Rock Hard: 1977

Hi , I'm Christian .

And I'm Angela and we are Married and Bored .

Well , welcome everybody to another episode of the Married and Bored podcast . Yes , we're back .

Married and Bored 101 .

101 . It're back Married and Bored 101 . 101 . It's a great number . We're going to start at the very beginning . We're going to teach you how to do all Married and Bored stuff .

Yes .

From zero to intermediate , because then you take Married and Bored 102 .

Yes , I was thinking Dalmatians , and you'll learn a little bit more . No , I don't think about Dalmatians . 101 Dalmatians . I know 101 is just as good as 100 .

It's one more better than 100 .

It's just as good .

Yeah , yeah , Thanks everybody for tuning in to our 100th episode . That one kind of snuck up on us , right , yeah .

Why did it sneak up on us ? We shouldn't be surprised . I mean , it was a slow burn .

It's not like we flew to 100 .

That's true . Took us a while , but we did it we did it , and we've got a thought in our head for something to kind of I don't know add to the podcast .

A third guest .

Oh , who is the third guest ?

Oh , I thought that was the idea .

No , no , no , I'm not sharing what the idea is .

Oh , you're not .

Because I want it to be mysterious . It's like one of those Facebook posts where it's like I have really good news , but I can't share it yet .

Or it's like I can't believe what just happened . Period .

It's like fishing for the comments , yeah .

Oh , no , no , not again . It's like oh geez , jennifer , what happened ? Let me tell you yeah , brink yeah , and then you get a whole 32 notification . All right , so we're trying , we're trying to take it to the next level . Right , you get to level 100 in warcraft or diablo and it's like , what are you going to do ?

I have been really into organizing our Marvel Champions stuff .

Isn't it already organized ? Yes , we did a whole Marvel Champions Summer tune-in to our previous shows to learn more about it .

But so we're in the process of re-sleeving all of our cards for Marvel Champions . Re-sleeving all of our cards for Marvel Champions , and when I say we're in the process , it's because we just don't want to go out and buy a thousand sleeves .

At once At once no , so we're buying them in moderate chunks and then re-sleeving as we go . Yeah , it's easier to just buy sleeves when new content comes out , the ones we buy , I mean we'll say what they are . They're Titan Shield and we just find them on Amazon and we like the clear , matte finish .

Marvel Champions it allowed to have clear sleeves , because then you can mark your cards and see them marvel champions .

It doesn't matter , but like for a game like star wars unlimited or something I think you have to have a solid back .

Okay , well , so we did that for a while ? Yeah , we did , because we didn't hero all the hero decks with the white back and all the villain or encounters whatever with the orange ? Yes , and then I don't know what stopped it for you , but for me it was the orange . Reorder was in a different color yeah , so they was this .

It was the same company . We were getting orange and then they , they like , changed the tint of orange a little bit . Or maybe we , we couldn't find the old orange and we were like , oh , oh , we'll try this new brand and it didn't .

I think it was both , because as I'm re-sleeving , there's three different shades of orange . Yeah .

So we're just like you know what . Let's just go clear , going clear , just like the Scientology documentary .

Oh , are you plugging the Scientology documentary ?

That's the way we go . So where are you in all this ?

Yeah , so I think I have maybe like half of the heroes to go .

Okay .

That need sleeves Actually probably more than half , because we had some janky , clear sleeves that we don't like , but I just used them to replace the orange and white . So I would like to eventually replace those two , those really really thin , clear ones that we had .

I think I've said this on our in our series this summer , but , like , like , I forget about the Spider-Man box . Yeah , I never think of it .

No , because you never played the full campaign .

Me yeah , personally .

I don't think you did . I did Probably not yeah , so I've been doing that . I like the roteness of it .

What does that mean ?

Like just the process of sleeving rote-ness of it . What does that mean ? Like just the process of sleeving ? Okay , I like that and it sounds so pathetic like I'm making fun of someone , but I'm saying it earnestly Like I like the pile of the cards that I'm gonna sleeve , then the new sleeves , then the old sleeves go in this pile . I like , like that rote .

You just like order .

Order , just like I like . You know like filling swag bags , you know like how there's something from each section goes in the bag and then the bag is complete and I just like that assembly line stuff , okay . Plus , I can do it while I watch Breaking Bad .

And is that ? No spoilers ? But is that what's bringing you joy at the end of the episode ? Because I would say it's not bringing you joy .

No , we talked that we were watching it last episode and it's a good show , but it is frustrating sometimes for me .

Yeah , because you never watched it when it was out , so this is all new for you .

It's all new , okay , so that's what's been up with me , what is up with you .

