Terra Nova is a simplified version of the strategy game Terra Mystica. In the game, up to four players each control one of ten factions, each with different abilities. Compete against one another to explore new territories in peaceful competition, erect buildings, and achieve certain goals from round to round. Use your faction's special abilities in a clever way to control the largest territory at game's end and finish with the most points.

In Terra Nova, players try to claim areas of land by moving control markers and placing fences. Each turn, a player must take three actions, first moving a control marker, then taking two further actions from these possibilities:

1. moving a control marker (whether the same one or a different one) and/or
2. placing a fence next to a control marker that moved this turn.

Areas are scored once they're enclosed and contain no more than three types of landscape. Whoever has the majority of pieces in an area scores points based on the number of spaces and the number of types of landscape in the area, with fewer types scoring more points. Points are split in case of a tie. The game ends once all areas have been scored.