It was created by Klaus Teuber as an official spin-off and is distributed by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English.

[1] Starfarers takes place in a futuristic setting where, in the distant future, the human race has perfected a method to travel faster than light.

As a result, it settles on a distant star system known as Catan, where it encounters five peaceful alien races: the Green Folk, the Scientists, the Merchants, the Diplomats, and the Travelers, as well as an intergalactic council that serves as the diplomatic body in the Catanian sector.

The players serve as the role of Catanians operating a fleet that seek to colonize unknown planets in order to ensure the growth of humanity, while maintaining strong ties to these alien races.

At the beginning, the players have settled the Catanian colonies, represented by planets along the bottom edge of the gameboard.

Along the edges of the board are the home planets of four of the five alien races (the 5-6 player expansion also includes the home planets of the fifth race), where trading posts may be established for victory points and additional benefits.

Each player begins with a "mother ship", a small model spaceship that represents the overall power of their starships during the game.

The background of the token contains phases of the moon, and is an indicator of the relative probability of rolling a number with two dice.

At the start of the game, 12 cards of each resource type are shuffled together to form a reserve pile.

In a three-player game, there is also the restriction where only two of the three colonizable intersections in a system of planets may be occupied at any given time, the setup phase notwithstanding.

After setting up the initial colonies and ships, each player draws three cards from the reserve pile to begin the game.

Each turn consists of three main phases - production, trading and building, and flight.

Unlike in Settlers, there is no increased production to spaceports - however, ships may be deployed at intersections adjacent to spaceports, which may be convenient as the Catanian colonies are considerably distant from the planets in the middle of the board and the trading bases at the edges of the board.

Conversely, if a player declines to engage the pirates fame rings may be lost for cowardice.

If a ship is on any intersection bordering a planet, the player has the option of examining the number token there, if it is face-down.

Removing these special tokens award the player one Victory Point, but ends the ship's movement.

As a result of encounters or friendship cards, a player's ships may be able to make a space jump in lieu of normal movement.

This allows the ship to move to any unoccupied space on the board, subject to normal flight restrictions.

The trading outpost and Friendship Card are not subsequently lost if the player subsequently loses freight rings - the numbered intersections only serve to determine the order in which trading posts must be established, and the requirements for establishing one therein.