RIP: Klaus Teuber, 70

[thewayne]

Klaus was a dental lab manager in Germany, passed Saturday after a short illness.

Oh, and he invented a board game known as Settlers of Cataan, one of the biggest selling board games in the world.

Three times he won the Spiel De Jahres award, the German Game of the Year award.

NYT may be paywalled:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/business/klaus-teuber-dead.html

https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/04/05/165209/klaus-teuber-creator-of-the-board-game-catan-dies-at-70

I expect Ars Technica will have a story later today that isn't paywalled, I'll update when I find it.

Comments

[disneydream06]

Rest in peace Mr. Teuber.

I don't think I have ever heard of his came. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Settlers of Catan is HUGE.  You can probably buy it in Target, definitely at Barnes & Noble. There's a big difference between what are known as Euro Games and lots of American games like Monopoly.  Monopoly, when played according to the rules (though I don't know the latest edition), is an elimination game.  Players are wiped out one by one until there's only one winner.  And it's a very mechanical, plodding game.  With Catan, and several Euro board games, no one is eliminated - everyone plays to the end.  And the setup is randomized: the board layout is different every time.  While there is luck involved in the setup and starting board positions, you at least won't get clobbered like you do in Monopoly if someone locks out the high-value properties. I HATE zero-sum/elimination games like Monopoly, and none of the games that I design or enjoy do that.

[disneydream06]

I haven't played a board game in forever, but I started collecting Monopoly games when they started making all the different versions. I think I have about 8 of them. lol...

[silveradept]

Ah, Catan, spawner of so many "wood for sheep" jokes during the time where Euro-style board games were returning to the consciousness of the U.S. population and grownups were deciding that it was perfectly fine adulting to play them.

Too bad that we can no longer look forward to any more games of his.

[thewayne]

Said the illness that took him was sudden.  With any luck, he may have had games in development that might be published posthumously.