GUEST BLOG: Creating Catan's Star Trek Federation Space

Settlers of Catan and Star Trek Catan, the iconic and immensely popular board games created by famed designer Klaus Teuber, feature modular boards that provide new options with every game. Teuber, an avid Star Trek fan, realized that his famous island settlement game would translate perfectly into the final frontier of the Federation.

For the new Star Trek Federation Space map set expansion, the Mayfair and Catan teams came up with the idea to use the Explored Galaxy map, seen in Captain Kirk’s office in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. This map charted the journeys of the U.S.S. Enterprise through its five-year mission and beyond. It is the closest thing to an official map of the Federation as exists within the Star Trek universe.

Ron Magin, Gero Zahn and the rest of the Catan and Mayfair teams turned the Explored Galaxy map into two playable Catan boards through their knowledge of the game and through extensive testing, making sure the balance was right. Once the planets included were determined, Charles Rice was tasked with writing an almanac and providing players with details of Star Trek episodes correlated to locations on the map, including an episode guide.

"Growing up in the 70’s, there was nothing like Star Trek on television," Rice notes. "I suppose that’s still true. It’s the first TV show I have an actual memory of watching, so delving into the episodes and writing about them for the almanac was a unique, fantastic experience, as if my adult and child selves got to meet and have a conversation. When you live with a TV show for your entire life, it becomes part of that life. That’s Star Trek."

The resulting package, we think, will appeal to both die-hard Catan fans as well as Trekkers everywhere.

Click HERE to purchase the map set expansion, which is available now.