In this holiday take on that penultimate classic, Catan players can now build more than just roads, buildings, and development cards. They can also build Christmas cookies, Christmas stockings, Christmas trees, and ugly Christmas sweaters. Completing a full set of all these items of Christmas Cheer gives a player an extra victory point!
And I hope you’ve been nice this year, because Father Christmas is coming! When a 7 is rolled, the Robber would normally encourage naughty behavior like stealing and blocking resources. But now, Father Christmas comes with lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh. Rolling a 7 means the current player will do a special roll to gain 2 of any resource, all other players gaining 1 of that resource, too. And if that miserly Robber was blocking a resource, he gets sent back to the desert.
And so, Happy Christmas! We hope you have fun.
You can download this variant as a printable document here. Or see below for a text version.
Christmas in Catan
A Catan variant by Jamie & Adam Sequoyah
Setup
Shape the island of Catan with a Christmas theme! (Manger, Christmas Tree, Ornament, Snowman, etc.) * Optional: for an exploration map, play with the Seafarers expansion’s rules for the “Oceans” scenarios (#4 and 5).
Lay out the resource card piles in a line with the Development card pile at the end. (This is for the Father Christmas rules detailed below.)
The Robber is used in the game, but he is called the Tax Collector.
The player who first celebrated Christmas starts the game.
Father Christmas
When 7 is rolled, players with over 7 resources lose half of them (rounding down) like normal, but then Father Christmas visits!
Consider the card piles as numbered 1-6 based on their order in line.
Roll 1 die. If a 1-5 is rolled, the roller gets 2 of the resources associated with that number, and all other players get 1 of that resource. If a 6 is rolled, the roller gets a Development card and the other players get nothing.
Then the Tax Collector must move back to the desert. (He only moves out of the desert and around the island when Soldier cards are played.)
Christmas Cheer
In addition to structures and other developments, players can build items of Christmas Cheer, by using the resources shown below. By building a complete set of these 4 items, a player earns 1 victory point! A player may build any number of sets. Items for the sets do not have to be built in any particular order.
1 brick + 1 grain = Christmas Cookies (use Dungeon Lords gold or Agricola grain tokens)
1 brick + 1 wool = Christmas Stocking (use Dungeon Lords minion meeples)
1 lumber + 1 ore = Christmas Tree (use green Carcassonne meeples)
1 ore + 1 wool = Ugly Christmas Sweater (use red Carcassonne meeples)
© 2019 House Rules
Catan and its expansions © Catan GmbH