Rock Hard 1977 Board Game

Graham came round again for a games evening and our next door neighbour Matthew joined us too.  Graham brought Rock Hard 1977 for us to play, where you play a 1970's wannabe rock star.  This game was designed by Jackie Fox of The Runaways, so has the insider's view of what might be involved.

Rock Hard 1977

There are a number of characters to choose from, drummers, guitarists (bass and lead) and so on.  This can make a difference, your career can affect what certain cards do.  You also get a set of counters including a demo tape, record deal, fame marker (star), little red cubes to mark your royalty level and certain objectives.

My character, Leo Love the bass guitarist..

The parts fit into one of the best character boards I've come across, disguised as an amp.  Dials at the top record your current level of "chops", "reputation" and "songs" (required at certain levels to perform at different venues, also to improve your career), amount of royalties you're earning, candy "craving" (more on that later...).

Character board.

The game board is double sided depending on whether you have 2-3 or 4-5 players.  It records your "fame" around the edge of the board, whoever has the highest fame at the end of the game wins.  The accumulates during the game and there are various end-game bonuses available too if you meet certain criteria.  The next row, on the left an event card is turned over each month, next to this there are production, performance and publicity bonuses and on the right is the calendar.  Each turn represents a single month.  Every few months, you have to pay your manager.  The guitar picks mark the play order for the current month, something which can become extremely important as the game progresses.

The bottom 3/4 of the board is taken up by the day (yellow), night (green) and after hours hang-out (red).  You need certain prerequisites to perform certain tasks, and the lower down the board you go, the more difficult/expensive the tasks are, but the greater the rewards.  All of them have a requirement (marked in blue), cost (marked in red) and a result (marked in black).

During the day, you might start off with a radio interview which requires and costs nothing but earns you 1 reputation point.  You'll probably want to rehearse, either in Studio A costing $1 and earning you 1 Chops, or Studio B costing $2 but earning you 2 Chops.  You'll need to hire some crew, the cost of which increases depending on how many crew you already have and which box you manage to occupy.  As you can see, there are varying numbers of spaces for each task, some have only a single spot available, others are unlimited.  This is where turn order becomes important, because if you really need to complete a certain task, you need to  ensure you are early in the turn order, but more on that later!  Your aim is to get a record deal, for which you need a demo tape, and a minimum of 3 chops, 3 reputation and 3 songs.  You can improve the record deal as the game goes on, earning you more royalties each turn.

At night, you can go to a rehearsal studio, or perform at a venue. The starting venues require either 3 reputation (Fox Den) or 3 chops (TJ's) and earn you a point of fame and either 1 point of chops or reputation.  The next level requires a higher reputation or chops, and you also need 3 songs and a crew member, but you earn 3 fame, 1 chops/reputation, and if you're there first, you earn $1 too!  This is where my manager comes in, he earns me an extra $ every time I play at Panda Palace or Yenser Arena.  Requirements increase until at the very end of the game, you might have enough to play at the Carter Stadium.  There will also be a Random Gig every month, could be playing a Bar Mitzvah, a college party, all sorts of things.  They tend to get better as the game progresses.

After hours, you can choose to hang out at one of a number of different clubs etc, gathering cards with various icons which may come in useful for victory points at the end of the game.  I can't remember what all the icons were but the yellow ones (two wine-glasses) were "fun", the red (lips) were "Romance".  You can also choose to record a demo tape or even "go to bed early".

Above the day/night/after hours section are 4 other options, all of which can have any number of players occupying them:  "Donate Blood" (earning you $1), "Write a Song" (earning you one song), "Work" (carry out your job as per your job card) and "Buy or Sell Candy" (earning/costing $1.  This seems a good time to talk about "Candy", which most readers will have guessed is a euphemism.  Everyone gets one piece of "Candy" at the start of the game, and you can acquire it through various card events (eg the college party).  You can take a piece of "Candy" during your turn to try and get an extra action.  There is a deck of cards for the "Candy", you draw one to find out whether you have "soft candy" (1 extra action), "hard candy" (2 extra actions) or "candy" that has been cut so it has no effect. Then you turn your "craving" dial up one point and roll a die to see if you have developed such a strong craving (if you roll under your current craving level) that you need to go into rehab "recovery" for the next daytime turn.  Certain activities can't be done when taking "Candy", such as working, playing a gig, going to bed early, going to the rehearsal studio (though curiously you can give blood when under the influence!).

