Settlers of Catan

Date: 1995

Publisher: Kosmos and Mayfair Games

Designer: Klaus Teuber

Why It's Significant (in 25 words or less): Settlers of Catan helped introduce the world of designer games to millions of new people.

More About Settlers of Catan: Having sold millions of copies worldwide, Settlers of Catan is the most successful designer game ever published.

The "board" is a series of hexagons which can be laid down in an almost infinite number of patterns so that the game will always be a bit different each time it's played. Players compete to explore the island of Catan, building roads, villages and cities. To do so, you have to acquire the proper resource cards -- which is done both by controlling resource production tiles and by trading cards with other players.

Numerous expansions and spinoff games are available.