Klaus Teuber, Creator of the Board Game Catan, Dies at 70 (nytimes.com) 21
Klaus Teuber, who 28 years ago created The Settlers of Catan, an enduringly popular board game that has spawned college intramural teams and international tournaments, been name-checked on "South Park" and "Parks and Recreation," inspired a novel and sold some 40 million copies worldwide, died on Saturday. He was 70. From a report: Catan GmbH, which publishes and licenses the game, now known simply as Catan, posted news of his death on its website. It said only that he died after a short illness and did not say where. Mr. Teuber was managing a dental lab, a job he found stressful, when he began designing games as a way to unwind. "In the beginning, these games were just for me," he told Forbes in 2016. "I always have stories in my head -- I would read a book, and if I liked it, I wanted to experience it as a game."
That was the origin of his first big success, a game called Barbarossa, which grew out of his admiration for "The Riddle-Master" trilogy, fantasy books written in the 1970s by Patricia A. McKillip. "I was sorry to see it come to an end," he told The New Yorker in 2014, "so I tried to experience this novel in a game." In 1988 that game won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in Germany, considered the most prestigious award in the board game world, Germany being particularly enthusiastic about board games. He won that award twice more, in 1990 (for Hoity Toity) and in 1991 (for Wacky Wacky West), before scoring his biggest success with what was known in German as Die Siedler von Catan. In that game, players build settlements in a new land by collecting brick, lumber, wool, ore and grain. Trading with other players is part of the strategy, lending a social element to the game play. In 1995 the game won both the game of the year award and the Deutscher Spiele Preis, the German Games Award. It caught on, first in Germany and then, as editions in other languages became available, all over.
That was the origin of his first big success, a game called Barbarossa, which grew out of his admiration for "The Riddle-Master" trilogy, fantasy books written in the 1970s by Patricia A. McKillip. "I was sorry to see it come to an end," he told The New Yorker in 2014, "so I tried to experience this novel in a game." In 1988 that game won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in Germany, considered the most prestigious award in the board game world, Germany being particularly enthusiastic about board games. He won that award twice more, in 1990 (for Hoity Toity) and in 1991 (for Wacky Wacky West), before scoring his biggest success with what was known in German as Die Siedler von Catan. In that game, players build settlements in a new land by collecting brick, lumber, wool, ore and grain. Trading with other players is part of the strategy, lending a social element to the game play. In 1995 the game won both the game of the year award and the Deutscher Spiele Preis, the German Games Award. It caught on, first in Germany and then, as editions in other languages became available, all over.
He stole Catan! (Score:2, Funny)
It was an obvious ripoff of the classic Mystic Warlords of Ka'a
https://bigbangtheory.fandom.com/wiki/Mystic_Warlords_of_Ka'a [fandom.com]
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Big Bang Theory came out in 2007. Catan came out in 1995. Stop making baseless accusations.
Re: He stole Catan! (Score:2)
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Big Bang Theory came out in 2007. Catan came out in 1995. Stop making baseless accusations.
That, "whoosh," you just heard was Poe's Law coming into play...
Nice quote in the linked article: (Score:2, Interesting)
Mr. Teuber was asked why he thought Catan was so popular.
“There may have been a good balance between strategy and luck,” he said. “For example, roulette is only about luck, and chess is all about strategies. However, if you win in Catan, you think, ‘My strategy was good,’ and when you lose, you might think, ‘I was just out of luck.’ This is the same as life.”
"
To put a political twist on that:
The right think poor people are bad
It was okay but (Score:2)
I don't see why it became so super popular. Shrug. I didn't hate it. I didn't have a bad time playing it with friends. But never got that feeling of "omg I simply must play catan tonight!!!" that my buddies had.
For you fans, what is it about catan I'm not getting that you love so much?
Re:It was okay but (Score:5, Insightful)
It is relatively short, it has no player elimination, it has all players interacting on the every turn (not just their own), it is quick to learn, and strategies are not immediately obvious.
It has some major downsides for regular players, particularly that the base game is effectively won or lost in the setup phase before the first actual turn. An experienced player will be able to predict the winner from the starting positions.
