'Allo John, got a new motor!

Another variant for Merchant of Venus

Long time afficianardos of 'Merchant of Venus' will be aware of the varient rules that appeared in the Avalon Hill house magazine 'The General'(Volume 26, Number 1). In part of the article the game's designer, Richard Hamblen, proposed that each race would produce custom ships for the relevant player incorporating some of the idiosyncrasies of each race. While the idea is basically sound I have always felt a player should never be blessed/penalised simply because they chose the wrong colour at the start of the game. What I propose is that when found, each player race will offer an option to customise a ship. Rules for customised ships from the General remain unchanged except where detailed below.

The cost of an upgrade is equal to the trade in value of the ship being upgraded(eg $60 to upgrade a clipper to a rocket clipper. Later you want to change to a torch clipper, find the Quossoth and pay another $60 for the upgrade

An upgrade counts as a purchase Exception If you are buying a new ship you can get the upgrade included if you pay the additional cost.

Florian Unger has designed some excellent ship cards.
Download the Variant ship cards at http://www.spielwerkstatt.org/news_e.html

Yes I know I could easily make the above a link but the underscore is lost in the underline.