I've been watching a lot of Marvel Champions sleeving . Just online yeah it's a new thing , it's just going nuts .

Wait , should I twitch my sleeving ? Wow , you know what that is .

I do Look at you , yeah , so I've been looking at the marvel champions with you just a little bit , because I haven't really been in the world . We just got nightcrawler right , that's the newest one , so that's fun .

I can't think of another one , because cosmoctopus was this kickstarter , wasn't ?

it . No , I well it was , but then I impulsed it afterwards okay .

So I I mean and then it was okay and we sold it yeah , um , I can't think of any other like impulse buys of yours that I've been like yes yeah , I know there's just been a few that if it's like a two-player card game or something it's like , well , we usually only play with two .

Is this 25 or less ?

yes , it is buy it it's like your , it's your brain's flow chart . Is it $25 or less ?

Yes , it is .

Arrow , arrow , yes or no , and then you follow .

I do the same thing with video games , except my limit is 20 . So I was like is this a good game ? Yes , do you want it ? Yes , is it less than $20 ? No , then I don't buy it .

Okay .

So that's kind of my 25 is my board game limit , 20 is my video game limit . Anyways , the game that I impulse bought is called Compile and I watched . You know what's funny ? I didn't even watch the whole thing . There's a video by Shut Up and Sit Down and they were just like is this the best small box card game in the last blah , blah , blah ?

Can't find it anywhere .

And we have it , so suck it . You can come to our house and play it , but you can't , because we'll be playing it , because it's only two player . Wait in line , so we played it . I learned how to play it today with our son . It's good . Like I don't know the rules very well . I'm not a good rule reader and then executor if that makes sense , yes .

Mm-hmm . Probably .

And then figure it out , Like I'm better at listening to someone do that and then figuring it out from there .

Yeah , but it's like like a two-player head-to-head game .

It's supposedly like really close to a game called Land , air and Sea Land Air and Sea , which is a . It's like a two-player battle game where you have different lanes of land , air and sea and you put vehicles and weapons in those . It's like military Gotcha .

Okay , all right . After one playthrough , how do you feel ?

I feel good . I think there's a bunch of rules that we missed . After reading it and watching a quick video , yeah . And it's . I think it could be good , like could be way better than what I experienced .

Okay .

Because the first time it's just like . You know , I don't really know , we're also watching football . Well , yeah , so that was also going on and I like the aesthetic of it . It's like very like computery .

Yeah , it's pretty fun . We'll all need to play that one .

Yeah , I think we should . I think I mentioned card games last episode too . Maybe we'll just do a card game extravaganza in the next couple shows . Just not do a deep dive dive , but just touch on what , what we've been or what I've been playing , and um kind of just check in and see what's fun .

Really early on in our podcasting journey we did like a star wars extravaganza episode , um , and then we also did close to that , I think a ravensburger oh yeah , we did ravensburger like ravensburger because we had , like jaws , jurassic park and like another one .

I think I've been on a card game kick , so just cards in general . Like I think I said again , I want to get into like basketball cards again . I think , that'd be fun this summer season . So , like , just like collecting cards , and it's fun to see them , it's fun to like see what you can do and also play games at the same time .

For Pokemon .

So everyone who's a couple years younger than me knows it all .

I think there was a gap , but I just know the famous pokemons and like .

And then there was now it's popular , super popular again . Yes , but yeah , so compile , check it out . It's a , it's a cool game . If you can find it , I recommend it again . It's the . It's under the 25 limit there you go .

For the impulse buy yeah . For the impulse buy yeah .

And it was . I think it was a big hit at gen con , much like , uh , the game we're talking about today , rock Hard 1977 . So anything else you want to say at the top of the show before we jump into talking about that game ?

No , I would say that was a good opener , and now it's time for the headliner .

Oh my goodness , Rock on .

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Okay , I was just trying to be like a radio dj coming up , coming up , skulls plays Dash Diner and that's how you start the game .

There is a christian out there who took his musical ability to the extreme ?

yeah , and maybe my addictive personality as well um , yeah , maybe everyone loves me hi angela , let's talk about um , this game rock hard 1977 . It is I . I was gonna just list some cool facts about the game before we get started .

Yeah , but you know you like rock and classical .

I do like classic rock .

Oh , okay .

So it's kind of like if you put them together . Okay , right .

And it's more like you know 1777 . Yeah , not 1977 .

Yeah , and it's designed by Jackie Fox , who's actually an actual rock star in the 70s . She played bass for the Runaways , which is the same band that Joan Jett was in .

Do we have to pay royalties ?

No , did you know what song it was by the time I said that ?

I was being a little sarcastic .

