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Catan rules

Resource-trading board game. First to 10 victory points wins; the scorecard sums end-game tallies.

Setup & play

Catan is too big to cover here — the scorecard assumes you know how to play and just need a clean end-game tally.

Pick the expansion in the start form (Base, Cities & Knights, Seafarers, Merchants & Barbarians). Each player has a column; you add VPs across categories as they earn them.

Scoring

Standard categories: - Settlements: +1 each - Cities: +2 each - Longest Road: +2 (binary toggle — only one player has it) - Largest Army: +2 (binary) - Victory Point dev cards: +1 each

Cities & Knights adds: - Metropolises (cloth/coin/paper): +2 each - Merchant: +1 (binary)

Seafarers adds: - Chits / Settled-Islands VP: +1 each

Game target: 10 VP (Base), 13 VP (Cities & Knights). Configurable in the start form.

Variants

  • Base game

    Default. 10 VP to win.

  • Cities & Knights

    Adds barbarians, knights, city upgrades, Metropolises (each = 2 VP) and the Merchant. Game extends to 13 VP.

  • Seafarers

    Adds ships, gold fields, and per-scenario VP chits for being the first to settle an island.

  • Merchants & Barbarians

    Scenario expansion — Bridges, Caravans, Saviors of Catan, etc. Use the "Special / Scenario VP" row to capture per-scenario rewards.

Common house-rule decisions

These are the questions that come up most often. The Rules tab toggles between the common choices — agree before the first hand or you’ll re-litigate them mid-game.

  • Robber rules — keeping the robber on someone's number for multiple turns.
  • Trade restrictions (must trade with active player only?).
  • No-trade-on-first-roll rule.
  • Special VP — some house games award +1 for "longest river" or similar.