Merchant of Venus uses many elements which come together to form a very interesting game. Players take on the roles of space traders who move their ships through interconnected systems discovering new alien worlds to trade with. As players start to make money delivering commodities in a unique supply-and-demand system, their earnings can be used to purchase better ships and equipment (shields, lasers, engines, etc...) and construct their own spaceports (which speed up trading) and factories (which create better commodities). Variations included in the rulebook allow for interplayer combat. The player who first acquires enough total value ($1000, $2000, $3000, $4000) in cash and port/factory deeds takes the day.

For the 2012 edition of Merchant of Venus from Fantasy Flight Games, the company promises that this revision "remains true to its magnificently campy core while updating the map and game components and expanding game play in surprising ways that will cause even the most hardcore fan to celebrate." That said, the player count has been lowered from six (in the Avalon Hill edition) to four, with the four races in the game being Human, Whynom, Qossuth, and Eeepeeep.

Reimplements

• Merchant of Venus

Components

• Two Rulebooks
• One Game board
• 4 Merchant Ships
• 4 Ship Stands
• 8 Dial Connectors
• Two Sorts of sheets:
  • 4 Dashboard Sheets
  • 8 Ship Class Sheets
• Two different Dice:
  • 4 Speed Dice (white, six-sided)
  • 1 Effect Die (purple, six-sided)
• 120 different Cards:
  • 42 Encounter Cards
  • 8 Pilot Cards
  • 10 Challenge Cards
  • 14 First Contact Cards
  • 1 First Player Card
  • 20 Mission Cards
  • 25 Reward Cards
• 496 different Tokens:
  • 12 Blue Dot/Asteroid Tokens
  • 8 Cargo Hold Indicator Tokens
  • 103 Credit Tokens
  • 28 Demand Tokens
  • 6 Drive Tokens
  • 35 Encounter Tokens
  • 14 Factory Goods Tokens
  • 14 Factory Demand Tokens
  • 25 Fame/Infamy Tokens
  • 76 Goods Tokens
  • 42 Market Tokens
  • 8 Mission Tokens
  • 15 Passenger Tokens
  • 8 Pirate Tokens
  • 8 Shield Tokens
  • 2 Production Round Tokens
  • 34 Racial Technology Tokens
  • 48 Merchant Spaceport/Drill Tokens
  • 14 Culture Tokens
  • 24 Spaceport Deed Tokens
• 8 Resource Pointers
• 8 Resource Pointer Washers
• 1 Round Marker

Microbadge for the FFG remake
Merchant of Venus fan

Card Sleeves

• @78 Mini-American 41 x 63mm (1 5/8" x 2 1/2")
• @42 American 57 x 89mm (2 1/4" x 3 1/2")

Learn rules via mp3
How To Play Podcast - Episode 43: Merchant of Venus - 1h 16min