This page is about a board game I have been designing which is a fusion of Dominion and Settlers of Catan. The game keeps most of the rules for both games intact.
Story
Dominion of Catan is about the leaders of a set of provinces who are vying for control of the newly discovered land of Catan. Leaders must send enough political assets and resources to the new land to ensure their successful claim, while being careful not to leave themselves too exposed at home, in danger of being overthrown.
Game Structure
Dominion of Catan keeps the majority of elements from both base games, but additionally allows victory points to be removed from the dominion deck by using them to build structures in Catan.
Turn Structure
Much like CPR, turns follow the acronym: DR ABC
- Dice: Roll both dice (normal first step in a Settlers of Catan move)
- Resources: Regions with the rolled number produce resources for their inhabitants (normal second step in a Settlers of Catan move)
- Action cards: players may play action cards, following Dominion action rules. Development cards may be played, costing one action.
- Buy/Build: players may buy Dominion cards, trade resources for development cards, and build structures (roads, etc.) in Catan. Each of these counts as one build (following Dominion rules). Also see Building and Trading below.
- Cleanup: all Dominion cards in the hand or in play are returned to the player’s discard pile.
Building
Building structures in Catan requires both raw resources, and manpower from the leader’s province. This is represented as a victory point cost in addition to the stated cost on the Settlers of Catan reference card:
- road: 1 victory point
- settlement: 3 victory points
- city: settlement + 5 victory points
The victory points used to build a structure are removed from the player’s deck and placed in the trash. The player has spent these cards, and the victory points are now locked up in their structures.
Over-paying: players may over-pay for a structure by any amount. This may be necessary if the player’s hand does not have the exact amount of victory points to build the structure. Victory points over the cost of the structure are lost when they are trashed. Victory point cards cannot be traded for multiple lower victory point cards*.
- I am considering adding a rule that would allow victory point trades in Catan. This would allow victory point cards to be traded for resources and other victory point cards. Anything trades in Catan stays in Catan, so all victory points acquired this way would be put aside for use when building structures. Victory point cards put aside in this way would not be counted towards victory (i.e. they are useless until you have built something with them).
Trading
Resource trading can take place at any point during a player’s turn, as in Settlers of Catan. There is one additional rule: resources can be traded for +1 treasure at their normal rate. This is an ephemeral treasure – no cards are taken and it vanishes at the end of the turn. There is no limit to trading for treasure, as long as you have the resources to trade. Treasure can be used to buy resources in Catan at the rate of 4 treasure for 1 resource (this is not modified by ports at this point, but this may change depending how it looks in play testing).
For example:
- someone with a 3:1 port can trade 3 of any single resource for +1 treasure.
- someone with a 2:1 sheep port can trade 2 sheep for +1
- someone with a 2:1 brick port can trade 2 bricks for +1, and 4 sheep for +1, for a total of +2
Victory
Game end conditions are essentially just the conditions for Dominion. The main difference is that scoring includes victory points for each structure in Catan, based on the construction costs listed above.
Special Rules
There are a set of modified rules that apply to specific cards, essentially pointing out where the effects of the cards (Development cards and Action cards) have effects that reach the other land (from Dominion to Catan or from Catan to Dominion).
I am still working on these, but an example is:
- Masquerade: in addition to Dominion cards, development cards and resource cards may also be passed to the next player.