Ye Olde Inn

After moving things around, I decided to play around with removing some wording and whatnot, since I think the images kinda speak for themselves in this context, or at lest with minimal explanation beforehand. Here's some more tweaks also trying to incorporate your feedback as well as add some twists:

Both of those are huge improvement. I do prefer the staggered one.

A few more things:
The boot looks better the other way, i only mentioned to flip it so you could place the number closer, like you had originally done but on the other side.
If the boot is kept as a central stat it would sit nicer more further down.
As Shortsword sit further in from the edge, it should still have the same central point as Starting items.
When I mentioned the bold on 'actions:' This would still need to stay consistent with tumble, trained. It looked better bold.

When it was explained to me, it was described as invisible lines that hold the structure of your design together. In your design one falls all the way down the left hand side right through the middle of the scales, through the starting items, which all together is still a little off.

With this in mind

I think the images kinda speak for themselves in this context, or at lest with minimal explanation beforehand

'Training level' 'Training cost' might also be removable. If keeping them, the position is a lot better but a side alignment, rather than central might look better.

Do you prefer the searches all separated? We prefer the UK original edition, Traps and Secret doors combined, Treasure separate. We also limit searches for treasure to 1 per room + amount of furniture. Now furniture has more purpose. If it doesn't have a Quest specific, which would take 1 of the searches, the Hero can pick a card from the deck. The weapons rack, enables searching the weapons deck. Sorcerers table enables inscribing a spell scroll and still gives the room an extra search.

I add "Treasure Search: A room not searched for traps, featuring a trap, will trigger the trap. Place the Hero on the trapped square, don't pick a card.

Here's some reasoning.
Searching for treasure with out searching for traps is a careless, "whats that there, grab it". or "something might be in that draw, there's no time, quick". Traps and secret doors could mainly be the same thing, visible cracks, levers, ropes, lil holes etc. discovering them, is it a trap or secret door? activate it and you find out. One could argue that searching a room for traps would equally find treasure, who's to say it didn't but before you pick the card (move over to the treasure) you're checking over the room first. It takes 2 heroes or 1 hero more time, 2 turns so this fits perfectly thematically.

I forgot to respond to an earlier question: I always played that each action can only be done once, like in the original rules as far as I know.

When I played last, we actually combined searching for traps and secret doors. I liked it well enough, although I have mixed feelings about it in general. It just seems odd to me that it necessitates busywork and rewards people taking extra time to search for traps and stuff. There's simply no reason for anyone to progress further without first checking for traps/secret doors, so the game has an unwritten rule that the first person to enter a hallway or room immediately ends their turn. I wonder if there's a way to make searching a kind of mini-game of sorts.

Here's an updated image attempting to get things as lined up as possible, and also rearranging things on the back so that it's even less important to label the training table.

Whoa--that's an army of Heroes! I like how you limited a couple of upgrades on the back of the cards. A dump like that isn't likely to see individual attention to everything by anyone but yourself, but I'll throw in for a bit.

A series of Heroes (Bounty Hunter to Inquisitor) have a choice of any two actions in a turn, though you seem to have dropped it as a rule. Dropping was the right choice, I'd say. Have you also dropped (=Items) under Attack and (=Items+2) under defend? I see what you're getting at, but to me those notations serve more to clutter than anything else. They're your cards, however, so your call.

My feeling is the alignment medallions are too prominent. That info need only be referenced when choosing a Hero, so why not try shrinking it down to the same size as the other icons? The extra space gained can be added above the alignment icon and below the equip information for more open bordering.

I best like the clear background training table. I also like it placed at the bottom of the card, though I'd add a bit more space below it.

A sticking point for me isn't necessarily a problem in a homebrew campaign, but the always-functioning combat dice bonuses from training for the Acrobat, Barbarian, Golem, and Monk may be a bit high if you plan to use the published material. The Apprentice bonus begins somewhere in KK or RotWL with no imbalance. Journeyman perhaps starts in the EQP with 5 AD and 3, 5 or 6, 5, and 6 DD for these Heroes, while the jump to Master around The Dark Company sees 6 or 7 AD and 3, 5 or 6, 6, and 8 DD. With little or no use for equipment, the Golem and Monk training begins even earlier. The Acrobat's lower DD helps to balance things out, but the Monk's initial weakness (not fun for the player) is only a temporary balance against later melee dominance (not fun for others.) The Golem and Monk limit against bows helps a bit.

