Rock Hard 1977

• Designer: Jackie Fox
• Publisher: Devir
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 16+
• Time: 90 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

It’s 1977. You’re an up-and-coming musician, dreaming of making it big with your band. Over the next few months you’ll rehearse, play gigs, write songs, and promote your band. With careful planning and a little luck, you’ll earn the most fame and become the best new artist of the year.

Designed by Jackie Fox (member of the 1970’s rock band “The Runaways”, four-time Jeopardy! champion, and designer of the narrative adventure trilogy The Adventures of the Chubby Slugz) and illustrated by Jennifer Giner, Rock Hard: 1977 allows games for groups of between 2 and 5 players, from 14 years old, in games lasting about 45-90 minutes.

Rock Hard: 1977 is played over a maximum of nine rounds, each representing a typical day of one month in 1977, from April to December. You win the game by accruing the most fame. How? Increasing reputation, chops and songs; achieving production, performance, and publicity bonuses; getting record deals and earning royalties; playing concerts; and hanging out at the hottest after-hours spot. Ready to live like a rock star?

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Wilmot’s Warehouse

• Designers: David King, Ricky Haggett, Richard Hogg
• Publisher: CMYK 
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with advance copy provided by CMYK, played at least 15 times with prototype
• Amazon Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3LQdc7R

So, what if I sat down at a game table with you, and asked you to play a game.  Where we’ll place 35 tiles, one at a time, turning each one facedown after placement.  And then at the end, we’ll have to cooperatively remember where each of those tiles were placed?  You’d jump at the opportunity, right?  Yeah, I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first – but after playing this game multiple times, I find that gets better and better with time.

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Horrified: World of Monsters

• Designer: Prospero Hall
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 60 mins
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

You’re one of Earth’s premier monster experts, and you’ve come to a mysterious arcane-punk town centered around the Void, a doorway between worlds from which terrors of all ilk might erupt.

Horrified: World of Monsters is a standalone game that features gameplay similar to 2019’s Horrified, and in this co-operative game, you’ll face off against the riddling Sphinx, the reclusive Yeti, the ravenous Jiangshi, and the Great Old One itself, Cthulhu. Each monster presents a unique challenge, and you can face them individually or in combination, with players pooling their unique skills to overcome puzzle-like obstacles inspired by monstrous legends and lore to gather item tokens, protect citizens, and avoid attacks.

The inclusion of Cthulhu brings the Horrified line its first multi-phase puzzle, with one puzzle in the realm of World of Monsters and one in Cthulhu’s realm.

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