Devir Rock Hard: 1977 – Strategy Board Game for 2-5 Players, Ages 14+ – Become a Rock Star in This 70s-Themed Music Career Game with Worker Placement Mechanics – 90 Minute Playtime

Rock Hard: 1977 (designed by Jackie Fox) is an asymmetrical worker placement game from Devir Games that recreates the struggle to become a famous musician in late 1970s Los Angeles. The game is based on Jackie Fox's real life experiences in the entertainment industry.Each player is a musician with different abilities struggling to earn Fame Points by boosting their "Chops," their "Reputation," and their library of "Songs." There are nine rounds in a game. Each round is a month. You play an average day in that month every round. Each round has three parts: day, night, and after hours, with unique actions that can only be taken at those times. There are also actions that can be taken at any time, like writing songs.While not mandatory, the most reasonable strategy for the game is to get a Demo Tape as fast as you can in order to get a Record Deal. Then boost your stats to renegotiate your record deal to make enough off of royalties to quit your boring job. There are three tiers of Record Deal, each requiring different things. But it is also possible to focus on playing big gigs to earn fame and fortune without a Record Deal. There are multiple paths to victory and fame...and even more paths to defeat and obscurity.Of all the phases of the turn, the "after hours" phase has the most going on. There are multiple different "Hot" Hang Outs that can be visited and cards drawn from there can earn you immediate goodies or "cash in later" bonuses.Another highlight are the "random gigs" you can perform at in the night phase of each turn. These gigs can range from a pool party to a Bar Mitzvah to a yacht party for a sheik.Where things get somewhat problematic is the "candy" mechanic. A player can consume candy (if they have any) to try to get one or two extra actions in one of the phases of their turn. The more candy they take, the more "craving" they have. And if they roll poorly after taking candy, they spend the next day phase in "recovery" with low blood sugar.So the "candy" is (I think) representative of various drugs, including cocaine (a.k.a. nose candy). The "craving" is a level of addiction. Rolling poorly after taking candy is an "overdose." And recovery is something like "rehab."For some people (not me, obviously) the whole "candy" part of the game could be off-putting. It is thematic, but not kid-friendly. So I would steer the impressionable kiddies away from this one, unless you want to play it like the candy is actual candy and just go from there. That's up to you! While we're at it, there are also a few risqué references to sexual encounters in the after hours Hang Out cards.And some of the board spaces are somewhat confusing. There are a lot of "no candy" icons on various spaces. These mean that you cannot use candy to take the action there more than once in a turn, but the icon doesn't convey that too well. I originally thought you couldn't use these spaces with the extra actions from using candy.The manual and the (many) cards are on less fancy paper and cardstock than I'm used to seeing. And the film tends to peel off cool little player standees when you try to affix them to the bases provided. So be careful! Where most of the money was spent seems to be on the truly awesome "amp" player boards (which are a bit difficult to assemble, be warned) and the very cool "rocker" money.What else? All the cards in the game (over 200 of them) will fit into the 45 x 68 mini-European size of card sleeves. I always sleeve my cards. And the six reference cards will fit in the 80 x 120 "Dixit" sized card sleeves.The game works for two players, but is really better at higher player counts, like four or five players. The designer encourages you to use an "A.I." player known as "The Rising Star" in two and three player games. What "The Rising Star" does is block off one space per phase in each round, making those spaces difficult or impossible to use. There is a The Rising Star reference card included in the game.Jackie Fox voluntarily wrote a thorough errata and FAQ for her game and posted it on the Board Game Geek website.Aside from any candy or component issues, Rock Hard: 1977 does rock as a game. It's a fun simulation of the struggle to stop working a dull job and be a famous musician.

We think we are the singers try to be the super star during to play this game ! Very enjoyable !

enjoying this game

Great Game. Fast Delivery

i’ve waited a long time for this, psyched to finally get my hands on it! the creativity of this is outstanding. i listened to the runaways live in tokyo for my first play through (highly recommend 🤘). looking forward to many games now that i have the game and my head around the rules of the rock n roll road. game is awesome!

This is a really fun worker placement game with TONS of seventies nostalgia.