Okay , everyone knows that song for sure , but so apparently a lot of like the events and gigs and places you can go are based on things that she experienced in her life as a rock star .

It sounds ideal .

So , anyways , I've talked way too much uh about this game . Angela , why don't you describe what this ? How to actually not how to play it , but like what you're going to be doing ?

yeah . So rock hard is a worker placement game for two to five players . It also has some set collection in there , but that's minor . Each player will take on the role of an up-and-coming musician trying to make it out in the biz and you're going to take actions to try to improve your chops , your reputation and your songs , all trying to earn the most fame .

So that's my disclaimer about candy and by candy you mean booger , booger sugar yeah , yeah , I think everybody knows what candy is . We've been watching a lot of breaking bad , and I know it's not about this , but it's like cocaína .

Cocaína yeah .

Yeah , I think that's how you say it . I don't know .

I don't know Cocaine .

Cocaine . So there you go . It's a worker placement game and you're going to be just trying to make your way through life as a musician yeah , um so leah angela , start this off . Um , what does it take to get this game going ?

we just set up this game not for the first time , but again before recording this episode to play it through with our kids and we both just looked at each other and I think you said like I hate the setup for this game .

It's terrible .

It is a little tedious . There are a lot of mini decks .

Terrible .

So you do have to shuffle a lot of mini card decks and set those up . I do think it takes up quite a big play area . Yeah , you know you expect a big war or strategy game like battle strategy game to take up a lot of space . I wouldn't have expected this one to take up as much space as it does .

There's so many mini decks .

That makes sense . So yeah , it is . It's a little tedious to set up , and I think the same goes for the teardown . The teardown's not any easier Because by the end of the game all the different meeple token colors are on different places of the board . So you're redoing that . We like to store our game by player color almost always .

I mean , come on , guys , it makes sense .

I mean it makes sense in our brain store our game by player color almost always ?

I mean come on , guys , it makes sense . I mean , it makes sense in our brains . So you just throw somebody a baggie of orange and they have everything you need to go .

Exactly so we think it makes less sense . Sometimes games I don't remember how this one came to us , but sometimes games come to you with , like all of the I don't know what they're well , it's just like the vp tokens in one day .

It's like like components are like , yeah , together , like all the stars , no matter what color they are are all together , and so we like to sort them out by color .

Um , so re-sorting that out at the end is just as tedious . All the mini-cards have to go back , oh my gosh , so it's not the greatest experience to set up in Teardown .

Yeah , the past few games that we've played and one of them we will probably talk about in a couple weeks , septima . We set up that game and I was like what is going on ? There's so much to set up so much , and that one took a bunch of table space as well .

Right .

It's just interesting .

So that feeds well into the next thing we want to talk about is components Like what does this game come with ? What's good , what's bad ? Components like what does this game come with ? What's good , what's bad ? Uh well , the first thing that I think about with components on this game is that it's just a dump box .

There's no , there's no storage anything no , it's just it did come with a bunch of baggies , which is great , but also , you know , you can put a bunch of baggies in a trash bag and it's like look , come play this game right , that's exactly what it is .

It's like this game was just thrown in the box , not in a way that's like , oh , it was damaged or destroyed , but it's just no , I mean it's packaged differently .

When it's shipped to you , we get it , but then when , like when you want to have to be able to play it easily , you'd be well benefited to buy yourself a folded space insert or print your own . I don't know .

Yes , so that's the first thing I think of , which is a con , of course , but there are a lot of good things . I think the component quality overall is

Yes , make sure of a lot of wood tokens , like some player pieces are wooden , and then you also have some really cool acrylic meeple . They're not even meeple , it's just your character .

Yeah , and then talk about the player board . I know it takes up space so that you'll have to weigh whether it's worth it for you , but it does .

The way it is is really cool . Yeah , it just looks like a marshall amp , like a marshall cab . If you know what that is , it's an old school guitar amp .

They're overly large for what they are that's true , but it does hold too many cards you do have to put too many cards on there .

That's true , and so it does it's . It's cool , I'm not . It's not a bad thing no but if I had to like change one thing , it's just like okay , let's change up the player board just maybe a little smaller , yeah to to accommodate space .

Duh theuh the dials . That's cool .

And the amp turning on and off with your oh , if you have to go to rehab or not To recovery , so which we'll talk about , I'm sure , in the later sections .

But yeah , I think it does a really good job with its components in general .

Well , yeah , I mean we have to talk about a couple more things too . Like , the player pieces are acrylic and so it has a really cool you can . They're one-to-one representation of what the um image is on your player board . And it's just shrunk down , uh , into , like this little acrylic standing . So that's really cool .

