Catanarchy takes the incredibly successful and effective game mechanics of the original Settlers of Catan, and reconfigures them in a manner that promotes players to engage in horizontal cooperation and mutual aid (rather than the settler-colonial land-acquisition that the original game centers). This allows Catanarchy to implement all of the elements of world-building and collective engagement with the environment that the original Catan employs, and shift the suggested worldview towards one that seeks to use these towards uplifting the many, rather than few, and engages with the environment without exploitative ends. Centered around the birth of an antagonistic, centralized state on the island, players must combat the planned expansion of the empire. Thus, the collection of communities, acting as separate communities with a collective spirit, must fight to confine the spreading roots of empire, keep each other afloat, and maintain the wellbeing of the Island of Catan.
Although there is a clear goal of outlasting and outmatching the state, the processes through which the collective organizes themselves and their mutual support may be different every time, based on available resources, numbers of players, and attitudes of players. This allows Catanarchy to serve as an introduction into the tenets of anarchist organizing and mutual aid, while also understanding the subjective, situated, and community-specific nature of mutual aid.
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