Driving through Laurel Canyon, the narrow, twisty roads of the Los Angeles neighborhood vibrate with the energy of musicians who have lived here. I’m headed to the home of one such musician, Jackie Fox (née Fuchs), former bassist for the Runaways and part of their classic lineup. But it’s not to talk about her role in the pioneering punk group. Instead, we’re going to have an afternoon of playing a board game.
That game is Rock Hard: 1977, created by Fox and released by DevirGames in August. Fox opens the door wearing a Rock Hard: 1977 T-shirt that is on par with classic concert Ts with its defined font and Aerosmith-like wings flanking the name of the game. She ushers me into her dining room turned gaming room. The dining table is covered in a game mat and Rock Hard is in the process of being set up. Even without all the game’s many components in place, the intricate game board looks exciting. It has multiple sections, a colorful design, and intriguing options for rock star actions like making a demo or earning chops by playing your instrument. It also has cool tactile elements like guitar picks and tiny vinyl records.
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A quick glance around this room and it’s clear that Fox is an experienced player of complicated board games. A long side table has martini glasses of varying sizes filled with unique and colorful dice. A five-foot-tall case takes up the entire width of one wall. It is packed with neatly arranged board game boxes. Smaller game boxes are placed decoratively on top of the case. This is not a casual collection of Sorry, Monopoly, or even Catan. Instead, I spy Obsession, Rome, Sentient, and Ex Libris. These are some serious titles that signify dedication.
Fox’s gaming origin story started by playing family board games, which ceased when joined the Runaways just before turning 16. When she was a college student in her 20s, Fox turned to computer games like Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Zork. In between classes, she played arcade games like Gauntlet. Later, as a law student, she moved on to tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun. A dozen years ago, Fox saw a sign for a board game meetup at a local pizza parlor in Los Angeles, wandered in, and found a new community.
When she was hosting gaming parties at her home, Fox realized there was a gap in the market for a five-player strategy-based game with the additional fun factor of not knowing what might happen next. “In gaming, there’s a term, ‘multiplayer solitaire,’ where you’re doing your own thing on the board,” she says. “I wanted a game where you’re invested in what other people are doing on their turn, and your next turn comes around quickly enough that you don’t have time or interest in pulling out your phone. That game didn’t exist. I wanted that game on my shelf, so I designed it.”
Rock Hard: 1977 is based on Fox’s experiences as a musician: the grind, the opportunities, the disappointments, the wins, the unpredictability, the successes. 1977 is a pivotal year for Fox. It’s the year she split from the Runaways, the group she left high school to join. Not because she wasn’t academic, just the opposite. The original plan was for her to spend her senior year enrolled at UCLA. Bored and restricted in her environment, the Runaways offered a more exciting option. But two years later, a few months after her horrific sexual assault by the band’s producer, Kim Fowley, Fox stepped away from the Runaways.
In 1985, she enrolled at UCLA as a linguistics and Italian major, and then at Harvard Law School where her classmate was future President Barack Obama. She became an entertainment lawyer and worked in music licensing. In her spare time, Fox was a regular on various game shows including The Dating Game, The Chase, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and most notably, a four-time Jeopardy champion.
Rock Hard: 1977’s initial design came quickly to Fox, however, the physical manifestation took a year, primarily because she didn’t know how to create it. That was at the pandemic’s start, so she spent her lockdown time perfecting it. The final version is illustrated by Jennifer Giner.
Rock Hard: 1977 (Credit: Courtesy of Jackie Fox)
A worker placement game, meaning you choose what your player is going to do each turn, Rock Hard: 1977 can be played by two to five people. There are 10 musicians of diverse backgrounds, genders, and orientations from which to choose. For example, singer Kimmy Kim, guitarist “Doc” Sapphire, studio musician Yolanda Delacroix, bassist Donovan Sterling, lead guitarist Eric Fairchild, drummer Shere Darling, and finally, bassist Jackie Fox. Each one has a cunning plastic standee figure and specific abilities. Similarly, your choice of manager also comes with specific benefits.
