Conclave 1492

Vaniver

Conclave 1492 — LessWrong

69 Conclave 1492

19th May 2026

1 min read

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Conclave 1492 is a 40-person negotiation exercise set during the papal election of 1492, the most complex, high-stakes political event of the Renaissance. Play an ambitious cardinal, a mighty king, a daring queen, or a lowly Vatican functionary. You'll arrive with allies, rivals, secrets, and leverage, but so will everyone else. Over four afternoons, you'll scheme, bargain, cross, double-cross, and occasionally pray for salvation. And halfway through, one of you will be crowned Pope. If you aspire to be the next Borgia, Medici, or Ferdinand of Aragon — or if you aspire to defeat them — this is your training ground. Negotiate the future of the world.

We're running this at Summer Camp, which is happening at Lighthaven immediately after Less Online, June 8th to 11th. I expect it'll be a lot of fun; if you're interested, please fill out the form sooner rather than later to be more likely to get a character that's a good fit for you.

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[-]Drake Morrison4d72

See the event site for more details

[-]Vaniver2d20

Thanks for the link; I thought I had made this a linkpost but maybe that... doesn't work anymore?

[-]Vaniver2d20

Signups are closing Monday, May 25th.

[-]StanislavKrym4d20

How similar is the game to the AI-2027 tabletop exercise?

[-]Jo Jiao1d30

Context: I did the full version of the sim. I ran the AI 2027 tabletop wargames in 2025, and they have since updated the material. So, some points I make here may not carry over.

As far as I know, Conclave 1492 is different & similar in the following ways to the AI 2027 tabletop wargames:

Just like in the wargames, your goal is to be true to your character, not win (though indeed many characters will want to win in some subgame by e.g. becoming pope). You are given a rich enough character sheet (mine was 30+ pages) that you will know your background, your motivation, the context behind your goals, your personality, and your preferences.
You will write letters to NPCs and PCs.
You have at the start resources such as currencies, items, differential information, and armies that reflect the standing of your character in 1492, and you will need to use these resources carefully to achieve your objective.
The war phase of Conclave 1492 has its own complicated rules and internal logic.
You will learn a ton of Italian Renaissance history and moreover get a feel of the zeitgeist of 15th century Europe.

[-]JohnWittle4d10

i find myself intrigued by this and feel pretty sure i would enjoy participating, but i'm not sure i want to commit ahead of time to spending several hours per day on it

if i'm just kinda hanging around summer camp, popping in and out, but haven't actually signed up, will there be something for me to do? i'm good being a hot-swappable cup bearer or butler or similar, i just want to know if there's space for that kind of thing ahead of time before i commit to not committing

[-]Vaniver2d30

I think we'll have capacity for some NPCs like this.

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