Comprehensive scenario and variant guide for Catan
Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers is an expansion of Catan, originally released in 2009 as an appreciation to longtime fans, though it would be in 2019 when it was released in English. As a fan appreciation expansion, it was originally an exclusive to the Catan Shop, sold as a parts sheet an informal rulebook without a box. In 2017, it was redesigned as a formal boxed product, with brown used as part of the color-coding scheme.
The scenarios of this expansion consist of a number of scenarios introduced in early Catan video games, primarily the early 2000s game Catan: Cities & Knights. This expansion also reintroduces the fan-favorite scenario “Greater Catan” after it was removed from Seafarers in the English 4th edition and 2nd international editions. A re-themed version of a long-standing free-to-download scenario in “The Desert Dragons” was also reintroduced. All in all, only one scenario, “Into the Unknown”, is completely new in this expansion, and even then, the 3-player version was released separately, for free, in the 2009 edition of Catan-News, to promote this expansion.
As a fan appreciation expansion, this expansion’s scenarios require Seafarers, with many scenarios requiring Cities & Knights. Although this expansion is strictly for four players without an extension, it is to be noted that a number of historical setups of some of the scenarios had six-player setups. Similarly, some historical setups of some of the scenarios did not require Cities & Knights, where they are required for the scenarios as presented in this expansion.
As with other sets, do note that English sets always display ocean on the reverse side of all single hexes, while international sets do not. Thus, there are no functional differences in the distribution of hexes between the English and international sets.