You will see that some activies have a black and white guitar pick shape by them, containing a number.  This gives the turn order for the next month.  So, if you really want to bag that record deal, make sure you "Go to Bed Early" to be the first player on the next turn to ensure you get the only available spot!  The "After Hours" clubs have a random number, these are little counters that get shuffled at the start of each month.

The game board.

Ready to start... every character has a manager who has a special skill, in my instance I get an extra $ if I play at 2 venues.  Everyone also has a job, in my case I'm a veterinary assistant.  I earn $2 per day and have to work evenings, making it difficult for me to play a gig without missing work.  You also start with some life experience, giving you one of the "after hours" icons to start with.  Everyone has two secret objectives, mine were to earn more "romance" after hours cards that the one with the blue cameras icon (as received in my life experience) and also to earn more fun (yellow wine glasses) than any other single colour.

Ready to start!

Every month an Event Card is turned over.  These have very random effects.  They might mean a venue is unavailable one month.  Another reduced the cost of acquiring a crew member that month by $1 (meaning that someone actually got their first crew member free!).  For the last turn, we drew the "Bad Candy" card which meant that no-one could use Candy that turn, foiling a couple of players' plans!

Mid-game.  You can see that I've missed work once, earning the "missed work" counter on the left.  If you miss work 3 time, you lose your job.  My character worked evenings, meaning I had to miss work in order to perform at a venue.  Other players had characters who had the option to work late nights, or rolled a D6 to see what time of day they had to work each month (with variable pay depending on time of day).  One character was a waiter and rolled a D6 to determine how much they earned in tips each time they worked... they rolled badly and lost $2 two months in succession because the customers walked out without paying and it was docked from their earnings!  I have some "candy" (pink sweet) and a crew member (top right).  I've used my manager when playing a gig to earn my extra $1 (manager card turned sideways). I've also got a record deal, indicated by the little cardboard record token.  (To get the record deal, I needed a demo tape first, you can see that top right, next to the character board.)

Mid-game.

There are counters for candy, crew, and "missed work".

Candy, crew and "missed work" counters.

End of the game.  I missed work 3 time, so lost my job, but I'm earning enough that it doesn't matter.  I have 2 crew members and I've hung-out a lot.

End of the game.

You can see the results of some of the "After Hours" card here.  Some give you a straight benefit such as extra money or reputation, others provide candy.  Some give you a choice which may be two possible good options (earn $1 and a song, or 1 reputation), or varied options (earn 2 reputation but lose next daytime turn or lose 1 reputation but earn an extra daytime turn).  I also gained 4 red lipped romance cards, so gained extra victory points from one of my objectives.  I also earned extra for one of the production/performance/publicity bonuses along the top of the board.  These tended to give various levels of fame as a reward, 8 for having the most of something, then 5, 3, 1.

All the places I've hung out.

This was my favourite card, not one that I drew but definitely worth remembering!

Not one I got, but the best one I saw in the game!

 We also received bonus fame for every skill that had reached 11 on the amp (chops, reputation & songs) and I got extra bonus fame for having all 3 at maximum.  Some of the Production, Peformance and Publicity fame bonuses were picked up too, with points awarded 8 for the most, 5, 3, 1.  You also earn 1 fame point for every $3 that you still have at the end of the game.  I haven't mentioned the currency yet, the game comes with dollar bills which come "pre-used" with coffee-rings, stains, doodles, really great quality!

Graham won, I was second (thanks to a lot of end-of-game bonuses), Laura third and Matthew fourth (the bad luck with the pay really delayed him over a critical couple of turns).

 Not knowing much about rock (unlike Graham, who is a big fan), we weren't sure what we'd think, but we all really enjoyed the game.  It's all fairly easy to follow, no music knowledge is needed (though thinks make more sense if you know a bit, eg needing a demo tape before you can get a record deal etc), cards and tasks generally explain pretty clearly what they need and how they affect things.  Great fun!