As with the Catan Adventures series of games, the theme is based on the Rebecca Gablé novel The Settlers of Catan, a novel based on the original board game.
The changes were motivated by the escalating complexity of the rules in the Catan Card Game (which had, in 2003, undergone a major rules revision) in order to make the game more accessible.
For 2012 a second expansion, "Age of Enlightenment" (German: "Goldene Zeiten") was released.
Throughout the game, players seek to expand their principality, scoring victory points for various features.
At the start of each turn, two different dice are rolled: a production die determines which regions produce resources for the players, and an event die which may cause resource bonuses or losses for one or both players, or a card to be drawn from a special deck of Event Cards.
Most improvements cost resources to play, but have a lasting effect on the game.
These cards are Buildings or Units - and they help the player win the game by giving them points and special abilities.