The Runaways’ Jackie Fox Explains Her New Board Game Rock Hard: 1977
Devir Games
Bassist Jackie Fox joined teenage-sensation proto-punk band the Runaways on her 16th birthday in 1975, and she left the band in 1977, when she was still 17. She never played music professionally again. Decades later, she accused Kim Fowley, the Runaways’ late manager, of drugging and raping her in front of her bandmates. Now, Fox has turned her own experiences in the late-’70s music business into a board game that promises to be a whole lot less traumatic.
In a New York Times feature, Jackie Fox talks about Rock Hard: 1977, the new board game that she created for Devir Games. In the game, players take on the roles of rising rockers in 1977, and they compete to rack up the most fame. Fox sent Devir an email pitching the game out of the blue, and it’s reportedly become a sensation at Gen Con, the board game convention. In the game, players can choose from a diverse set of characters — including, in an expansion pack, Fox herself. Candy stands in for drugs — the thing that can help these musicians play more shows but that can also cause them severe problems if they overindulge.
In the Times piece, Jackie Fox says, “I wanted to have a hint of that, without really exploring the darker side of it. There was a darker side.” After her time in the Runaways, Fox became an entertainment lawyer and a Jeopardy! champion, and she started developing Rock Hard: 1977 during the COVID lockdowns. In a Board Game Geek piece last month, Fox wrote:
I wondered why it was so hard to find a game that ticked all the boxes for me: the strategy of a good Euro; the “fun” factor of an American-style game; true integration of theme and mechanisms; quick turns even at full-player count. It was at that moment I decided to design the game I wanted to play…
The ten characters I created are loosely based on combinations of people I knew or know, though changed to reflect a diversity of characters who play one of five different instruments (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, or vocals) and are one of three different genders (male, female, or androgynous). Each has a unique ability that gives them a slight edge in certain situations. By the time we emerged from the self-isolation of 2020, I knew these characters better than the people who’d inspired them.
Check out some images of the game below.
You can order Rock Hard: 1977 here.
