Did you hear that? That's the sound of a million Trekkies and board game enthusiasts heads exploding. Because come March, the first themed version of Settlers of Catan will be released, called Star Trek Catan. Set your faces to stunned.


Unlike Monopoly, Settlers of Catan hasn't strayed far from its original pioneering theme since the game was released. But this new version will replace the board's hexagon land segments with individual planets, cities and villages with large and small space stations, and roads with star ships. The thief is also now a Klingon Bird of Prey, while the resources have become dilithium, tritanium, food, oxygen, and water.

One completely new element to the Star Trek version of the game is special character cards—including Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Scott, Uhura, Chekov, Chapel, Rand, or Sarek—which each have special powers to aid a player, like forcing someone to make a trade with you. It sounds pretty great, and the only question I have is when is the Star Wars version coming out? It's not like it's hard to license that property. [Board Game Geek via Geekosystem]