Oh the money . Yeah , the money is very close to an actual United States dollar bill .

It . I , yeah , I'm debating . It's paper money , which in a board game these days is rare . Usually it's coins , right , it's like oh , and then you get metal coins , so cool .

Yeah , which wouldn't make sense for this game .

I guess maybe not .

Because why would you be earning Coins , coins ?

I mean , I played in an arena and I only got $3 . So I mean , maybe that's the life of a rock and roller , but $3? .

Maybe everything should have like a K after it .

Or just a zero at least .

Yeah .

But yeah , so the money is really cool . It feels weirdly like real money . It's not like just paper , it's not Monopoly .

Right .

It's just , I would say it's maybe what ? 60% the size of a regular dollar .

Yeah , it's a little narrower .

Yeah .

That's for sure . But it does , I mean , unless you're holding a dollar right next to it , it doesn't .

No , it feels like real money . Yeah , it's kind of funny like that .

That quality is cool . The rule book it's not my favorite . My favorite is like the Linenfield rule books that Stonemaier always has and Keymaster always has they do well yeah . But it feels like a newspaper . Oh really , yeah , master always has , I feel like , but , um , it feels like a newspaper .

They went extra , they made a decision that was different than the norm .

Okay , and so I like that .

Yeah , it's really cool . I mean overall it has some great . It does have good components . There's nothing like . Nothing screams . This is cheap . No , you know , you get some cards that are extra thin , or you get some really cheap like wooden meeples and you can see like if I just pressed really hard the tip of the star would come off you know what I mean .

So yeah , and this game just wouldn't make sense with um the metal money .

So at first I was like man , I wish this had metal . But the more we've played it I've been like oh the paper's cool , Paper's really cool , it's really neat .

Okay , so how accessible is learning to play ? How easy is it to learn ? What do you think , christian ?

Okay . So if you would have asked me this a month ago , like when we first got it , or previous to that , I would have said this is a hard game to learn .

Yeah , you know , it's not always best to start playing a new game at 10 at night .

I don't think it was that , but it might have been . I might have been in one of my moods where I'm just like , hey , it's a three-day weekend , we're going to play games all weekend . We're going to play games all weekend , yeah , and so that was like the fifth game we played . So it is possible .

That's true . Yeah , I'm a little bit thrown on this one too . I feel like if you've got someone that loves the rock theme or just like , Like geodes . Yeah , like minerals , yeah , ink . No . The rock hard theme Rock and roll , rock and roll . The rock hard theme , rock and roll , rock and roll .

Sure .

Because there's people that actually lived .

Lived it .

Through the 70s and weren't just babies and born then , but they actually went to a concert in 1977 .

Yeah .

And then there's people that are more like our age , which it's maybe we're rocking in the 80s , but have loved classical rock . And there's people that are like rediscovering all that now . So , anyway , I feel like it has a big reach and I feel like the theme can help someone . Want to learn it ? Yeah .

If you think about the game Harvest which we just talked about , another worker placement game there's a lot of options . There are so many open spots , but in this game it's pretty limiting . It's daytime , right .

The simplicity of the phases , lends itself to teaching people .

That helps a lot , because I was very confused the first time we did it on how that worked .

Right Um , now you have an aunt and an uncle .

I have many .

Shout out to the shallows . Oh , yeah , and uncle I have many shout out to the shallows , oh yeah , um , who like to come down to the valley ?

yeah , from up north yeah phoenix valley to see concerts they go to .

They've probably seen stevie nicks like 13 times so they are like heavy into the theme of rock Hard 1977 , but I can't picture them liking this game .

Hey , cousin Ryan , let us know , would your parents play this game ? I'm guessing no . I feel like your mom would play this more than your dad , but I don't know .

So I feel like there is a limit to like okay , there's people that are heavy into the theme of rock and roll but you can't take someone who has no idea what a modern board game is yeah , they're more bunco people .

Yeah , exactly , just roll those dice . But everything else is what you would find in a typical worker placement . Once you go to a spot , no one else can go there . You have end of game goals that you have to keep track of . You have personal goals you have to keep track of .

Yep .

And then there's ways to upgrade your personal person Personal person , your character , so to speak , or your band so that you can earn more money as the game progresses . Yeah , so there's all these things you're keeping in mind as you're going through , so that can get somewhat overwhelming .

Sure yeah , Once you do , though I feel like the board does a good job of reminding you . Yeah , what everything does and is .

Yeah , sometimes I feel like there's a lot of icons on this board . True what everything does and is . Yeah , sometimes I feel like there's a lot of icons on this board .

True , and it is one of those .

