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I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night… And Work As A Veterinary Assistant Every Day – Rock Hard 1977
1977 was a big year for everyone who experienced it – the Silver Jubilee for folks with a monarchy vibe, Star Wars for folks with a space wizard vibe, astronomers discover rings around Uranus for folks with a puerile vibe (come on, we’re better than this), but it was also a heck of a year for music. Sex Pistols released Never Mind The [deleted] and said [deleted, deleted, deleted] on the Bill Grundy Show, The Damned came out with Damned Damned Damned and New Rose, Kraftwerk took the Trans Europe Express to meet Iggy Pop with his Lust For Life, and David Bowie, who was feeling a bit Low. And it wasn’t all about being punk and disorderly, because AC/DC said Let There Be Rock while Kiss loaded their Love Gun and the Electric Light Orchestra appeared Out of the Blue. This is all before even glancing at country, disco or prog – look, it was all going on. I bet you wish you could have been a part of it.
Well, call Devir your fairy godmother, because your wish is granted! Welcome to Rock Hard 1977, a game where you get to fulfil your dreams of rock stardom in a time where the ties were wide, the trouser bottoms were wider and the (Mr Blue) sky was not necessary the limit…
Runaway Success Has The Critics Foxed!
Rock Hard 1977 is the latest music-related game from Devir (having previously given us Lacrimosa and soon to be bringing us Ace of Spades, based on two quite different musical rebels) and has been designed by former Runaway (and four-time Jeopardy! winner) Jackie Fox, with art provided by Jennifer Giner (yes, that’s an ALL WOMAN DESIGN TEAM – it’s about the visibility people). Set in… 1977, it sees players vying to become the most successful artiste of that year through hard work, determination, luck and just a little sweet, sweet ‘Candy’, whilst trying to hold down a job, hire crew, securing the best gigs and paying their manager – still, if you wanna live the life, you gotta be ready to pay the price, and if it comes at the cost of your health, that’s only rock and roll. And I like it.
Between two and five Budding Rock Stars (BRS) can play (red, blue, orange, yellow and white but… no Deep Purple? Trick missed, and thanks Andy!), each with their own rock star, back story and job (stars can be male, female or androgynous, work can take place during the day, evening or night and Life Experience provides a bit of colour to your character, but also two game icons – all of these things will come into play later in the game). They also come with a special ability, which can be an ongoing or limited effect, and can just come in clutch at the right time – or leave you completely high and dry.
After deciding first round turn order (I always come first as either no one else is willing to admit that they sing in the shower), the managers are then up for grabs – the last player gets first dibs here. These peeps may not look so useful at first, but later they become handy. But they will want their cut, and will need paying three times in the game… and they do not get cheaper as time goes by.
You win Rock Hard 1977 by getting the most Star points, and these will be gained during the game through various means, including Personal and group goals. The Production, Performance and Publicity goals are open to everyone, but each player will get three Personal goals and choose two – these could range from having a huge stash of Candy by the end of the game, or by going to bed early a lot. Takes all sorts.
There are also Events cards that will change every month – sometimes these can be irritating by blocking certain actions or they can be beneficial – making free with the dollars and the Candy…
Everyone set up and feeling the vibe? Okay, let’s see what Rock Hard 1977 is really all about!
Here Comes Johnny Yen Again…
What’s the name of the game? Worker placement, although this is not as daunting as something like Underwater Cities and all serves the theme of the game. The games takes place over nine months (or until someone hits 50 Star points), and each month is broken into three times to take actions: day time, night time and after hours.
During the day, players can send their BRS to places like the rehearsal studio to work on their technique (Chops) or the radio station to raise their profile (Reputation), or if they have the cash, to hire crew or promoters – later, they may even get a record deal, but these are early days yet.
When the sun goes down, that’s when the volume gets turned up and they can try to get on the bill of a number of venues – of course, even the most run-down looking dive has certain standards, so this is where your Reputation and Chops will get you though the door. If you want to play somewhere that is less of a toilet, you’re gonna have to come up with a bit more – stuff like, I don’t know, a few more songs, some crew and a record deal might help?
There are three stats in Rock Hard 1977 that get you into the big time: Chops, Reputation and Songs – get these high enough (and yes, they do go up to 11) and you too might get to play Carter Stadium. The low-level venues only have the one slot, so it’s get in quick or go elsewhere, but the bigger the venue, the more slots there are available, each giving their own bonuses of cash, Reputation, Chops and Star points – yep, these are the things you need to win. There is also a random gig each month, which will not always be the best option, but any port in a storm and sometimes… it’s worth it.
Once the sustain has died down and the crowds have gone home, it’s time to hit the hottest night spots in town. Or maybe cut a demo tape (you need a demo tape to get a record deal). Or go to bed early. What? Not everyone was Ozzy Osbourne in the seventies, you know? I mean, I wasn’t out all night in 1977.
I was five, though.
Anyway, the hottest spots in town – five clubs where you could make a new business connection, or find romance, or get on the cover of the ‘zines, or just have a good time, all the time. There’s only room for one BRS in each club (naturally) so pick your hangout carefully. Those icons on your life experience? Well, those same icons appear on the club cards too – collect four the same or four different will give you five Star points. As well as this, each card will give you an opportunity to make some money, get some rep, hone your skills, write some songs or… get some Candy.
