Catan: First Adventure is a free spin-off from the classic board game you can print and play at home
No need to pirate it.
A new Catan game has been released that you can download and make yourself at home for free.
Catan: First Adventure is a pirate-themed spin-off from the classic board game of trading and building. The print-and-play game features a simplified board and gameplay rules designed for younger players and newcomers, with players taking on the role of children playing pretend pirates.
The basics of the game remain largely the same, with players rolling a die, collecting resources and then spending their goods to build pirate camps and forts, replacing the settlements and cities of the original. There are no roads. The first player to build their pirate fort first wins, becoming Ruler of the Pirates - in the game inside the game, at least.
New to First Adventure is a helpful parrot, Coco, that apparently demands a goat and wood to offer aid in the form of bonus tiles. Players can also move a pirate ship around the board, collecting additional resources from the islands it visits.
Catan’s thief is replaced by a ghost captain, with a less confrontational ability than stealing from and blocking your opponents: when a six is rolled, only the active player receives any resources depending on which island they chase the spectre to.
Catan: First Adventure was released as a free print-and-play game, including the board, resource tiles, player tokens and the template for a six-sided die - although a standard d6 can also be used. Up to four people can play, and the game is completely standalone, so you don’t need to own or have played Catan before to be able to play. The PDF can be found on the Catan website.
Catan Studio previously released a print-and-play mini-expansion for full Catan, as well as rules for a two-player variant, during the COVID-19 lockdown.