In Habemus Papam, players represent a group of cardinals who strive to have their candidate elected as the new Supreme Pontiff. Each player has a Personal and a Secret Objective card and, over up to 5 rounds, they will compete to ensure that their preferred candidate accumulates the most Influence and is elected Pope. 

During their turn a player must choose one of the following actions:

Just take how many Influence tokens you want from your reserve and place them on whichever Candidates you want. Which Candidate should you pick? Well, Candidates, like Public Objective cards, have sets of 4 characteristics. Maybe you want to place Influence on a Candidate with characteristics that match your Public Objective… Or maybe your Secret Objective rewards you for something entirely different. Whatever you do, keep your opponents guessing.

You start each round with a hand of four cards. To play a card, you must pay the card’s cost. You can pay in Influence tokens, or you can pay by discarding other cards from your hand. These cards can have effects that drastically affect play. For example, they may increase the amount of Influence a Candidate gets, they may prevent other players from playing Action cards, they can even end the round suddenly! Use them wisely, though, for clever card play is essential to interfere with your adversary’s agenda.

You skip your turn and it passes to the next player on your left. If you pass, you can re-enter in the next turn. If several players pass consecutively (depending on the total number of players), the round is over.

Although those are the core mechanics, bluffing and negotiation are vital to be successful in Habemus Papam. Players may offer Influence points in exchange for cards, favors, or whatever they can think of… Just keep in mind one thing: deals are not binding. 

Once the round is over, check if a Pope was elected. During the first four rounds, a Candidate needs two-thirds of the total Influence placed on Candidates to be elected Pope. In the last round, they only need a simple majority.

If there is no Pope, receive Influence based on your Public Objectives and move on to the next round.

If there is a Pope, reveal and score your Secret Objective, receive Influence for each characteristic on your Public Objective that matches with those of the chosen Pope, and add all that to your reserve of Influence. Whoever has the most Influence is the winner.

Whether there is a Pope or not, the game is over at the end of the fifth round.

This is a basic overview of the gameplay. For more details, such as the role of the Camarlengo, what veto markers do, what are Religious orders, etc. download the full rulebook. 

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