Game Rules
Everything you need to know about Qiatan Island — from your first settlement to total island domination.
Overview
Qiatan Island (洽谈岛, Qiàtán dǎo) is a multiplayer strategy board game where players compete to be the dominant force on a resource-rich island. Build settlements, grow cities, trade cleverly, and outmaneuver your opponents to reach 10 Victory Points first.
A live game in progress — the default Standard map
Components
- The Board — A map of hexagonal terrain tiles, each producing one of five resources.
- Number Tokens — Numbers 2–12 on each hex (except desert). When the dice match, that hex produces.
- Settlements & Cities — Built on intersections (nodes) where three hexes meet.
- Roads — Built on edges between two nodes, connecting your network.
- Development Cards — A deck of 25 cards with Knights, Victory Points, and special abilities.
- The Robber — Blocks production on its hex. Activated when a 7 is rolled or a Knight is played.
Game Setup
Creating a Game
The host creates a game from the lobby. Before starting, the host can configure game settings — map type, max players, victory points target, bot players, and more. At least 2 players (human or bot) are required to start.
Setup Phase (Snake Draft)
The game begins with a Setup Phase where each player places two settlements and two roads in a snake draft order:
The player order is randomized at game start. Each turn in setup, a player places one settlement at any valid intersection (obeying the distance rule) and one road connected to it.
Starting Resources
After placing your second settlement, you receive one resource for each terrain hex adjacent to that settlement (not the first). This gives later-drafting players resources sooner to catch up.
Mystery Mode
If Mystery Mode is enabled, land resources and number tokens stay hidden until a settlement reveals its surrounding tiles or a road/ship is built along that tile's edge. Hidden tiles can remain unknown after setup and into normal play.
The Robber
The robber starts on the desert hex, which produces no resources. It stays there until someone rolls a 7 or plays a Knight card.
Turn Structure
After setup, the game enters the Main Phase. Turns proceed clockwise. Each turn consists of:
Roll the Dice
Mandatory. Roll two six-sided dice. All players whose settlements/cities border a hex matching the rolled number receive resources. If a 7 is rolled, the robber activates instead.
Trade
Optional. You may trade resources with the bank (at fixed rates) or propose trades to other players (see the Trading section).
Build
Optional. Spend resources to build roads, settlements, cities, or buy development cards (see the Building section). You may build multiple things per turn.
Play a Development Card
Optional. You may play one development card per turn. It cannot be a card purchased this same turn. Knights can be played before rolling dice.
End Turn
Pass the dice to the next player. You must roll the dice before ending your turn. Any pending trade offers are automatically cancelled.
Special Build Phase
If this setting is enabled, waiting players can raise a small build flag during someone else's turn. After that turn ends, only flagged players get a short build-only window in clockwise order before the next player rolls. During this window you may build and buy development cards, but you may not trade or play development cards.
Resources & Production
There are 5 resource types, each produced by a specific terrain:
The Desert produces nothing and is where the robber starts.
How Production Works
- A player rolls two dice — the sum (2–12) determines which hexes produce.
- Every hex with that number token produces resources for adjacent players.
- A settlement receives 1 resource from each adjacent producing hex.
- A city receives 2 resources from each adjacent producing hex.
- The hex where the robber sits does not produce, even if its number is rolled.
Dice Probability
Not all numbers are created equal. Numbers like 6 and 8 are rolled far more often than 2 or 12:
Numbers in amber (6, 8) are high-probability — fight for those hexes! Red (7) triggers the robber instead of producing.
Building
Building Costs
| Structure | Brick | Lumber | Wool | Grain | Ore | VP | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Road | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 15 |
| Settlement | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | 5 |
| City | — | — | — | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Dev Card | — | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | 25 |
Road
Roads are built along edges between two nodes. A road must connect to one of your existing roads, settlements, or cities. Roads are essential for expanding your network to build new settlements. Each player may build up to 15 roads.
Settlement
Settlements are built on intersections (nodes) and are worth 1 VP. To build a settlement in the main phase, the node must:
- Be connected to your road network.
- Obey the distance rule — no adjacent settlements or cities.
- Not already be occupied.
Each player may build up to 5 settlements.
City
Upgrade one of your existing settlements to a city for 2 VP (net +1 VP since the settlement was already 1 VP). Cities produce double resources (2 per adjacent hex instead of 1). Each player may have up to 4 cities.
Development Card
Buy a card from the shuffled development deck. Cards are drawn blind and kept hidden from opponents. A card bought this turn cannot be played until your next turn (except Victory Point cards, which count immediately). See the Development Cards section for details.
Trading
Trading is how you convert surplus resources into what you need. There are two types of trade:
Bank Trading
Trade directly with the bank at a fixed conversion rate. The default rate is 4:1 — give 4 of one resource to receive 1 of any other. Ports improve this rate:
No port needed. Trade any 4 identical resources for 1 of your choice.
