In New World: A Carcassonne Game, players begin as early settlers of the United States on the east coast of the continent. As in the original Carcassonne game, players lay tiles turn by turn to build towns, roads, and other parts of the countryside. A player can choose to place one of his tokens on the tile he lays for the turn, and if that town, road, etc. is completed, then the player scores points and reclaims his token for later use. Whoever scores the most points wins.
One big twist in New World: A Carcassonne Game compared to the original game is that play starts on the east coast, and as players score points, a pair of surveyors drive exploration inexorably westward. Players who do not complete their features before the surveyors pass them by will find their tokens removed from the board - for no points!