ShowManager

Cost: $39 From: Queen Games Players: 3-6 Playing Time: 90 minutes Type of game: Family Skill level: 6 Complexity: 3 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 19, Summer/Fall/Winter 1998

It’s taken a while for my opinion of this game to settle down. It was tempting to dismiss ShowManager as just an overdressed twist on Rummy. Except there’s more to it than that. In particular, it essentially accomplishes the very thing I’d been working on in a half-formed game design- creating a game around a card draft. In the course of playing in a few Magic games in which we created our decks on the fly by passing around booster packs and picking one card from them before passing them on, I realized that the draft itself was as much fun as the game. ShowManager doesn’t use boosters, of course- it substitutes a simple point system to fine effect. Although players are trying to make melds with their cards, the drafting process carries the game farther away from Rummy than I first assessed. The game still isn’t a barn-burner, but it’s a solid piece of work and well worth consideration.

Dirk Henn’s ShowManager was first published as Premiere by db Spiele. Queen’s edition of the game is virtually unchanged except for cosmetics. Both games put the player in the role of show producer. In Premiere the venue was Broadway (with show titles like Miss Hanoi and Katz), while ShowManager takes a broader approach with productions of King Lear, the Ballet, and the mysterious Queenie and Wolf.

Players begin with a limited bankroll which they must use to hire actors. A row of four is available to choose from at any given time, ranging in price from $3000 for the freshest face to absolutely free for the actor at the other end of the line. When an actor is hired the rest slide right to fill the gap (dropping their prices) and a new actor is dealt into the most expensive slot. Managing your finances to hire the best cast for the lowest prices is the prime objective.

Not all actors are suitable for all parts in all shows. Each card shows the one, two, or three parts the actor can portray, each in a different show and each with a rating from one (poor) to nine (excellent). Specialists suitable for only one part carry the highest rating, but the sum of all an actor’s ratings always totals nine. Basically, you’re choosing between versatility and virtuosity. There are also some no-name small town actors who can play any role, but extremely poorly.

Players take turns, accumulating actors until they decide to put on a show by melding a complete cast (4-7 actors, depending on the show). Each player must put on exactly one production of each show. The first player to produce each show decides in which of five cities that show will play. Once this choice is made, all competing productions of the same show (by other players) must play in that city, and other shows must go to other cities. Productions are rated by summing the ratings of their casts. Productions within each city are ranked according to their rating- the higher the rank, the more points it scores at the end of the game. Each city uses a different point scale, so the first player to stage each show has some strategizing to do. If the show is a smash, grabbing the most valuable city is the way to go. A less stellar performance might warrant a less valuable city, so opponents can’t sweep in and steal the big points so easily.

In fact, a great strategy (when you can pull it off) is to quickly assemble the cheapest production of Wolf (the smallest cast, and therefore the fastest to assemble) and put it into the worst city. Why? Because you can raid it later for cash. Your bankroll just isn’t big enough to float four shows. That’s why you’re allowed to knock up to 10 points off a show’s rating, earning $1000 per point. Once all players have produced a particular show, however, their ratings are all frozen. Knowing when to strip a show down, and how far to cut it, is vital.

The game ends once all productions have been staged. Points are tallied (money is worthless) and a winner decided.

I trust you can hear the faint chirp of Rummy way, way up there in ShowManager’s family tree. Hopefully it won’t scare you off. With its additional systems, ShowManager is to Rummy in roughly the same way Modern Art is to Medici. Speaking of which, there are a couple more systems I haven’t discussed yet, both of which are significant. Before hiring an actor, a player can pay $2000 to sweep all four choices into the discard pile and replace them with four new ones. The insidious thing is that there’s no limit to how many times a player can do this before finally hiring someone. The seductive temptation of this option- to gamble that the next set of four will have a better choice- is very hard to resist.

The other system is more of a restriction. When a player melds a cast, he can have no more than two actors left over in his hand. This means you can’t keep bottom-feeding, biding your time until the good actors come along. And you’ve got to focus your casting to make sure you can assemble a credible cast for a specific show. In a pinch anyone can play any role, but using someone in a part for which they’re unrated forfeits the show’s casting bonus (which increases a well-cast show’s rating by one point per cast member). In short, it’s a disaster.

My emotional and intellectual reactions to ShowManager aren’t in synch. Luck, specifically the order in which cards come up- plays a large role. What strategies exist seem obvious and one-dimensional: the quick trashy show, not working on the same show as the player to your right so he doesn’t snap up the actors you need, grabbing every 9 you can, etc. That’s the intellectual bit. Yet I’ve played the game quite a few times and have enjoyed it every time. A case of the whole being better than the sum of its parts? Make no mistake, ShowManager isn’t burning its way up my playlist (is there a salve for that?), but it works and I’d be happy to see it on the table again.