Catan Scenarios: Frenemies

About this expansion

Catan Scenarios: Frenemies is a 3–6-player Catan scenario with an approximate play time of 60 minutes. It turns seemingly generous behavior into a new way to pursue victory while everyone keeps an ulterior motive in mind.

In this scenario, players are rewarded for acts of apparent altruism. You might give resources to a player who is falling behind, move the robber to an isolated location to protect another player, or connect your roads to a neighbor’s network.

These benevolent actions earn Favor Tokens (FTs), which can be handed out by Catan’s guilds. Each guild offers a different kind of advantage, giving players several ways to turn goodwill into personal progress.

• Receive roads or development cards.
• Gain random resources.
• Access preferential trades.
• Earn Victory Points.

The catch is that kindness is rarely as simple as it appears. In Frenemies, helping a friend can sometimes make their position much worse, so every charitable gesture may conceal a strategic purpose. The result is a scenario where cooperation, generosity, and self-interest constantly overlap.

Players must decide when to support another settler, when to accept a favor, and how much trust to place in apparently noble actions. The scenario’s theme turns familiar Catan interactions into a contest of questionable goodwill, as every gift or helpful move may benefit the giver most of all.

The 2023 German re-release includes enough tokens for a 5–6-player game. With its focus on Favor Tokens, guild rewards, and suspiciously helpful decisions, Catan Scenarios: Frenemies offers a playful twist on the usual struggle for progress on Catan.