Post originally by Ed Schmutz at 2004-03-24 23:21:39
Converted from Phorums BB System

Even without modification, leaving only one player behind out of four in a one-hour game is still pretty good, and thanks to the dice-rolling randomness inherent in Settlers, it's generally not the same person each time, and even players with a poor gift for strategy can find themselves winning games thanks to some favourable rolls.

To combat the Player Left Behind" syndrome,
I read a variant on the net (and can't remember the source) that described a "food stamps" variant, where each player that didn't get resources on a roll got a marker, and the markers could be traded in for resources on the player's turn at the ratio of their VPs. At the start, players have only two VPs, and can trade markers in 2:1 for resources, with the ratio becoming much steeper as the game progresses. This gives an advantage to players not getting favourable rolls, and much more to the players that aren't winning... It creates a much more level playing field, I've found, and is a very popular variant among my friends when playing the 5-6 player version.

Hope that helps,

Ed