“It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll” – Ancient Australian proverb
Rock Hard: 1977 is a game that I think people are going to get tired of me talking about. Even before I got to work on this review, my time playing it and learning about it with designer and bassist for the Runaways Jackie Fox (yes, she signed my badge) made it one of my Gen Con 2024 faves and one of my Top Board Games of the entire year. A huge hit for Devir, I was thrilled to get the chance to check the game out. Underneath the beautiful art and impeccable production value brought by Devir and the game’s artist Jennifer Giner, Rock Hard: 1977 is an incredibly fun and hilarious experience with plenty of strategic heft rumbling like a Gibson Thunderbird riff just beneath the surface. So tune in, turn on, drop out, and plug in for Rock Hard: 1977.
What’s In The Box?
- 1 Board
- 5 Amplifier boards
- 5 Low Sugar tokens
- 10 acrylic character standees
- 5 stands
- 10 character boards
- 10 character cards
- 7 ability tokens (For Doc Sapphire, Shere Darling, Rafael Santiago, Yolanda Delacroix, and Eric Fairchild)
- 5 Demo Tapes (one in each color)
- 5 Record Contract tokens (one in each color)
- 5 Turn Order guitar picks
- 5 Fame tokens
- 30 wooden cubes (6 per person)
- 15 crew tokens
- 8 Hot Hang tokens
- 1 Round marker
- 25 Candy tokens
- 10 Missed Work tokens
- Money (1’s, 5’s, and 10’s)
- 100 Hang Out cards
- 12 Starting Life Experience Cards
- 10 Manager cards
- 11 Job Cards
- 18 Random Gig cards
- 24 Personal Goal cards
- 5 Radio Edit cards
- 8 Production Bonus Cards
- 8 Performance Bonus cards
- 8 Publicity Bonus cards
- 8 Sugar Rush cards
- 1 Rising Star card
- 15 Event cards
This is a Devir game so you know should know by now that this is going to be one of the most well produced games out there. I really don’t think it’s possible to oversell how nice it is. Each player’s Amplifier has working knobs to track your stats, an on-off switch for Sugar Rush, slots for cubes to move and replicate the amps switches, even the chosen musician slots in over the amp’s “speaker.” It’s absolute perfection. The art is fun and poppy and almost feels like there’s going to be a Rock Hard: 1977 dating game coming out.
On top of it all is this deliciously grungy aesthetic that gets you in the mood of a late 70’s bars and clubs that Jackie got to see first hand in her rock n’ roll days. Oh, and the money? The money they included is the single best play money I’ve ever seen in any game. It’s not just cut up printer paper it feels like real money and is colored like it too. They even had to add coffee stains, kiss marks, and other graffiti just to make extra sure it wouldn’t come off as counterfeit. Amazing work all around.
How’s It Play?
The gameplay for Rock Hard: 1977 is fairly straightforward. You are an upcoming rock star trying to make it big in the hard rock scene of the late 70’s. Each turn, you’ll have three phases to take actions in: morning, afternoon, and evening. Which actions you can take depends on a few factors. You can’t work a day job at night, but you also can’t play a nightclub in the morning, for instance. You’ll also be competing with your fellow Rockers for space on certain actions (usually the best ones) each phase. Some spaces give you stat boosts, other give you direct money, and some have different effects based on cards drawn. An Event card drawn each round further complicates things by making certain spaces unavailable, stopping certain actions, etc.
The coolest part of Rock Hard: 1977 is that you do get a surprising amount of customization options for your rocker. Each of the ten possible characters has their own looks (drawn from the rocker archetypes Jackie knew first hand) but also their own special ability and strengths. From there you can buff certain stats for making your rocker better at performance vs. in-studio work, hire different managers to fit your goals, and you even get to pick your character’s day job (which you can of course quit if you think you’re too good for it). There’s even a fun “Candy” mechanic that represents an addiction to “candy” that makes your rocker able to play for longer and keep working with more energy and get “Sugar Rush” benefits. But you have to be careful, since if you don’t get enough “candy” you will crash out and need to lose a turn to recover from your crippling “candy” addiction.
(You can probably guess what Candy is the family friendly stand-in for, and Jackie herself has said she’d love an R-Rated version that doesn’t dance around the subject as much.)
The game ends after either you get to the end of the year (each of the nine rounds is a month) or someone hits 50 Fame (the victory points of the game). Then you add up cash, base stats, extra bonuses, and if you’ve fulfilled any of your Personal Goals as bonus points. You’ve also got to make sure your manager is paid or you’ll lose a TON of money and take a hit to your fame.
Does It Rock?
Yes. Yes it does. Rock Hard: 1977 is a perfect piece of gonzo rock n’ roll genius all packaged into one of the nicest presentations I’ve ever seen. The amount of character oozing from every pore of this game is impressive and its backed up with fairly deep but approachable gameplay that encourages you not just to try to be smart, but also just find out what wild thing might happen to affect your career. There’s a sarcastic bitterness of a former punk at the edges of the game tempered with the whip smart insight and wit of a four time Jeopardy champion (seriously look it up). Whether you’re someone who still dreams of making your way to the top of the rock food chain or just like to spin up those old records while shotgunning a few beers, Rock Hard: 1977 is a hell of a way to spend an evening.
You can grab Rock Hard: 1977 from the Devir Games shop, Amazon, or your FLGS at an MSRP of $59.99.
Images and Review copy via Devir Games
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