NOTE: My full review of Reels & Deals will be published shortly. What follows is an abbreviated version.

For some reason, the theme of making motion pictures or plays by assembling a cast and the necessary components appeals to me. I always thoroughly enjoy Show Manager and Traumfabrik, and wish they both had wider distribution, as I feel the theme would prove quite popular with a mainstream audience. As much as I enjoy those two games, I’m always interested in trying new games using a similar theme.

Reels and Deals uses a theme that is very similar to these two games, particularly Traumfabrik. Indeed, it is billed as “The Movie Making Card Game”. Designed by Asha Agnish and Eric Kesselman and released by Agman Games, Reels and Deals casts players in the role of movie moguls recruiting actors, actresses and directors to fulfill the requirements of the company acquired scripts.

The flimsy card box is jam-packed with sturdy cards, which contain a mixture of scripts, producers, actors, actresses, directors and enhancers. The cards are clearly identified, and depict cute artwork, data required to play the game, and some humorous flavor text. The names of the actors and actresses are fictional, but closely related to actual performers. It doesn’t take much effort to realize the real-life performer being spoofed. For example, guess who Wes Hypes is based on this description: “Between him and his ego, there’s no room for anyone else in the cast.”

Actor, actresses and directors will have a hire and sell cost, as well as victory point values based on the three different types of films – drama, action and comedy. Further, some actors and actresses will contain restrictions or bonuses, either enhancing or diminishing their score based on the other performers in the film, or for appearing in the indicated film. The challenge is to properly cast these artists in order to earn maximum points.

Each turn, a player has three actions, which can be used to play a producer or enhancer, acquire a script, hire or sell an actor or director, start a bidding war for an actor or director in the talent agency, or discard cards to receive money. At the end of his turn, a player may draw a card for each unused action. Alternatively, a player may spend an entire turn to release a film, provided he has fulfilled all of the requirements of a script. Points and money will then be earned as listed on the script.

When a player fulfills all of the requirements of a script, he can release the film, earning the indicated amount of money and victory points. Sadly, the game does not include any currency or score pad, so all of this must be recorded with paper and pin. We found it very helpful to use poker chips to track these items.

The game ends at the end of a complete turn whenever one player completes two or more films, at least one of which is a feature film. That player earns a bonus fifteen points, and all players earn additional points for money in their coffers and unused star actors and actresses and mega-directors in their employ. The player with the most victory points is victorious, and the toast of Hollywood.

As mentioned, the game’s theme and, to a large extent, goals and objectives are very similar to that found in Traumfabrik and Show Manager. Attempting to acquire the necessary performers and components to complete a script, and thereby earn victory points, is the same goal as found in those two games. The procedure by which this is accomplished, however, is different, so the game does not feel like a card game version of the board games. Assuming the role of Roger Ebert, I’ll give the game a “thumbs-up”.

I had some tough luck acquiring directors, and in spite of their abundance, never did secure a feature script. Still, I was able to successfully complete two films, which did make me competitive. Marc, on the other hand, suffered through most of the game, and did not complete a film until very late.

It appeared as though Ryan was going to claim the victory, but Kevin played a vile producer on him that prevented him from completing a film on his turn. This allowed Kevin to complete his second film – a feature flick -- and end the game, thereby earning the 15 point bonus. This was enough to catapult him past Ryan and Jim to capture the victory.

Finals: Kevin 121, Jim 110, Greg 107, Marc 96, Ryan 62

Ratings: Marc 7.5, Jim 7.5, Kevin 7, Ryan 6.5, Greg 6.5