Catan’s New Edition Still Wants To Be Your Gateway To Tabletop Gaming

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2025 will be the 30th year since the introduction of Catan, a popular multiplayer board game, and it’s scheduled to receive its sixth update this April. This is the first significant change in nearly a decade, with the fifth edition, which changed the game’s name from The Settlers of Catan to simply Catan, being released in June 2015. As Catan turns 30, designers aim to preserve its status as an essential gateway for people new to the world of tabletop gaming and experiencing the delight that comes with playing these games.

Benjamin Teuber, managing director and game designer, explained to me how they maintain the appeal of an old game like Catan, despite gaming advancements over 30 years. ‘The gaming world is constantly evolving, with numerous excellent games emerging every year,’ he said. ‘Yet, Catan continues to sell well, suggesting that there’s still something special about it.’ He attributes this to the continuous influx of new players entering the hobby, and Catan seemingly serving as an introduction for many.

In Teuber’s opinion, the age of Catan – at 30 years old – holds no significance. Even as some players may eventually migrate towards more intricate or specialized tabletop games, for a newcomer, Catan remains an exciting, fresh experience. Teuber shared a heartwarming tale with me about Michael Palm, the developer of Village Romance, contacting him to play Catan with his child. During their game, the youngster exclaimed, “Klaus Teuber is the coolest game creator!” – Klaus being Benjamin’s father and the inventor of Catan.

30 years have passed since the game was first introduced, but Teuber asserts that this doesn’t make it any less enjoyable or relevant for a 10-year-old newcomer. He questions why playing Catan should be any worse now than it was three decades ago. The game still encompasses elements that people cherish in role-playing games, such as farming, trading, socializing, and construction. In essence, the game remains a timeless favorite and continues to serve as an introduction to tabletop gaming for many.

For individuals who haven’t played Catan yet, the game involves assuming the role of settlers aiming to establish a new home on a fictional island named Catan. During their turn, players roll dice to discover the resources available near land they own, which can then be utilized to construct infrastructure and roads. Resources can also be traded with other players, stolen, or used to create armies, offering chances to forge alliances or backstab friends. As each player’s settlement expands, they accumulate points. The first player to reach 10 points is declared the winner.

For this version, Catan won’t undergo significant changes in its core rules. However, the rules will be refined and presented in a fresh layout to make them clearer and simpler for players to understand. Additionally, you’ll notice that the overall appearance of the game has been updated as well.

Kevin Hovdestad, the director of brand development, shared with me that mechanically, there are no alterations from the fifth edition to the sixth. The aim was to ensure continuity for players, so someone picking up the new version due to its fresh art, new boxes, or as a gift, would still find a familiar gaming experience. The only modification made to the rules was to make them more user-friendly for beginners; this includes using more images and fewer words, and structuring them in a way that allows quicker comprehension. Instead of detailed explanations like in old-school manuals, visual explanations are now provided for a speedier understanding.

In the sixth edition of Catan, the artwork appears significantly brighter and transports the game’s atmosphere to a slightly advanced and geographically diverse setting, moving it away from Europe during the pre-Industrial Revolution era. Although it remains before the Industrial Revolution, the game no longer confines players to a purely medieval time period with strong Western European undertones.

Teuber commented, “My wife and others have mentioned that Catan feels too medieval for their taste. They prefer something with more life and a sense of an imagined world. For over a decade, people have said that Catan doesn’t connect to a specific story, but instead, they project themselves onto an uninhabited island. With this feedback in mind, we’ve made the sixth edition less European-centric, which I find appealing.

Hovdestad stated that the recent improvements in the art have attracted more players to the game. He noted that they’ve skillfully progressed beyond the initial design, resulting in an array of diverse characters with various poses, clothing styles, and brighter visuals overall, adding depth and vibrancy to the gaming experience.

For someone like me who values a visually pleasing gaming corner and seeks organization, the new edition is particularly attractive as it simplifies keeping all expansions in one compact space. According to Hovdestad, the latest Catan base game and its expansion sets, such as Seafarers or Cities & Knights, will now fit neatly inside the original box. This means you can consolidate them, and they’ll all stack together. All of the boxes will have a uniform size and shape. The card trays that are included in the sixth edition base game are long-awaited, as they address a demand that has been around for quite some time. Essentially, the company is streamlining the process by creating what fans have been making themselves for years.

The sixth edition of Settlers of Catan is scheduled for release in Spring 2025, and pre-orders are already available. According to Hovdestad, the production teams have really outdone themselves with this game. While updates can sometimes seem superficial, the changes made to the packaging design and contents have allowed them to reduce the game’s price. Interestingly, the sixth edition will be cheaper than the fifth edition, despite being a new release in 2025. In these times of rising costs for everything from food to housing to taxes, it’s hard not to take advantage of such an opportunity.

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2025-01-25 02:09