Pontifex

Players play as Catholic Church cardinals, trying to get support from other Cardinals around the world. The first player reaching the target number of supporting Cardinals wins and is elected as the next Pope. Players can perform actions, collect taxes from believers, fly and move from one diocese to another and try to persuade or bribe other Cardinals to get their support. Persuasion is performed using a D20 dice roll. The players also can boost their character stats or the ones of the other players by going to a pilgrimage to Rome or using action cards. Each player has 3 stats: sanctity, sins and movement points. This historical and strategy game takes an ironic approach to the Catholic Church, with fun and cartoonish cards reminding real-life scandals and questionable practices attributed to the Catholic Church. —user summary In Pontifex sei un cardinale della Chiesa Cattolica e hai un solo obiettivo: diventare Papa! Come fare? Devi persuadere gli altri cardinali che sei tu il più “meritevole” e “santo”… Ma la strada per il potere non è quella della santità, quindi preparati a una lotta in cui nessun peccato è escluso: comprometti gli avversari con scandali poco cristiani, corrompi gli altri cardinali e usa la politica a tuo vantaggio. Il tutto restando sempre immacolato come una veste papale. Un ironico gioco di strategia ambientato nella Chiesa contemporanea, dove la realtà supera la fantasia. —description from the publisher In Pontifex you are a Catholic Church cardinal, and you have one objective: to become Pope! How? You have to persuade other cardinals that you are the most "deserving" and "saint"... But the road to the power is not the sanctity one, so get prepared to a challenge where no sin is excluded: compromise your opponents with not-very-christian scandals, bribe other cardinals and use politics at your advantage. All of this keeping yourself immaculate as a papal robe. An ironic strategy game set in the contemporary Church, where reality trumps fantasy. —description from the publisher (translated)

Players: 2–4 best 3
Playing time: 90–120 min
Age: 14+
Complexity: 2 / 5