Introducing Speed Catan

For the record: I like Settlers of Catan. But as I age, I have less interest in games that can be unbalanced or take a long time. A decade ago my friends and I came up with Sanders of Catan to improve balance and increase speed, and it is still my favorite way to play Catan.

But then I had kids and needed to increase speed while also decreasing the amount of time spent setting up and cleaning up the game.^[1] So we came up with Speed Catan, a faster and simpler way to play Catan.

The main change is that instead of setting out the circular number tokens (or chits) and using them to determine what resources to draw, you set the resource and development cards in an ordered list on the table. Whenever you roll the dice, you draw the resource based on it's index in the list.

It also introduces a time-based win scenario where the player with the most victory points after x minutes wins (I recommend 15 minutes). And finally it removes the robber because who wants to play with crying kids? You can read more and see examples here.

With these changes we are able to complete a full game with young children and no conflict!

If you have an old version of Catan on the shelf, I recommend dusting it off and playing some Speed Catan with the kids or adults in your life. Then let me know what you think.