Settlers allows players to produce resources, build roads and settlements, buy "development cards," and trade with one another. Each game begins with a shuffling of the board tiles, producing a wholly different board each time. Invented by German designer Klaus Teuber in the mid-1990s, Settlers of Catan involves three or four players building settlements, trading resources, and racing to earn 10 victory points. As a result, says Weisberg, "with a little luck, a sharp new player always has a chance to beat an expert." Adam Weisberg, a finalist in the 2006 Settlers of Catan US Championship, notes that the game "is easy to learn because it draws on equal parts strategy, gamesmanship and luck." The rules give you enough choices to keep it interesting, without so many as to make it overwhelming. Part of Settlers' success can be attributed to its well-designed gameplay. Carty said that the game is mainly played by families, but it's also popular on college campuses and as a team-bonding activity at companies. "Settlers is three to five years away from being a household word." Last year alone, the game's sales grew 35 percent. "The start of the tipping point was 2008," said Bob Carty, a spokesman for Settlers manufacturer Mayfair Games. It wasn't until a decade later that the game's popularity began to blossom. With sales nearing 25 million copies worldwide, Settlers of Catan is becoming the most popular board game since Risk and Monopoly.Īfter Settlers was first released in 1995, a small but passionate following emerged. Over the past few years, Settlers of Catan has transformed from an activity enjoyed by a small niche of gamers into a mainstream hit. In an era of Xboxes and Wiis, my gift ranked just above a framed photo of the gift-giver and just below nose hair clippers.īut multiple marathon gaming sessions later, Settlers of Catan stole my heart. Instead, I was staring down at a board game: Settlers of Catan. The game became a family business.Last Christmas, I tore the wrapping paper off a rectangular box, expecting at best I'd see an iPad, at worst a Kindle. Teuber never thought his game would become so successful he finally left his dental technician job in 1998 "when I felt like Catan could feed me and my family," he told the New Yorker. This was my own world I created." In the multi-player game, competitors use five resources to build their colonies, or settlements: wool, grain, lumber, brick, and ore. "I had many problems with the company and the profession,” he said. Teuber, born in June 1952, was working as a dental technician in the 1980s outside the industrial city of Darmstadt when he took up designing board games in his basement, he told the New Yorker in 2014. A statement from the Catan studio team on social media noted that "While Klaus’ contributions to the board gaming industry are immeasurable, we will remember him most as a kind and selfless human being, an inspirational leader, and most importantly, as a friend," the AP reports. "It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that the Teuber family announces their beloved husband and father Klaus Teuber passed away at the age of 70 on Apafter a short and serious illness," said the statement posted on the German-language Catan website.
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