30 Years Later, Catan Cements Its Status As A Classic

Thirty years in, Settlers of Catan has cemented its status as a classic — up there with Monopoly, Uno, or Clue. And like those three titans of tabletop gaming, Settlers has its share of worthy special editions and expansions.

For its 30th anniversary, Catan has a sixth edition set that is brimming with expansions including Seafarers, Traders & Barbarians, Cities & Knights, and Explorers and Pirates. If you’re a Settlers fan and game night has become a little stale, you’re in luck.

I got to test out the Barbarians and Traders expansion with some friends, introducing a layer of complexity to the otherwise standard game. In this expansion, we had to feed knights to fend off invaders, and devote points to a skill tree system that could end up being the decisive force in the game’s final hours. The complex instructions proved confusing to us on our first playthrough ( you could say it livened things up). Keeping barbarians at bay and feeding your knights while juggling all the standard strategy of Catan is a fun challenge, one that proved a little too much for us on our first play. The top two players of our game were ultimately exposed for having accidentally cheated, so that our last place player ended up being the unexpected winner, after all. How’s that for a dinner party trick?

The franchise also just announced a new mini On The Road version for travelers, shrinking the gameplay down to a bite-sized 15 minutes. In time for Catan’s anniversary, I chatted with Catan director Kevin Hovdestad and managing director Benjamin Teuber about how to unpack the myriad of expansions, how to deal with the complicated directions, and sharing some of the funniest playtesting stories.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

There are so many Catan expansions in the sixth edition anniversary set. For players who already know the base game, what would you highlight as the most exciting changes?

Kevin Hovdestad: The sixth edition of Catan and its expansions take a fresh approach to the game’s visual style and includes a ton of quality of life improvements, but it’s the same game our players know. We’ve completely rewritten the rules in native English to make the game more approachable, included card trays to make sorting components and playing the game easier, and so, so much more.

For players who have enjoyed classic Catan over the last 30 years, but are interested in branching out and seeing more of what the game has to offer, we typically recommend they start with the Seafarers expansion. It adds some great new rules and mechanics (sailing ships!) without a ton of additional complexity or playtime.

“Don’t wear yourself out playing — it’s for fun.”

My playgroup found the new rules for the Barbarians expansion complex, and two of the players accidentally cheated by misinterpreting them. Did you anticipate this complexity, and how do you balance creating deep new rules with keeping them intuitive?

Hovdestad: The eternal struggle! We’re always trying to give players options to expand and fine-tune their gameplay experiences, but introducing depth without adding complexity is always a challenge. With the sixth edition of Catan, we wanted to invest in making our rules more approachable, but there will probably always be an upper boundary on how much content some people want in their games, and we’re grateful that the original Catan is enormously popular among those kinds of players. We do try to test our rules and their revisions with players of different skill levels and familiarities to improve them every time we update a product.

For many, Catan is an ‘infamous’ long and hard game that strains friendships. How do you feel about that reputation, and does it influence the game’s design?

Hovdestad: We hear the opposite so much, about how Catan is the one game everyone is willing to play at the family table, so it’s hard to say. A lot of how people experience games ultimately comes down to how competitive they are, so some groups have a different experience than what we typically see or expect. Catan has endured for so long because it’s so easy to learn, approachable, and dynamic, so its design hasn’t evolved much, but as we make new games we do think about the experiences different play groups might prefer (shorter games, more complex games, etc.).

After a long game, players often want a rematch but lack the stamina. Do you have any advice for such players?

Hovdestad: One of the strengths of the original Catan design is its replayability. A lot of players we know will pass around a small local “trophy” so they can keep track of who won last when they set up again. Don’t wear yourself out playing, though — it’s for fun.

For a player who has mastered the base game, what journey through the expansions would you recommend?

Hovdestad: Different expansions (or standalone Catan experiences, like Catan - New Energies) appeal to different players. If you like the idea of expanding upon the original Catan, we often suggest Catan - Seafarers as a good first expansion to branch out with; if you prefer a standalone alternative, we’ve gotten a lot of enthusiastic, positive feedback about our most recent standalone game, Catan - New Energies, which plays like the original game but in a modern setting.

Let's talk about the new expansion's difficulty/target audience. Who did you design it for — the hyper-competitive player, a casual family group, or someone in between?

Hovdestad: Every Catan game is a little bit different. Some expansions cater to people who want new mechanics or a more immersive setting, while others offer great tactical depth to someone who is accustomed to a range of complex games. We try to keep families in mind with most of our products, but there truly is a Catan for every type of player.

“My mother ... stopped playing because she said she still had three washing machines to fill and really didn’t have time for this.”

Could you share a favorite personal story from a playtesting session — something that went brilliantly right or perhaps hilariously wrong?

Benjamin Teuber: Developing a board game takes months, sometimes even years. Just getting the very first prototype on to the table is a huge step — many ideas get stuck much earlier and never see the light of day. We’ve experienced it all, from test groups who tried to stay respectful but because the game worked so poorly, suddenly broke into uncontrollable fits of laughter; or my mother, who stopped playing because she said she still had three washing machines to fill and really didn’t have time for this.

Those are tough moments sometimes, but since we knew the iterative process usually takes 20-50 different versions, we also understood that it’s completely normal. As a designer, when testing prototypes, you’re constantly asking yourself: where does it get stuck, what still doesn’t feel right… or wait, did someone just pull out their phone to read messages? You know the game is finally ready when you catch yourself playing for fun, when you actually want to win, when there are no more rough edges you feel like fixing, and all the phones stay in people’s pockets. Those are golden moments. And together with the final moment of holding a fully produced game in your hands, they’re the absolute highlights.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about for the future of Catan?

Teuber: Fresh off the heels of the release of our sixth edition of Catan and its core expansions, we’re moving into a future where we want to make Catan even more approachable. The original game remains a staple that’s found a home with a new generation of players, but we’re constantly looking for more ways to introduce the Catan brand to new audiences.