Ye Olde Inn

For a long time I've wondered about using a card shuffler for Hero Quest cards. When I was a kid my great grandma had a battery powered one that had little rubber rollers that would grab the cards and toss them into a pile.

I'm no "cardist" but I don't like bending these cards, although shuffling is called for, and I want to give them a good shuffle.

I did some research and learned they sell fairly cheap shufflers that use a hand crank ("manual") and I thought maybe this would be "safer" for my antique cards.

I do currently sleeve both my homebrew and my vintage original HeroQuest cards in Monster US Game size (100 micron) sleeves (American Standard size). The sleeves are clear and glossy (a bit slippery) but I imagine having matte finish sleeves would work just as well (maybe better).

After testing it with my homebrew cards only (still inside the sleeves) I worked up the courage to test my antique cards and didn't notice any damage, scuffing, etc. from putting them through several times.

How much card shuffling you will actually do with HeroQuest is a matter of some debate. At the very least you'll be shuffling the Treasure cards at the start of each quest (possibly before each search, or maybe just after drawing a "bad" card). I use a custom deck that consists now of 70 cards (and I remove the good cards as they are discovered). Splitting it up into two piles of 35, it works pretty well if you go a decent pace, and if it jams (it does every so often) I just stop and turn the crank back to reset it and then go forward again. This may not be the best one but I'm pretty pleased with how well it works.

For $12.95 I got the shuffler, some tacky looking Vegas stickers (not attached, so I tossed them back in the box, maybe I'll craft some HeroQuest stickers for fun to decorate it with) and two sealed decks of generic playing cards (which I don't need). It came with three hand cranks, implying there's a high failure rate or tend to get lost. In any case, I'm posting here in case this is useful info for anyone here.

I haven't had the courage to try it with the "naked" cards and probably won't. Running the deck through the shuffler about 7 times seems to give them a pretty good distribution. I have smaller decks that I shuffle as well (Evil Wizard: 26; Potions: 40; Combat: 18/18 for Chaos & Heroes; Equipment: 34; Scrolls/Alchemist: 21; Parley: 25).

Here's a pic of the (57x89mm) sleeves I used in the test ($12.99 for two packs of 100; 200 total; on Amzn). I kind of didn't like them at first. I originally sleeved all my cards with UltraPro Matte sleeves standard size which had matte on one side and clear on the other which were really nice... but they're a bit too wide for the shuffler and too wide without bending to fit in the card trays I got to organize things for actual play, they have sharp corners (no "paper cuts" yet but we'll see how that goes in winter when skin is drier), but their stiffness and such almost gives the feel of lamination (just not permanent!) and they're very clear (the old matte sleeves covered up some of the fuzzy images I used in some of the homebrew cards... I guess have to strive for higher level of quality!).

None of this is intended to be advertising. I just want you to know what I used. Maybe there are some even better solutions out there.

WARNING: Here is how to "scratch" a card. See those plastic guides on the inside? If you get a jam and instead of backtracking, just "force" the stuck cards through, there will be a faint scuff line on the sleeve on the jammed cards (because it is now press against the the plastic guide). So if they get stuck, instantly stop and backtrack to reset to avoid this. Thankfully I use the sleeves, so no marks on any cards from that test! Thinner sleeves probably jam a lot less often. I suppose a truly enterprising soul could cover those guides with cloth or something to make it impossible to scratch (I don't think paint or sanding would do the trick) but the new material might make it easier to jam.

My only concern with a shuffler would be risk of card damage, and I guess sleeves solve that. How are those sleeves? The ones I'm using are Arcane Tinman Board Games Sleeves: Medium (Non-Glare) 57X89Mm, Clear and they're all right.

I have the matte version of the above you've got. The sharp corners and thickness take some getting used to, but I really wish there was one that size with "matte on one side clear on the other" thing that the UltraPros had. When pulling big handfuls of cards out of my deck boxes, I have to be careful not to drop them all over the floor (slippery).

The homebrew cards are superior smooth so they really don't "need" sleeves, but I like how they make everything "equal" (homebrew cards are 1 mm shorter on the top than vintage originals).

That's why I intend to print the original cards as well despite having no need to do so.