Design Preview: Rustic/Naturalistic Catan Board

For my project, I plan on making the exciting game of Catan but with a naturalistic/rustic aesthetic. Catan is a complex and strategic board game where players take on roles as a settler, with their goal to expand and each victory points. Players build and develop on the board by trading and acquiring resources. The goal of the base game is get 10 victory points (typically) however there are multiple ways to acquire these points. You can do this by simply expanding across the board, building the longest road, building the largest army, or getting them through development cards. The vast ways to play the game makes it always exciting and requires strategic thinking. The game of Catan also has many different expansion packs that transform the game further. These expansions add new elements to the game which keeps the game exciting and new. If you have never played the game, I highly recommend playing even if you aren’t a board game person. Because there are so many pieces to the game, I thought that it would be a really fun game to make and to transform the aesthetic of the game to something more appealing.

Base game of Catan (1)

For my project, I will create the base game of Catan (shown above) as this is the classic version that most people who have played if they have played Catan. As you can see, there are many different pieces in the game which will make this project very interesting. The main board is made up six different hexagonal tiles with a boarder that keeps all the pieces together. Additionally there are tokens (the circular pieces on each tile with numbers on them) and harbor pieces that are also part of the main board. For the actual expansion and building, there are roads, settlements, and cities (for each player). Last there are all the cards to play the game that include the resources, development cards, longest road and largest army cards, and helper cards (these aren’t crucial to the game). For my project, I hope to make everything out of wood to create a rustic/naturalist aesthetic.

Example of a rustic aesthetic in a home (2)

In a rustic aesthetic, there are often a lot of wooden features as shown above. This aesthetic really resonates with my as I really enjoy the shape and texture of wood. The current Catan board looks like a board game, with basic colors and not much of an aesthetic. Using wood would transform the game from a board game to a table piece. I would use wood to conform to the rustic aesthetic and because it is versatile and can be found in many different forms. People have made their own catan boards before shown in the featured photo and down below. Each of these boards have their own aesthetic shown through their engravings and materials so with my board, I plan on designing my own pieces using Adobe Illustrator or some other design software. 

DIY Catan board (3)

Most DIY Catan boards that I have seen are made out of thin plywood but many don’t have a true rustic aesthetic. They would often paint the wood different colors or their engravings don’t compliment the rustic aesthetic. My hope is to create a Catan with interesting laser cut patterns and shapes to create a simple rustic aesthetic by making sure to highlight the different woods I use. To demonstrate the kinds of patterns and shapes I plan on putting into each piece of wood, here are sketches of my initial design plans/patterns:

Preliminary designs of catan tiles (7)

My alternate aesthetic is more of a modern/minimalist aesthetic which would result in a board with more basic colors and laser cut patterns on the board. The minimalist aesthetic would simplify the design and make each tile show off less of its natural wood grain. The modern aesthetic is still an aesthetic that I am drawn too but for this project, I would like to focus on the wood colors and to learn more further about how to work with wood.

Fabrication Process:

Roads, Settlements, Cities, and Robber: To create the roads, settlements, and cities for the Catan board, I plan on taking exotic/interesting wood blocks and using a bandsaw to cut each individual part. I will source woods that have vastly different grain patterns and colors in hopes to not have to use actual color to differentiate players on the board but to use these natural features instead. To cut these pieces, I will use a bandsaw with a stopper to ensure strait edges. The band saw will also make the whole process safer as I will be creating pretty small pieces. After cutting each piece to the general size, I will sand them to a 150-180 grit and finish with a stain or polyurethane. For each type of wood (player) I will use different stains so that different colors get brough out of the wood. Below is an example of these pieces I plan to make.

General shapes and sizes of Catan pieces (4)

In the above picture, there are organizers for the pieces which could be a really nice addition to the board. My current scope of the project doesn’t include these pieces but I will save this idea and make some sort of organizer if I end up having time to after completing the board.