Build a settlement/city on a 3:1 port node. Trade any 3 identical resources for 1.
Build on a 2:1 port node. Trade 2 of the specific resource for 1 of any other.
Player Trading
Only the active player (whose turn it is) can propose a trade. The proposer sets what they offer and what they request.
- Trade offers are broadcast to all other players.
- Each offer expires after 20 seconds.
- Other players can accept or reject. Multiple players may accept the same offer.
- The proposer then chooses which acceptor to trade with and finalizes the deal.
- Only one trade offer can be active at a time. Cancel the current one before proposing another.
- Trades can only happen after rolling the dice.
The Robber
The robber activates whenever a 7 is rolled or a Knight card is played. It follows a strict sequence:
Discard
When a 7 is rolled, any player holding 8 or more resource cards must discard half (rounded down). This happens simultaneously for all affected players before the robber moves. Players choose which cards to discard.
Move the Robber
The active player must move the robber to a different hex (it cannot stay on its current hex). The robber blocks all production on that hex until moved again.
Steal
The active player may steal one random resource from any opponent who has a settlement or city on the robber's new hex. If multiple opponents are adjacent, the player chooses which one to steal from. If only one is adjacent, the steal happens automatically.
Development Cards
The development card deck contains 25 cards. Add 9 extension cards for 5-6 players, and another 9 cards for 7-8 players. Buy one for 1 Ore + 1 Wool + 1 Grain.
Rules
- You may play at most 1 development card per turn.
- A card purchased this turn cannot be played until your next turn.
- Knights can be played before or after rolling the dice.
- Other action cards (Road Building, Year of Plenty, Monopoly) can only be played after rolling.
- Victory Point cards are never "played" — they count automatically and stay hidden until you win.
- Each large-player extension adds 6 Knights, 1 Road Building, 1 Year of Plenty, and 1 Monopoly; it does not add extra Victory Point cards.
Card Types
Move the robber to any hex and steal one resource from an adjacent player. Counts toward Largest Army.
Worth 1 VP. Kept hidden until you win. Cannot be "played" — they count automatically.
Place 2 segments for free anywhere connected to your network. In base games these are roads; in Seafarers they may be <strong>2 roads, 2 ships, or 1 of each</strong>. Can be cancelled if nothing has been placed yet.
Take any 2 resources of your choice from the bank — they can be the same or different types.
Name one resource type. Every other player must give you all of that resource from their hand.
Special Awards
Longest Road / Trade Route
Awarded to the first player to build a continuous route of at least 5 segments. In base games this is Longest Road; when Seafarers is active it becomes Longest Trade Route.
- Count the single longest unbroken path. In Seafarers, roads and ships may be combined, but road-to-ship continuity must pass through your own coastal settlement or city.
- An opponent's settlement or city on a node breaks the road at that point.
- If the current holder's road drops below the challenger's (e.g., due to being broken), the title transfers.
- If the holder's road is broken and results in a tie, the title becomes vacant — no one holds it until someone takes an outright lead.
Largest Army
Awarded to the first player to play 3 or more Knight cards. Another player must play strictly more Knights to take the title.
- Only played Knights count (not Knights still in your hand).
- Tying the current holder does not steal the title — you must exceed their count.
Victory
The first player to reach the Victory Points target wins the game. In the base game the default is 10 VP, but Seafarers scenarios may change the target or add scenario-specific scoring.
Victory Point Sources
The lobby can set a custom VP target (5–20). Seafarers scenario profiles should also be allowed to override the target and inject special victory sources.
Lobby & Settings
The lobby is where you create and join games. The host (the first human player to join) controls all game settings and can start the game when ready.
Game Settings
Choose from 16 different board layouts — see Maps below.
Set the maximum number of players (2–8). Default is 4. Some maps support more players than others.
Set the target VP (5–20). Default is 10. Lower values make for faster games.
Optional timer per turn: Off, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, or 5 min. Setup phase gets double time. When the timer expires, the server auto-plays the rest of your turn. The host can pause and resume the timer.
When enabled, dice rolls are drawn from a pre-shuffled deck of all 36 possible 2d6 combinations. This ensures the statistical distribution matches perfect probability over every 36-roll cycle — no lucky or unlucky streaks.
When enabled, players can raise a build flag during other players' turns. After a turn ends, only flagged players get a build-only window before the next player's dice roll. This option is available in every game size.
Enable ships on coast and sea lanes. Island and water-gap maps turn this on automatically. Roads control land routes, ships control sea routes, and coastal settlements connect the two.
Hide terrain resources and number tokens until settlements, roads, or ships reach them. The board can remain partly unknown throughout the game.
Choose exactly one larger bank when needed: the 5-6 player bank uses 24 cards per resource and a 34-card development deck; the 7-8 player bank uses 29 cards per resource and a 43-card development deck. Enabling one disables the other.
