Merchant of Venus

Reach for the Stars, and your Wallet

There is a trend in contemporary games towards bigger boxes. Huge boxes with nice miniatures and built in storage. Spruced up plastic components have replaced small wooden cubes, which had previously replaced small card board chits. Decades ago I noted that games had shot past the $50 barrier, and now some kickstarters go all in for $400 or more. And while I don’t personally like this, I guess plenty of people do, Where there’s a demand, someone will rush in and fulfill it to make a buck.

I mean, that’s a universal truth, right? And it’s a big universe.

Avalon Hill Edition. Photo by Gustavo Jornet

Richard Hamblen’s Merchant of Venus couples a nice spare-faring theme, but at it’s heart this is the same story as the East India Trading Company, the Hanseatic Shipping League, or the Silk Road. A distant place has stuff that another distant place wants, and will pay well for. The “Pick up and Deliver” genre was established prior to Merchant of Venus¹.

But Merchant of Venus also has an exploration element. The base map stays the same, but the culture’s locations are randomized² … players will jaunt off various areas looking for a culture, getting some starting money from First Contact, and then loading their spaceship with goods that can be taken and sold. Not every culture wants every good — for example Humanity’s main export are Music Videos³, but a few species will pay nicely for them. Or you can ship Bionic Perfume, Immortal Grease, Impossible Furniture, or whatever.

If you get really lucky, you might find three (or four) nearby clusters that make a loop, where you can go A to B to C and back to A. But even then, supply and demand is tricky. B might always want A’s stuff, but there is a bag of chits and once something is sold it goes back into the bag, and is unavailable to be bought until it gets re-drawn.

As you get money you can spend it to build space stations, or improve your ship⁴, or even set up your own factories to produce more exotic goods with higher margins. Soon your little “Uber for Space Junk” side hustle has turned into a nice little enterprise, and once you have a big enough enterprise, you win. It’s a big universe, everyone can make money, but who will get to retire first?

A Game in session (although with non-standard components). Photo and Components by Scott Everts.

The original Merchant of Venus was a decidedly sparse production. Functional, but not much to look at. Cardboard chits⁵, few graphics, paper money. A more recent edition⁶ improved the components, and there is are small groups of people creating print-and-play sets to make the game nicer to play. All of which speaks to how good Merchant of Venus is.

Having played on a nicer set recently; it really does add to my enjoyment. I guess there’s something to those big-money kickstarters. But Merchant of Venus plays perfectly fine with small, clumsy cardboard.

While not the first “pick up and deliver” game, Merchant of Venus also boasts an interesting market mechanism, novel board design and movement rules. The 50th Anniversary of the original release is just a few years away, and while there are thousands of “Pick up and Deliver” games, and dozens or hundreds that predate it, few have done it better than Merchant of Venus, which is why I think it is worthy of consideration as one of the 100 Most Influential Games of the 20th Century.

1. For example, Empire Builder has this as a strong component (along with building up your rail network). I’m sure there are plenty of obscure games that predate it.

2. Along with some random spaces which might include hazards, lost relics or shortcuts called “Tele-gates.”

3. This game was made in the 1980s.

4. Do you want more speed? More Cargo Space? Better shields to avoid having to slowdown for hazards or pay for repairs? There’s even a combat optional rule, though I can’t say I’ve ever met someone who likes it.

5. With no graphics, just words!

6. In fact two companies announced a new edition around 2010-2012, only for each to discover that the other company thought they owned the rights. Thankfully, they worked it out amicably enough. You don’t get rich by fighting!