Like if you if we're going to compare it to other . Um work placement , yeah , so like if you think of , like the classics , like viticulture , yep dune imperium and then we're going to throw harvest in there okay those three boards look so much nicer and are more thematic to the experience than this one .

Okay , I might push back a little on . Dune is very intimidating Dune Imperium like the board .

Okay , there's a lot going on there . I'm just feeling , maybe it just looks more like Dune .

Right , yeah , no , I get that yeah .

But this one in my mind it's just very square , like literally yeah , so there's spots for your characters to go , and then it just says what they do and there might be a little picture of a bar . I don't know what they could have done to make it more cohesive and meld it together Harvest is a whole farm , so you see a sprawling farm .

Right .

So there's cool stuff like that to look at on the board , but that's my only thing about like this board . It could be a little bit more interesting yeah , okay , I could see that .

Um , okay , let's talk about the final three are always my favorite the fun , the immersive and the replayability . Yeah , I mean I feel like these are fun , these always like they meld together like classic rock , right ?

so like three , four and five equals 11 , 12 actually when you add them all together . So let's 12 this up and just talk about them in one big lump lump of candy .

Okay , well , as previously discussed in the what's up section , I like my stuff ordered okay , so let's reverse that and just talk about how fun it is christian's gonna lump his together . I'm gonna talk about mine separate . We can do that right yeah , totally we're different . We're different people uh , I mean fun . Who doesn't want to be a rock star ?

I don't know it's fun a nerd yeah , you're a nerd I am a nerd , but I want to be a rock star uh , yeah , I feel like it is fun to try to become a famous person .

I think the theme is fun for us because we both are musicians .

Okay , let's talk about that , Because the first couple of times we played , we played with two . Yeah , we finally got a four player game . Discuss .

So it's kind of hard to differentiate for me . Maybe as I talk I'll figure it out . But in Harvest , when we played two player , you also have to play the mayor who covers up spots .

Yeah , Mayor McCheese .

I felt like that one did a better job of the two player experience than this one .

Okay .

Because this one , you do have to have another . It's not a player , it's just a way for the blocks to cover up different spots on the board .

I think it's called Rising Star , and so it's like somebody who's even less popular than you that's taking up space on the board .

There you go . It's taking up space on the board . There you go . So the thing I don't like about that one is that it's always the same for every game .

Yes , there's no variance .

There's no variable , there's no like okay , draw the card and see where their cube gets placed . It's like at the start of every two player game . These three options are not available .

And you know what they are . They're ones you want to start the game with .

Absolutely , and then the next round . These three options are always the next .

It's like a natural progression too . So it's like the first one . It's like you can gain three money to go here and it's just like OK , well , I can't keep gain three money , so I'm gonna do this instead yeah .

and I say that like hesitating , because I like worker placement . For that exact reason , because I like the idea of For the brutality . No More like okay , what's plan B ? What can we do now ?

You like that I ?

do Well . I like the planning .

Yes .

But if my plan doesn't work out because someone took it , I like the strategy of trying to like . Okay , what's the plan now ?

The pivot .

Um , but I don't feel like this one lends itself well to pivots , because sometimes there is one thing and only one thing that everyone needs to do , and what there's , there's just no other . It's not like you can't do anything else , but everyone wants a record deal .

There's one slot that's for a record deal , brutal in a two-player game that I mean even in four .

It's worse in four well , because there's there's two slots in four for a record deal . Oh , sorry For getting the tape . I'm thinking .

Oh , recording a demo .

Right . So everyone wants to record a demo and then in the I guess the record deal is the better example .

There's only one . There's only one , and that's how you get money .

Right . So you say , okay , well , this day phase Christian got it , next day phase I could get it .

But not if you're third in the turn order and your number two player takes it .

Exactly . I feel like it's limiting in a not . It doesn't lend itself to a mental challenge .

It's just frustrating yeah , and then we experienced that with our kids because our son was trying to get a record deal for like three turns yeah and he could have had . He chose a less lucrative spot the turn previous to get a higher turn order .

Oh yeah , it's a huge swing , especially when we throw in the candy .

Candy .

Which allows you to do extra actions , but there's some things that you can't do . While you're on candy , while you're on candy , so , like one of them is going to bed early , which guarantees you first position in the next day , however , you literally forfeit your after hours .

It's a whole turn .

You forfeit everything on that turn .

Let me ask you this how does it work if I was thinking about this if more than one person goes to bed early ?

I don't know if it's a limited space or not . No , you don't know if it's a limited space or not . No , you don't . But if it is , if it's an open space . They say the most recent person to go to bed early is . That's backwards , Okay .