Earlier in the thread, you had asked about the purpose of random movement. One key in Hero Quest is the red dice function as an initiative system when combat is initiated. Heroes with high rolls move in and strike first. Slower Heroes often don't get to attack until after the monsters. Beyond that, random movement tends to separate Heroes in the corridors. Sure, they can regroup at a door, but not everybody prefers to wait on this tactic. Morcar/Zargon event decks were created to discourage this tactic, among other things.

Finally, some suggested edits:

Capitalize all occurrences of quest on the backs of the Alchemist, Aquamancer, Bard, Beastmaster, Cleric, Courtesan, Dark Elf, Druid, Geomancer, Golem, Pyromancer, Soceress, Witch Doctor, and Wizard cards.

BARD: add Instrument to the starting item icon.

DEMOLITIONIST: You may want to add in something like Blasting Powder.

HALFLING: Rotisserie--Yikes! What are Healthy Rations?

WITCH DOCTOR: Under Voodoo, change "questh" to Quest.

Thanks, this is great feedback. I actually think that almost all of my leveling system will probably make characters way overpowered and imbalanced for the source material, which is why I'm writing my own quest arc from beginning to end. If I were to use these characters in base HQ, I'd probably keep the starting abilities and throw out the extra levels option. Additionally, for the plot I have in mind, players start as the base character types and get opportunities to transform into the other characters as a type of multi-classing.

In regards to items, I intend to make cards for items that have more information on them, like weapon types, how many hands they require, and whatnot. You're right, though, that I forgot the label on the bard's starting item, it should have "Lute" on it. The lute card will have "instrument" listed as its type. Also, in the disinterest of clutter, I'm removing a lot of the info on character cards about what kinds of items they can use and instead I'm putting body point requirements and mind point requirements on the items themselves. For instance, you need to have 6+ BP to use a broadsword, or you need to have 4+ MP to use magical scrolls. I can easily represent this on the armory chart and item cards with symbols.

I like the idea of blasting powder, I'll probable make it as an item at some point. Rations (I changed the item name in the new character card) heal 1 BP and expire at the end of the quest if unused. Poultices heal 1d4 BP and expire at the end of the quest. Guns, which will only be usable by the gunslinger and introduced much later in the game, are ranged weapons that can also attack close range.

I added a potential insta-kill ability to the inquisitor. I figure I can make certain bosses immune to effects like that for more advanced bosses that I don't want the players to be able to kill too easily.

As for your other suggestions, some of them I've addressed and others, such as capitalization and formatting of the leveling box, I'm still on the fence about. My internet connection is terrible at the moment, but I'll try to upload newer versions of the characters later today.

Well, I hope future Hero Cards won't use photobucket, as they've screwed us over and changed to pay-only for sharing on the internet!

Well, that was abrupt and rude of photobucket. Any other suggestions for where I can host the images? I think I've seen people use imgur before.

OK, based on all the feedback and some more ideas, I have updated the original character images at the beginning of the thread.

Also, some item ideas I've had thus far, that are referenced on the character dashboards:

Panacea - Consumable - Heal 1 BP and 1 MP. This item expires at the end of the quest
Ration - Consumable - Heal 1 BP. This item expires at the end of the quest.
Plague Mask - Helmet - You are immune to poison and gas.
Short Bow - Bow - 1 attack, ranged attack but can't attack adjacent foes. Sale value of 75 gold. Requires 5+ BP to equip.
Short Mallet - Mace - 2 attack. Sale value of 75 gold. Requires 5+ BP to equip.
Club - Mace - 2 attack, sale value of 0 gold. Requires 5+ BP to equip.
Short Spear - Polearm - 1 attack, you can attack diagonally. Requires 5+ BP to equip.
Lute - Instrument

Ahhh. I like the idea of BP being what you use to equip certain weapons. I use this for carry capacity and thrown distance but never thought about it being the mechanic for if you can use a weapon or not. I will have to work this into my set.