Catan Cities & Knights Event Die — Engraved Replacement

Catan Cities & Knights — Event Die

A monochrome-readable replacement for the red Event Die used with the 2d6 production roll in Cities & Knights. Six faces, four unique silhouettes engraved 0.8 mm deep — designed so the result reads correctly even before you add colour.

What the faces mean

• 3× viking ship → barbarian advance (one step toward Catan)

• 1× round tower → yellow / trade event

• 1× square keep → green / science event

• 1× cathedral spire → blue / politics event

The three castles are visually distinct in monochrome (squat round rook / wide crenellated square keep / tall narrow spire), so the die is playable straight off the bed.

What's in the bundle

• catan_event_die_die.stl — the die body (16 mm rounded cube, 6 face engravings, 0.8 mm deep).

• inlay_ship.stl / inlay_round.stl / inlay_square.stl / inlay_spire.stl — flat plugs sized to drop snug into each face recess (0.1 mm per-side clearance). Print each in your event colour, glue with a drop of cyanoacrylate. You need 3× ship + 1× each of the other three.

• catan_event_die_combined.stl — the body + all 6 inlays in ONE file, positioned at their target face coordinates. Workflow: Import → right-click → Split to Parts → assign filaments per part. The Bambu AMS handles the rest; no glue, no paint.

• catan_event_die.scad — the parametric OpenSCAD source. Edit the size, corner_r, engrave_d, inlay_h, inlay_clear variables at the top of the file to re-derive any dimension.

Two ways to colour the die

A) Paint-fill (any printer): Print only catan_event_die_die.stl. Each engraved silhouette is 0.8 mm deep — wick acrylic paint or Sharpie ink into the recesses with a fine brush, wipe the face flat with a paper towel before it dries.

B) AMS / multi-material: Print catan_event_die_combined.stl. In Bambu Studio: right-click the imported model → Split to Parts (NOT Add Part — coordinates would scramble). Seven parts appear: body, inlay_ship_front / right / left, inlay_round_top, inlay_square_back, inlay_spire_bottom. Assign filaments per part, slice, print, done.

Print

• Material: PLA. PETG works.

• Orientation: Any face on the bed — it's a 16 mm cube with all features mirrored across all six faces. The Bambu auto-orient picks a face cleanly.

• Settings: 0.2 mm layer, 3 perimeters, 15 % infill. Engravings are 4 layers deep, very forgiving.

• Time: ~20 minutes per die at 0.2 mm.

Why this design exists

The official C&K event die uses a red plastic d6 with embossed colour glyphs that are very hard to read in low light. The engraved silhouettes in this design are larger, deeper, and shape-distinct enough to read across a table even with no paint applied.

License

CC BY — print, remix, sell prints, share what you make. The OpenSCAD source is in the bundle — feel free to fork it for other dice with custom face icons.