The players in the game represent settlers creating colonies on the island of Catan. Players build settlements, cities, and roads to connect them as they settle the island. The game board, which represents the island, is made out of of tiles with six sides. (hexes) of different land types, which are laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Newer editions of the game began to have a fixed layout in their manual, which has been proven by computer simulations to be fair. They recommend this to be used by beginners. In 2016, editions of the game were released with a conventional fixed layout board in this configuration. The hexes of these editions cannot be rearranged.