Gameplay-wise, this variant seems pretty interesting! I would certainly give it a try over boring Catan.
> It became clear, at least to me, a white person playing this game in the U.S. in the early 2010s, that every game of Settlers of Catan re-tells the American myth of White European settlers stumbling upon a fertile land that was theirs by right, encountering no meaningful resistance, and acting on behalf of God and Country to develop economies, settlements, and cities in this “New World.” My first thought was to never play Settlers of Catan again. But this response seemed inadequate: while it might solve the problem for me, it would not equip anyone else to wrestle with these troubling issues,
FWIW, this is flat out bad historical knowledge. If you can't leave the fantasy setting well enough alone, the closest historical analogues to Catan would actually be European islands like the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, or even the Azores. And if you play the Cities & Knights expansion, it should be clear that the setting is squarely pre-Renaissance medieval Europe - with abbeys and guilds and viking invaders.
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[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 9.8 ms ] thread> It became clear, at least to me, a white person playing this game in the U.S. in the early 2010s, that every game of Settlers of Catan re-tells the American myth of White European settlers stumbling upon a fertile land that was theirs by right, encountering no meaningful resistance, and acting on behalf of God and Country to develop economies, settlements, and cities in this “New World.” My first thought was to never play Settlers of Catan again. But this response seemed inadequate: while it might solve the problem for me, it would not equip anyone else to wrestle with these troubling issues,
FWIW, this is flat out bad historical knowledge. If you can't leave the fantasy setting well enough alone, the closest historical analogues to Catan would actually be European islands like the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, or even the Azores. And if you play the Cities & Knights expansion, it should be clear that the setting is squarely pre-Renaissance medieval Europe - with abbeys and guilds and viking invaders.