Ah yes. ‘Candy’ – that sweet, seductive substance to perk you up and keep you partying – look, we all know what this is about, you couldn’t have a game about rock n roll without a bit of... the middle bit. In the game, Candy gives you the chance to get in another action, but it’s not without risk. If you want to take Candy, you have to flip over a Candy card – most of these are Soft Candy, which give you an extra action to take, but also get you to increase your craving by one and roll the dice – roll higher or equal to your Craving and you’re fine. Roll under and you’re going to have to spend the next day time action in recovery, but you will bring down your Craving.
Of course, not every action can be done on Candy – you can hardly go to bed early on Candy, and you certainly can’t go to work on Candy (though apparently you can’t play a gig on Candy either. Hmmm…). There are, however, certain actions you can do at any time of the day – like giving blood (for a dollar a time – God bless America!), writing songs and buying/selling Candy. There is also the small matter of your gainful employment, which will be your initial form of regular income. These will have to be done at particular times of day according to what it is (some are done at different
times each month or will bring you in different amounts of income, determined by a dice roll) – if you don’t do your job, you’ll get a demerit, and if you get three demerits, you’ll get the elbow (with nary a hint of Guy Garvey). Of course, if you have a demo and a certain amount of talent, you can get a record deal, which will bring you royalties at the end of each month and Star points if you can renegotiate your deal later in the game.
So that’s the way, uh huh uh huh, you like it – live the rock and roll lifestyle to the max, or become a straight edge virtuoso. The choice is yours… there are plenty of slots to play at Carter Stadium…
You Can Go Your Own Waaaaaaay – Go Your Own Wa-a-ay!
With a game as lavish as this, with a theme as alluring as it is, I needed a group of right-minded people to play – veterans from the Leeds Music Scene and the post-rock explosion – they know how to party! Actually, they are a very pleasant lot and agreed to humour me in my endeavours. I couldn’t get my phone to sync up with the speaker, so it was a good job someone from he music biz was on hand.
“Kiss do for ya?” Perfect.
“That board is very… big.”
Yes, but look at all the rock and roll detail. And look at your player boards – just like Marshalls. And all the dials go up to 11. And look at the acrylic rock stars.
“These dollars look and feel very authentic… are you sure they aren’t sus?” I guess that’s why each of them, though uniquely graffiti’d, all have the same serial number, or else they could pass for the real thing. You all get a dollar each, and one piece of Candy.
“Ooh, Candy – what does that do?” Explains Candy. “That doesn’t sound like Candy to me…”
“No, that sounds like [deleted].” It does, doesn’t it?
“Great! Let’s play”
Now the first play, including a teach, took about two and a half hours, but by the second round, everyone was getting into the swing of things, burning the candle both ends and slinging Candy down their neck like a hypoglycaemic diabetic, laughing maniacally every time they ended up on a sugar crash when they overdid it and had to spend the next day in recovery. “Wish venues were as generous as this in real life,” grumbled one of our number, “and they keep the Candy coming.”
In the end it was a close-run thing – I’d failed to make it to Carter Stadium, having built up my Rep but neglected my Chops, and generally annoying everyone by almost having a residential at the Panda Palace – all for me fans – but in a last-minute Candy-fuelled Club run, I was pipped on the Star track. Good times, good times.
Would they play again? Apparently, yes. Sure, the board looked big, but once you had the measure of it, it was easy to navigate. And the cash and Candy? Yeah, they were some sweet deals. Maybe less Kiss next time, though?
When The Music’s Over…
To get the cons out the way, I can imagine there are a lot of hardcore gamers out there who are or will be incredibly disappointed by this game. It is a worker placement game, but a very straightforward one – no give a piece, take a piece and you only get one worker: you. It also has an
unreasonable amount of randomness for what is usually seen as a pretty Euro mechanic (dice? Shuffled cards? EVENTS?!?). There are also a lot of, let’s say, casual gamers who will be put off by this – the box is big and heavy, there are lots of pieces, it looks complicated… though the Marshalls that go up to 11 are cool. Which is a shame, really, as this could almost be a gateway game to mid-weight Euro-dom.
So that’s who won’t like it – who will? This is the good news bit. If you’ve played King of Tokyo and liked how it looked and how it played and could cope with a bit more but different, you’ll like this: the components are top of the shop and really make the game pop – it’s the details like the Marshall player boards (that go up to 11 – did I mention that?), the defaced money, the picks for turn order, the little asides on the cards – and the play, though daunting at first, is incredibly intuitive after round two; and you get to roll a dice. If you’ve ever watched a rock documentary, a rockumentary, if you will, you’ll like this: there are loads of refences to bands and behaviour of the time (not always good behaviour) which give the game a real authentic feel to the theme – this isn’t just a reskinned thing, this is a real groove thing. If you have ever been in a band, you’ll like this: that nostalgia of playing any dodgy venue just to get a gig, the feeling of accomplishment when you cut a demo, the disappointment when you were all geared to play a gig and someone else pips you to the post, the tenuous balancing act of holding down some kind of employment and living the dream, and those moments where just through pure luck you happen to be in the right place at the right time… or the wrong place at the right time. And if you just like to have a good time while playing, you’ll like this: most people think of event games as something that has to take ten plus hours to play and will have you hating each other by the end of it – not so with Rock Hard 1977; there will be a winner, but everyone will have had their own rock and roll experience and will be feeling camaraderie more than animosity. Seriously.
Rock Hard 1977 is not a complicated game. It is also not a filler game. What it is, is an incredibly fun game. There are few games where I’ve ended up laughing out loud during play, but this is one of them – you will have a good time, all the time – and that’s my philosophy.
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