Klaus Teuber dies at 70.

Klaus Teuber, who 28 years ago created The Settlers of Catan, an enduringly popular board game that has spawned college intramural teams and international tournaments, been name-checked on “South Park” and “Parks and Recreation,” inspired a novel and sold some 40 million copies worldwide, died on Saturday. He was 70.

Catan GmbH published the news about his death on their website. Catan licenses and publishes the game. The website stated that he had died from a brief illness, but did not give any details.

He was in charge of a dental laboratory, which was stressful. This is when he started designing games to help him relax.

“In the beginning, these games were just for me,” he told Forbes in 2016. “I always have stories in my head — I would read a book, and if I liked it, I wanted to experience it as a game.”

That was the origin of his first big success, a game called Barbarossa, which grew out of his admiration for the “Riddle-Master” trilogy, fantasy books written in the 1970s by Patricia A. McKillip.

“I was sorry to see it come to an end,” he told The New Yorker in 2014, “so I tried to experience this novel in a game.”

The Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year in Germany) award was given to that game in 1988. This award is considered the most prestigious in the world of board games, with Germany particularly passionate about them. In 1990, he won the award for Hoity Toity. In 1991, he won it again for Wacky Wacky west. His biggest success was with Die Siedler von Catan.

Players build settlements on new land by collecting bricks, lumber, wool and ore. The strategy allows players to trade with each other, adding a social aspect to the game. The game was awarded the Game of the Year award in 1995 and the Deutscher Spiele Preis (German Games Award) in 1995. It was popular in Germany at first, and then in all other countries as there were many editions available in other languages.

If a fantasy trilogy had been the inspiration for Barbarossa, Catan owed its existence to nothing but Mr. Teuber’s imagination and his longstanding interest in Viking history.

“When I read about the Vikings, when they discovered Iceland,” he said in “Going Cardboard,” a 2012 documentary about board games, “I thought: ‘What would happen if some explorers come to an island where there’s no one? What will they do?’”

Instead of being inspired by a novel, Mr. Teuber’s game inspired one: “The Settlers of Catan,” by Rebecca Gablé, was published in 2011. There have been many reimaginings of the game, including online and video-game versions.

Eric Freeman, 2022 United States Catan Champion, stated that during the coronavirus epidemic, he found the online version to be a great antidote for isolation. He started a virtual league with some friends that has grown to more than 60 members.

“Incredible lifelong friendships — as well as professional connection — were born as a result,” Mr. Freeman said by email. “During the dark and isolating days of early Covid and quarantine, this board game gave us something to be excited about, a reason to connect beyond the simple ‘Zoom happy hour,’ and a feeling of belonging.”

Wired reported that Mr. Teuber said in 2009 that Catan felt like a different project than other ones.

“I felt like I was discovering something rather than inventing it,” he said.

The initial run of 5,000 sold out so quickly, according to Wired, that Mr. Teuber didn’t even have a first-edition version. In just a few short years, he was able give up his stressful day job to devote himself fully to video games.

Catan has been widely hailed as being challenging yet intuitive — children play it — and has been credited with jump-starting a new era of board games, which moved beyond the staid confines of Scrabble and Monopoly. Catan encourages constant wheeling, dealing, and not sitting still while others play their turn, like Monopoly.

“The secret of Catan,” Mr. Teuber told Wired, “is that you have to bargain and sometimes whine.”

This is what Mr. Freeman considers the best of all older games.

“I truly believe Klaus created the greatest board game of all time,” he said. “Both complicated and approachable, it combines skill, luck, strategy and my favorite aspect: the power of persuasion. You can’t talk your way into winning a game of chess, but you certainly can in Catan.”

The game’s sociability helped it flourish. It was discovered by college students, and Catan became an intramural game on some campuses. And tournaments sprung up, including an international one — according to the company’s website, the first world championship to include players participating in tournaments outside of Germany was held in 2002.

Teuber was a born June 25, 1952 in Breuberg (southeast of Frankfurt). His survivors were not immediately available.

Mr. Freeman went to Malta for the World Championship after winning the United States championship in Columbus, Ohio last year. He met Mr. Teuber at the airport and showed him a spreadsheet that he had and some of his friends created. It included details about 600 games and detailed statistics on who won, how many, and other pertinent information.

“Klaus turned to his son,” Mr. Freeman recalled, “and in a beautifully charming German accent said, ‘I think they play more Catan than we do.’”

In an interview with Nikkei Asia in 2013, Mr. Teuber was asked why Catan is so beloved.

“There may have been a good balance between strategy and luck,” he said. “For example, roulette is only about luck, and chess is all about strategies. However, if you win in Catan, you think, ‘My strategy was good,’ and when you lose, you might think, ‘I was just out of luck.’ This is the same as life.”