The board has many sections, the primary ones being day, night and after-hours. In each of these timeframes, there are only certain actions allowed. For example, during the day, you can hire a publicist, indie promo, a crew or you can do a radio interview, sign a record contract. At night you can rehearse or play gigs. In the after-hours, you can hang out and make connections or choose to go to bed.
I’m stuck in the first step of picking my player. They all look so great with their fantastic hair, amazing clothes and instruments. Plus, they each have singular abilities like never being blocked from any space when wanting to play a gig (bassist Leo Love) or secretly peeking at the top card on the deck (keyboardist Rafael Santiago). So it’s not just a question of choosing my person based on how they look and what they do, but these additional special talents. I want to pick Jackie Fox the bassist as my player, but Fox has removed her as an option. I decided on Benji “Bam Bam” Bernstein, drummer and scenester, who can draw more than one card when he does his hanging out, is the next best choice. Now I have to pick a manager, who, like each musician, also has particular qualities, one of them gets you paid more (Schuyler Jansen), and another one can get you into any venue (Nigel Hawthorne-Dawes). I go with Tommy Rock, who is my player’s friend from high school who is also a promoter. I feel good about it
As Fox arranges the many components of Rock Hard: 1977, her friends who are memorialized in the game arrive to play. They are introduced in connection to their namesakes in the game: Carter Stadium, Yenser Arena, and TJ’s, a small club. Amanda Panda of Panda Palace is missing, but Fox herself is represented by Fox’s Den, another small club, and by Jax, an after-hours spot. The venues in Rock Hard are among the elements in the game that make it different, and fun, to play.
Under the direction of Fox, we figure out the game as we play. She is generous with her suggestions but does not dictate our decisions. Our attitude becomes more aggressive and panicked, as the objectives become clearer.
We each have an amp—with a twistable knob that goes up to 11—where we keep track of various actions and consequences. These include skipping work (eventually we want to quit) but in the meantime, we need to work a day job to earn authentic-looking dollars, complete with coffee stains, lipstick marks, and Sharpie-doodled bills.
The amp helps keep track of how much “candy” we’re taking, whose boosts are hard to resist, but the downside is if we take too much and the candy will have a detrimental effect on us for which we have to pay–it’s oh so tempting to keep risking it.
The candy element is a clever aspect of Rock Hard: 1977, which represents the negatives of becoming a musician as much as the positives with an emphasis on unpredictability. This was one of Fox’s objectives in creating the game, which serious gamers sometimes get frustrated with as their strategies don’t always pan out in Rock Hard: 1977.
“I designed it to hopefully hit this sweet spot where people who normally like heavier games will be willing to play it and maybe bring their friends or partners into a more complex gaming style. But it’s still accessible to people who’ve never played modern board games or more complex games,” says Fox.
The layout for Rock Hard 1977 (Credit: Courtesy of Jackie Fox)
On our first try, which involves seven people, with two sets of us playing as pairs, Rock Hard: 1977 takes about three hours to complete. Once you have the hang of the game, Rock Hard: 1977 should fulfill your rock star dreams in about 90 minutes from start to finish.
Fox mentions that Steve Miller told her that Rock Hard: 1977 is an accurate reflection of a musician’s life. For example, your van is stolen, and your agent didn’t insure the equipment. Fox has that scenario filled with the ideas she has for the expansion pack of the game, which will reflect the trials and tribulations players face when they become established musicians.
“Everybody wants to be a rock star,” says Fox. “You know what a musician does so you can wrap your head around the actions. As you get better, you can start planning a little better. But a random event can crush those plans. In real life, you’re told, ‘Hey, you’re opening for Bob Seger tomorrow.’ You drive all night from the Midwest to Eastern Pennsylvania. You get in at seven in the morning. You fall into bed for a few hours of sleep before your radio station interview. And when you wake up you’re told, ‘Oh hey, Bob Seger’s drummer broke his leg. There’s no gig tonight.’ That’s what it’s like to be a rock star.”
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.