but the heroes also draw another Skill card at the begining of each Quest and collect them until their maximum number is reached.
Since the skills must not unbalance the game difficulty, you will not find anything overpowered like a Dwarf smashing a hammer on the floor causing an earthquake. No, they are some kind of special and unespected actions each hero may perform during the game that Morcar/Zargon is not expecting. For this reason, the cards are hidden to the evil wizard player until you wish to play one of them. Imagine I am playing as Morcar/Zargon and wish to cast a spell against a hero. One of the heroes has a special artifact (or skill) that allows him to cancel the effect of my spell. Well, unless I am a not paying attention to the game or wish to waste my spell, I will never cast the spell against that hero. That's when a hidden skill makes sense! The evil wizard player doesn't know what Skill cards your heroes own, so he may still play in a genuine way and this will result in more fun when someone unexpectedly counters the spell by playing a Skill card!

Bonuses and penalties: it is supposed each hero should acquire a new Skill card after each Quest. But when drawing a card from your deck, you may also find a bonus or a penalty card. For the reason I previously explained (balancing the Wizard), the Wizard may draw a bonus card which allows him to draw two Skill cards instead of one. The Dwarf deck features a bonus card which allows you to pick your favorite Skill cards instead of drawing one at random. The Elf has istead a penalty card which is basically a Nothing card. This is because the Elf is usually considered the most balanced of the heroes, he can use magic but have no restrictions on equipment. Although he has the only negative card in the set, this is compensated by two special skills allowing the elf to copy another hero's skill or a Wizard's spell! As for the Barbarian, he also has a negative card in his deck, similar to the one featured in the Elf's deck (but a little better). I don't want to spoiler too much but I think it is a funny card that highlights his way of acting impulsively due to his few Mind Points.

Reviews: AshQuest posted a video on his YouTube channel reviewing these cards. He split the video in two parts, the first one featuring the Barbarian and Elf Skill card and the secon part with Dwarf and Wizard cards. Here are the videos he posted but I suggest you to have a look and subscribe to his channel because he has a lot of interesting contents related to HeroQuest, both old and new editions.

Part 1 - Barbarian & Elf:

Part 2 - Dwarf & Wizard: