Rock Hard: 1977 Brings the Rockstar Dream to Your Kitchen Table

(Editor’s note: Let’s face it — most metalheads are a buncha nerds. To that end, Hallowed Be Thy Game is a weekly feature here on MetalSucks where we’ll highlight some of the metal-as-fuck board/video/tabletop role playing games we’re playing or have played in the past.)

Rock and metal may have seen a massive upswing in the ’80s, but if we’re being serious with ourselves, things really started kicking off in the prior decade. The ’70s were a unique time period where disco still blared in the nightclubs while rock bands like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Kiss sold out arenas and soaked in everything rock stardom had to offer.

For our purpose here on MetalSucks’, the ’70s were also a hotbed for some of the most iconic metal bands like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Van Halen all releasing their respective debut albums in that decade.

So when I learned that Devir Games had a board game coming out that let players live out their rags to riches rock star fantasies, I knew I had to try it. It wasn’t until I learned that former entertainment attorney, four-time Jeopardy! champ Jackie Fox designed it that I knew we had a potentially exciting game on our hands. After all, who better to create a game about starting out as a rock star in the ’70s than someone who experienced it?

At its core, Rock Hard: 1977 is a “worker-placement game,” which means players will take turns moving their workers around the board to gain the resources. Those resources will be necessary throughout the game in order to score some points. Where things get interesting is the fact that nearly every spot on the board is limited to one player per round. Sure, there are some exceptions to that rule, but if your friend gets to the spot you needed before you can, you’re shit outta luck.

Players in Rock Hard: 1977 get a single action per phase — day, night, and after hours — in each round. As each player takes their turns, they gradually increase their fledgling rock star’s Chops, Reputation, and Songs stats. You’ll need to increase those stats if you want to land a record deal and start playing bigger (read as: more lucrative) gigs. The goal is to have the most points either by the end of the ninth round, or be the person to score 50 or more points, thus ending the game early.

Which brings me to a particular concept within the game that needs to be addressed — “candy”. You can’t talk about the ’70s rock scene without mentioning the drug use that existed at the time. Rock Hard: 1977 covers the drug use of that time by using “candy” so it’s much more acceptable to families. Using this “candy” is often a great move, since it gives you at least one extra action that phase. The only problem is that it increases your chance of being forced to go to the hospital to recover. You know… because you had too much “candy” the night before…

There are gentle winks and nods throughout the game that allude to what life as a rock star in the 1970s might have been. In the after hours phase, you can hang out at various venues around the city. These encounters can lead to scenarios where your rock star might hook up with some twins in a club and get inspired to write a new song, or maybe get photographed backstage hanging out with a famous musician. Collect a set of the different icons on the hangout cards and you immediately score points, thus highlighting just how important it is to be a social butterfly if you’re gonna make it in the biz.

There’s so much more to this game that I’m glazing over — like how as a rock and roll hopeful, you start the game off with a day job that you can use to get money. Or you can skip your boring 9-5 in favor of making money in other ways, like selling blood, playing gigs, and buying/selling “candy.”

As you become more and more famous, you’ll need more crew to play the bigger venues. Hiring more skilled crew members mean associated costs will continue to increase. You also have a manager that gives you some great, almost game-breaking abilities, but you have to pay them every three months and heaven forbid if you fail to pay them in full.

And none of that even touches the stellar components that make the game an incredibly enjoyable tactile experience. The player boards look like little amps complete with movable knobs to mark your base stats (they go to 11). Each rock star has a unique backstory and comes with their own acrylic standees to place around the board during your turn. And the game uses paper money that’s like one or two notches below counterfeit with how real they feel — though let’s not get any funny ideas — they’re obvious fakes.

At the end of the day, Rock Hard: 1977 is a fun piece of cardboard escapism that any rock or metalhead interested in tabletop gaming should give a shot.

(Devir Games provided a copy of Rock Hard: 1977 for review. This did not color our opinion on the game.)