The last piece I need to make out of a wooden block is the robber. To make the robber, I may need to use a slightly different process as this pieces normally has smooth edges, unlike the others. To make the piece expand my aesthetic, I may try to use steel and let the steel become rusty. This may be hard to do manufacture, but it is my current idea. If I don’t use metal to make the robber, I will use a bandsaw to create the robber just like the other pieces described above.

Dice: I could easily buy some dice for my game but I though it would be a lot nicer to create some wooden dice to further enhance the rustic aesthetic. To make these dice, I will again use a bandsaw to form the general square shape and then use sandpaper to round over the corners and edges. From here I plan on using some sort of punch to put the dots into the dice. I will fill each hole with a black resin/epoxy so that the number of dots is clearly seen. After letting the resin/epoxy dry, I will further sand the blocks to a final grit of 150-180. From here I can finish the wood with a stain or polyurethane.

Tiles/Board: The tiles and boarder are the most important parts of the project so to create these, I plan on using 1/4″ thick slabs of wood that will be durable and long lasting. I have ordered 1/4″ slabs of Alder, Basswood, Cherry, Hard Maple, Mahogany, Walnut, and Baltic Birch as shown in the below picture:

Laser cut ready wood for tiles and border (5)

After these pieces of wood arrive, I will be able to begin laser cutting them to the correct sizes. For each type of tile, I will need to run the laser cutter twice. Once to cut the shapes of the tiles and another to engrave the patterns into the wood. After all pieces are cut, I can take sand paper the edges to remove any sort of burning from the laser cutter. To finish the pieces, I will finish the wood with a stain to transform the colors of the wood further. The stains should complement each type of wood to further help differentiate the tiles from one another.

Tile Numbers and Harbor Tiles: The tile numbers and harbor tiles will be made with a similar approach to the tiles. I will take a piece of the 1/4″ wood slabs and place them on the laser cutter running once as a cutter and once to engrave the numbers. I will again stain or polyurethane to finish this wood.

Cards (Development and Resources): This might be a stretch but I think it would be super cool to make my own wooden cards for this Catan. There are currently two ways I am thinking about doing this. The first is to take wooden veneers and a thin sheet of plastic (possibly acrylic) and glue the piece of plastic in between the wooden veneers. From here I could laser cut and engrave the cards. The second way I am thinking about doing this is to take a two ply wooden veneer or 1/16″ thick plywood and laser cut and engrave these sheets. My one worry about only using a two ply veneer or thin plywood, is that the cards might be a little more fragile. This is a goal of my project to make these cards, however I do recognize this might be very hard to do successfully. I would need to make 95 resource cards (19 of each resource: ore, grain, lumber, wool, brick) and 25 development cards (14 knight cards, 6 progress cards, 5 victory point cards) for a total of 120 cards. I would most likely need to engrave on both sides of these cards so this would be a lengthy process.

Other Random Cards: There are some other random cards in the game that I will also make. This includes 2 special cards: “longest road” & “largest army,” and 4 “building costs” cards. The “building cost” cards aren’t necessary to the game but would help people who are new to the game learn how to play. For these cards. I would take the 1/4″ thick pieces of wood and laser cut and engrave just as before with the tiles. I would additionally stain or polyurethane to finish.

Timeline: 

Works Cited:

(1) https://store.asmodee.com/products/catan#&gid=1&pid=1

(2) https://ericabuteau.com/2018/05/21/rustic-home-aesthetic/

(3) https://hackaday.com/2015/02/28/laser-cut-settlers-of-catan-board-best-christmas-gift-ever/

(4) https://www.etsy.com/listing/1680619309/handmade-catan-wood-game-piece-organizer

(5) https://ocoochhardwoods.com/detail/?i=lpstarter14

(6) https://forum.v1e.com/t/catan-game-board-my-own-design-work-1-4-oak-100w-co2-laser/37930

(7) Drawn by author