If you go to bed first , you're less tired in the morning .

I know , but I don't know . It said the leftmost right , the leftmost meeple .

Yeah , so maybe that's the first , maybe it is .

maybe we were playing that a little wrong , but also I don't think that situation ever happened . No , because people went to bed early no , I mean , we all have lives yeah , we all have after hours things to do I gotta go to the club ? Uh , yeah . So I think it's

Well , I will just say that I haven't felt the brutality of this one as hard as some other ones .

Oh , okay , so like maybe it's just .

maybe I'm just like , yeah , man rock on whatevs . Like I'll just , I'm chill , bro , you are chill . When's the next gig ? Um , I haven't felt that there have been times , I've just been like dang it yeah I need this , like the , the game we played , just you and I .

lost like I lost by five , really close and that was getting the record .

Deer wouldn't have changed that , so it was . That was good and so , like I feel like every , even though I've been very close to either , I've either won or got very close to winning , and so I don't feel as much as like the oh , I needed that Right as opposed to maybe like Viticulture .

I feel like Okay , but what this game is missing ? That Abomination has a bumping mechanic .

Abomination has bumping . I was thinking like like apiary does , but I didn't remember so you can pay someone off oh yeah , this one needs that . You had to like bribe them with . Can't give them drugs yeah , absolutely .

This one needs something where it's like okay , you want to take the space I just took , give me something . You know it needs that , even if it's only allowed once per phase or something Like hey , you can only bump one person per phase , yeah , or if you just like switch turnovers with them ?

Yeah , something like that , yeah .

I feel like it needs something to make it a little more forgiving . This one might have maybe this goes down into replayability , so I'll talk about it there but immersive .

I mean it's hugely .

Hugely immersive .

I don't know . Yeah , I joked . When we were playing it this afternoon I was like what playlist are we listening to all ?

your plays . Well , I didn't take it as a joke .

You get fired . It's probably . However you want to look at it , let go um and then you become a professional musician in this economy so I really like that mechanic .

I think it is so clever and just so realistic . I really like that actions . So in the day that's when you can go for a disc , like a dj interview , or you can record you're doing the business or yeah .

And then the candy it's very candy is so funny because everyone knows what it is and like I don't know how else they to put it in the game , right like it's like hey , I have this idea that you can do extra actions by taking candy and everyone's like you mean drugs yeah it's like .

Yeah . In some way , but and it's like in the directions . I think it talks about anything that has that that helps you get more done , so like caffeine or candy or it says that yeah it represents that addictive thing .

Yeah , that helps you get more done it gives you more energy , right like yeah so you draw like uh , you draw a card called a sugar rush card .

If you , if you decide to spend candy , which is hopefully going to give you another action , so you say , okay , I'm turning in this candy , taking it , swallowing it , and what does it give me ? You turn over your card . If it was sugar-free candy . You get nothing . Rip off but you also don't get any penalty . So there you go .

I've heard that before it was sugar-free . So there you go . Nbd .

But it could give you up to two extra actions or most likely one extra action , but that will increase your craving for it and you have to roll to see if your craving , like if you're meeting your craving , and if you can't meet your craving , then you crash , you crash yeah .

Yeah .

Which is such .

You get those electrolytes you sleep in . It's such a good mechanic , it's so good .

I just love it because you know it involves a little bit of that . Press your luck .

That our son loves yeah but he didn't do it this last game at all that's true but he did have a game . He had a game and a game . End game goal to not have any candy .

So he got one and then he spent it and that was it so I feel like you know you're like oh , I want to get extra actions , because I don't know if it sounds like it to a person just sitting there listening who hasn't played this game . But one action per phase there . If you just did that the whole game , you're not going to get much .

You have to take you have to do it at least twice in the game . I feel like to be successful .

You have to take some candy , yeah at least twice in the game I feel like . To be successful , you have to take some candy , yeah , um . So I feel like there's always that pull of like , oh , but my cravings now high , so what if I can't roll high enough ? To meet it uh , yeah , so there's that risk reward .

Yeah , thrown in there , I do like that I , and I don't have much else to say based on how immersive it is . I enjoy the whole story of it . Right like you start out as nobody , you got to do boring things , you got to make money , you got to give blood , you got to do interviews you have to rehearse .

Very intense .

But if you can get there , you get a ton of points . Yeah , so you know it's fun . It's something to work towards in the next couple times that we play this game , to like to do that . I think it's fun .

I did want to ask you what you think of the art style .

It's very cartoony .

Yeah , I don't know how to describe it .

It's not Maybe more like Archer . Do you know this ? It's not maybe more like Archer . Do you know the it's archery ? So it's like you can tell someone's a cartoon but like they're very like adult looking and if they are quote , adult looking , you know that .