Compared to modern boardgames it is mediocre, but for many it was the first real board game beyond Monopoly, and as such it was a true revolution.
The Seafarers expansion makes it a longer and more luck-based exploration game (depending on scenario), and that can be fun.
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Experienced players should always be helping newer players with their setup.
Great point about Seafarers. Fog Island is excellent for neutralizing map advantage.
Traders and Barbarians has an excellent mod, Barbarians Attack, which encourages players working together. Great for adding a human element that can also help mitigate experienced player advantages.
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It has some major downsides for regular players, particularly that the base game is effectively won or lost in the setup phase before the first actual turn. An experienced player will be able to predict the winner from the starting positions.
This is the reason we stopped playing in my house. The premise of the game, especially the duration of a game, is appealing, but there will ultimately be a time when the base game stops being fun.
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My favorite is always
"Anyone want to trade wood for sheep?"
"Yup, here you go..."
"Nono, I want to trade YOUR wood for MY sheep..."
"In that case, no."
Re:It was okay but (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically, in 1995, it came out around the time when most people's idea of board games came from the set of [Monopoly, Risk, Clue, Battleship], with Monopoly being the one people typically played during "board game night". As anyone knows, Monopoly is not the pinnacle of board games, and when broken down further, it's actually a really bad board game in many respects - player elimination, your game is totally dependent on luck, and it isn't fun. Of this, luck is a big one in that there's very little player choice involved - there's no real strategy and no real way to avoid bad luck. If you started up multiple monopoly games with the same set of die rolls, you'll end up with very similar outcomes at the end.
Catan came out during this period of ignorance in board games and it was so refreshingly different from Monopoly and the others that it was actually FUN. There was strategy, planning, a little luck (but nothing that couldn't be overcome) etc.
The thing is, it's 25 years later, and board games have matured greatly from that - Catan was groundbreaking in its time but now techniques, strategies and methods have been refined over the decades where Catan is there mostly because of name recognition alone. But there are far better games and a greater variety of games out there nowadays that make Catan no longer the go-to game it once was.
Heck 25 years ago, Hasbro, Parker Brothers and such were the big names in board games. These days, even stores like Target and Walmart carry games from the Asmodee conglomerate as well as many smaller publishers, leading to plethora of games we have today that cover pretty much any mood, theme, player count, etc. The pandemic also supercharged a small group of "solo" games - games playable by one player - where many multiplayer games got adapted to solo play, as well as many games being created for solo play.
And why play a solo board game over say, a video game? Well, if you want to unplug, or not stare at a screen, that's why. Or if you want to familiarize yourself with a game you want to introduce to friends, playing solo is a way. Plus you can help refine game strategy if you're the kind of person (like me) who usually ends up losing and wants to get better.
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Ok that makes sense.
I grew up playing Avalon Hill board games from a verrry young age which did have a small element of luck but strategy was critical.
Replaying the entire DDay invasion in detail (and losing as the Allies, btw) was uh educational. My uncle assigned the Americans to my brother, I got the rest of the allied forces. And then the fighting began. More on the allied side than vs the Germans as I kept telling my brother to bomb the beaches instead of wasting his bombers on the reinforcement tra
Love this game (Score:2)
I know Settlers is sometimes looked down on a bit by "hardcore" strategy board gamers but it helped bring several members of my core group of friends into board gaming for the first time. Since then I have enjoyed countless hours smoking weed and playing Settlers with them over the last couple of decades and most of the group even went on to play other games as well so it really helped bring them into the strategy board game world.
I hope this guy enjoyed to the utmost all the money he earned from this games
Cities and Knights (Score:2)
I forgot to mention in my other post but for anyone who hasnt tried it I'm of the opinion that Settlers is best played with its Cities and Knights expansion as it gives a small but needed boost to its complexity. My group and I tried the other expansions but found none of the rest are all that amazing but we wont play without Cities and Knights anymore.
Fuck South Park (Score:1)
Klaus was a big deal (Score:2)
Even my wife and her friends knew his name.
A great game for 3 players (Score:2)
As long as you have a fourth player prepared to be bored out of their head after turn 2 when it becomes clear which 3 players still have a chance of winning at that point.
From an occasional player: RIP Klaus Teuber (Score:2)