Controls how bank resource counts are displayed. Hidden: counts are not shown. Estimate: shows approximate amounts (~5, ~10, etc.) as if eyeballing a physical card stack. Exact: shows precise remaining counts (requires opponent card counts to be visible for full accuracy).
Toggle whether opponents' exact resource hands are visible. When off, only the total card count is shown.
Bot Players
The host can add AI bot players to fill empty slots. Each bot has a configurable difficulty:
- Easy — Trades loosely, builds somewhat randomly, light robber targeting.
- Normal — Balanced strategy with decent trading and build priority.
- Hard — Aggressive, strategic trading, optimal build order, and targeted robber placement.
Bot speed (how fast they take actions) can be set to Fast, Normal, or Slow globally in settings.
Host Powers
- Start game — Only the host can begin the match.
- Kick players — The host can remove players from the lobby before starting.
- Add/remove bots — Manage bot players and their difficulty.
- Pause/resume timer — During a timed game, the host can pause for all players.
- Change settings — Adjust any setting before starting.
If the host disconnects, host status transfers to the next available human player.
Maps
Qiatan Island offers 16 map layouts. Each map shuffles terrain and number tokens at game start using the board's spiral placement rule, with 6 and 8 kept apart.
Classic 19-hex board for 3–4 players.
Classic island shape, expanded to 30 hexes for up to 6 players.
Extra-large 48-hex island scaled for 7-8 player games.
Curved 30-hex mega-island tuned for 5–6 players.
30-hex twin continents separated by narrow channels.
Broken northern coasts, sheltered bays, and offshore skerries for long ship routes.
Stepping-stone islands with multiple contested crossings.
Large 36-hex island field with enough room for 5–6 player ship races.
Scattered island clusters with water gaps.
Hollow ring with no center hexes.
Shaped like Europe with Scandinavia, Britain, and the Mediterranean.
The African continent from Sahara to Cape with Madagascar.
Four island groups surrounding a central lagoon, built for ship races and pirate pressure.
Mainland, Philippines, Borneo, and Java island chain.
Iconic island arc from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
Two continents linked by a narrow Central American isthmus.
Ports
Each map includes a set of ports placed around the perimeter. Ports give a better trade rate with the bank when you have a settlement or city on one of the two port nodes. Port types are 3:1 (any) or 2:1 (specific resource).
Number Token Placement
Number tokens are placed in a spiral pattern from the outside in. The starting position of the spiral is randomized for variety. If a 6 or 8 would end up adjacent to another 6 or 8, the game attempts to swap them to maintain balance.
Custom Maps
Hosts can build custom maps from the lobby map library. Each tile stores allowed terrain and number-token options; one option fixes the slot, while multiple options let the server randomize that slot when the game starts. Custom maps can stay private or be published for everyone to select.
Seafarers
Seafarers adds ships, gold fields, the pirate, and island expansion to the standard rules. Roads control land routes, ships control sea routes, and coastal settlements connect the two.
Ships open sea lanes, extend your network across water, and count toward your longest trade route.
The pirate occupies a sea hex, blocks nearby ship placement and movement, and steals from adjacent ship owners.
Gold fields do not produce a fixed resource. When they pay out, the adjacent player chooses the resource received.
Foreign islands award special points or discovery rewards whenever the selected seafaring map says they do.
Ships and Routes
- A ship costs 1 Lumber + 1 Wool and is built on a sea edge, not on land.
- A new ship must extend from one of your coastal settlements/cities or from one of your own ships that already forms a legal shipping route.
- Roads and ships do not connect directly in open space. To switch from land travel to sea travel, the connection must pass through your own coastal settlement or city.
- If a shipping route is open, you may move the front ship at the open end to another legal open position once per turn. A ship built that turn cannot be moved.
- Only the front ship at an open end may be moved. Ships inside a closed route stay in place.
- When Seafarers is active, Road Building may place 2 roads, 2 ships, or 1 of each if both placements are legal.
Pirate, Gold, and Islands
- When a 7 is rolled or a Knight is played, the active player moves either the robber or the pirate.
- The pirate sits on a sea hex. It blocks building or moving ships on adjacent sea edges, but it does not block harbor use or settlement placement on nearby corners.
- After moving the pirate, the active player steals 1 random resource from a player with a ship adjacent to that sea hex.
- A gold field pays 1 chosen resource to each adjacent settlement and 2 chosen resources to each adjacent city when its number is rolled.
- For a city, the two resources may be the same or different.
- The pirate does not block harbors and does not stop settlement placement on nearby corners.
- Starting islands are your home islands. Islands outside that set are foreign islands.
- A settlement built on a foreign island awards the special victory bonus or discovery reward listed for that map.
- The normal distance rule still applies across a narrow channel if two intersections are actually adjacent in the board graph.
- When a seafaring map uses hidden tiles, reveal each hidden tile as soon as a player reaches it and resolve its printed reward immediately.
Use the selected seafaring map to determine home islands, target victory points, foreign-island rewards, and whether hidden tiles are in play.