Does that make sense ?

Yes , so that's like it's there . Yeah , and it's , but it's not like Bob's Burgers cartoon , it's more .

No , it's not Looney Tunes cartoon no . I obviously I'll say disclaimer up front . This is not a deal breaker at all . So the art is done well . I just I wonder if it's like a little hokey for me . Okay , I just I wonder if it's like a little hokey for me . Okay , I don't , I wanted something more .

Yeah , what would be the alternative ?

Well , you know how we did . I think we did an episode a while back on Libertalia , so Libertalia was re Imagined .

Imagined Yep .

So libertalia was reimagined , imagined yeah , as more of a it was like anamorphic or whatever that word is .

It went from like real pirates to like animals right so I think I wanted like more uh , realistic art okay , I think it's pretty .

Yes , again , not a deal breaker .

No , I know , you were just hoping for more for you , more realism .

Yeah , okay , yeah , like I wanted the characters to look like you had taken a picture of someone , oh yeah . On the stage .

Mm-hmm .

Instead of you're like oh , that's clearly animated .

Sure , it's a drawing , yeah , okay , yeah , I I don't . For me , I would say no I don't agree , okay , but you know , agree to disagree .

Some would say some would say that's what makes our marriage work christian . That's why we're bored oh wait that's not yeah okay , is it worth it ?

I mean , at this point you're probably like , yeah , totally , um , they're not gonna say no , uh , I'm having a great time playing this game . It makes me , it makes me want to play guitar , right , yeah , and so , like , for me personally , I'm like okay , so if I'm gonna be a rock star , do I play guitar or do I play ?

Okay , there you go .

That's all I have to say .

Okay , so maybe more about the game .

Oh , I'm sorry . I like this game . It is worth it .

I think it's worth it . For Christian just theme alone , I think it's worth it . I don't think that it's one that I'm like dying to play again . I'm playing it right after . I can see it being played at our table more than once a year for sure . I feel like it could use a few more options .

On the board .

On the board . I feel like it could use some more variety with managers . I feel like it could use some more variety with random gigs , I feel .

So the expansion is called rock hard 1977 . It's called rock hard colon 1977 . Colon hits the road and so you get a van to go to other venues . Okay , so everyone has a van . They also have to maintain .

Oh no , oh no , I don't like that .

And then you can upgrade that to a tour bus , and then you can upgrade that to a private jet .

Oh wow , Look at that .

So call me .

Call me . Yeah , I just feel like , if we're talking about replayability specifically , already I know what the six managers are .

there's like that's true , there's only six , which is kind of lame , like I thought there'd be like 20 yeah , there just needs to be more .

Yeah , uh , variety there , and I feel like you use nine random gigs every game .

There's 18 so we've seen them all so we've seen them all yeah , I I just and , by the way , those random gigs in the last three rounds of the game are so good so good it's just like . You want to go on late night tv ? Here's a bazillion points . You want to host the oscars ?

a bazillion more , you know like right , just fun stuff like that uh , yeah , so I I do feel like it . Maybe there's some areas that could have been improved to make it more replayable and varied each time . I I was gonna ask you does this one feel like we have maybe since changed our opinion ?

I still feel that way about arnak , by the way oh , you do okay I , I don't know . I feel like I got close to winning without doing quote , what you're supposed to do .

Okay , yeah .

I was just gigging .

You were just gigging Without a record deal , yeah .

So I had to still work my truck job . Yeah , it's true , which is probably , like you know , I did gigs and still had to work at the coffee shop in Minneapolis , that's true .

Yeah , okay , I can get behind that .

So I don't think there's one path to victory . I think the game wants you to take a certain path , but I don't think you need to , because in the game that we just played , everyone else except for me was at almost , I think , think the top tier of the record deals . I was at the bottom .

Yeah , you did .

So I didn't do poorly , no you didn't , I just wasn't getting as much money .

That's true , I guess . Yeah , I don't know what concrete example I can give that makes this one feel more limiting .

It just feels that way to you Than other worker placements .

It just feels that way .

I don't know . You need to eat more candy .

I love the candy in this game . All right , anything else .

I don't think so . I think we're having a great time . There is no solo mode , correct , there is not no , so that's something that we haven't explored . But the majority of our play time is two players Played one game with four . Five would just clog up the board more and make it even more limiting for you , but it would be fun to try with five .

It's a good worker middle of the road slash , beginner one yeah , all right , we will be right back to talk about what thoughts or ideas came up during the game . Okay , so we talked about Rock Hard 1977 .

We did .

