I’ve now played three of the most popular gateway games, thanks to my local gaming group. I’d played Ticket to Ride and Carcassone (also with the group a few weeks ago) and Catan was the last one on my list.

I was somewhat familiar with the game and actually own a copy (a birthday gift), but hadn’t played it yet. Tonight the first game the group put on the table was Star Trek Catan. The basics are the same, but the added “helper cards” featuring the Star Trek characters were fun.

The rest of the group was familiar with the game and each player seemed to prefer Star Trek over the original. I loved the theme and I’ll have to see how it compares to Catan. Somehow trading brick and lumber while avoiding the robber won’t seem as exciting as trading Dilithium and Tritanium while avoiding the Klingons.