Are you still here ?

No , I was just . I was singing a song in my head .

Okay , did you want to sing it for everyone ?

Yeah , you know that in the early 90s , during the commercials for cartoons , it was like after these messages will be right back .

Yes .

That's what was going through my head , okay , so I just sang it .

In your head .

And out loud . Well , there you go .

I'll do another one later oh , great , something to look forward to . Uh so , thoughts , topics that came up while playing this board game candy . So this this makes us think of the topics that , quote unquote , aren't allowed in board games .

Like taboo .

Yeah , like these taboo things , so cocaine .

I mean , it's just drugs right , or drugs In general .

This game didn't go there , right . They didn't say that it's drugs and I don't know if that , but they went there .

They just called it something else .

They called it something else . I don't know if there would have been complaints , because it rewards you for taking drugs . However it also there's a great risk the more drugs you take . So I feel like just call a spade a spade on this one , just call it drugs .

Maybe they couldn't . Maybe they couldn't sell the game to a publisher .

That's true .

But then we also had a game for a while that was based on the show Narcos . Remember that ?

It was like a hidden movement game , yeah , and it was just all about like finding Pablo and like murdering him , so like , and that one had literal white cubes representing cocaine , shipments of cocaine , yeah , so I feel like there have been games , or at least that one , where we're like straight up calling cocaine , cocaine sure um , now I don't know if there was

well , maybe , maybe also this is in this game you are consuming .

You're not just moving the drugs , you're consuming the drugs .

Yeah . So I mean , I don't know . I'm not a publisher , I don't know what they look for or why they chose this , Probably just to make it more accessible to families . Yeah .

Yeah , and it's just . I mean . I know you could go on and on with different topics about this , but it just makes me think of . The next thing would be our whole struggle with the name secret hitler well , yeah , that's .

I mean I love , love that game we do . We both love it , it's it's so fun and people get so mad playing that game and it's just one of the best of those types of games that I've played a deduction game ? yeah , but I just I have such a hard time , just just like , why did they choose that ?

I don't like saying that , I like secret hitler it's like okay and I don't .

Yeah .

And that that was real .

Totally .

And then to make a board game about it .

Sure .

Feels really icky .

Yeah .

So I don't know . But then you know there's games like Black Orchestra . Is that what it's called ?

Yeah , that's the one about murdering him .

Right , so you like someone plays Hitler .

Oh really .

And someone , or maybe not Hitler , but the Axis and Allies .

Sure .

So I don't know . I know there's tons of content out there about World War II . I feel like that is loaded and I'm not trying to make any enemies . If someone offered to play Secret Hitlerler at our house tonight , I would play it .

Yeah , we're gonna play it on our board game weekend because it is always , always a hit right . I just maybe , I don't know I wish there was more care taken yeah , I think , man , yeah , it's just not our favorite thing to admit that we like , yeah , right , because it's like , oh , what's your favorite game ?

Very true , yeah , and and it it's like kind of the discussion with comedy , like is there something that crosses a line or is it the way in which it's done that crosses the ?

board games , art , comedy , art , right , exactly . Um , we're not here to answer that , we're just bringing up .

No , we're just discussing it . I would be curious to hear what other people think . Not that you have to get on a soapbox and explain your position , but just , is there such thing as a game or a topic that a game can't touch ?

Yeah , yeah , and you can definitely just text the show . Yeah , that's a cool new feature that not not you know what , not a lot of people are using Come on guys so text the show . You can find the link in the show notes from your mobile device . That would be great . Let us know if there's a game that maybe you think took it too far .

Right , you feel icky ? Yeah , I don't think so . I mean even Narcos we gave up . Not for that reason .

No , we had like three games that were just like that Hidden movement

Yeah , you know I don't think we do off the top of my head . Can you think of one where there's a boundary that we're kind of close to crossing ?

I don't think so Because the ones that I like are always so fantastical .

Yeah .

Like nothing's grounded in reality . Right , this one is very grounded in reality and someone's literal life , and so there's nothing like whatever , I don't care about drugs .

If you did them or do them whatever , yeah , so like this one , I would give free license to sit just call it drugs , um . But then there's other ones where it's this very gray area like I think I don't know the name of it , but I think there is a game about the Underground Railroad .

Probably .

And so that one I would need to learn more about . Honestly , I just don't know enough . But off the top my first impression is okay , we don't touch that . Okay , but again , I don't know it could be done , great I don't know enough about it . So it's this gray area that's just floating out there .

All right , and you want to lighten up the mood a little bit ? From just dark and depressing board game topics to a random quiz I'm going to throw at you .

Is it like a BuzzFeed quiz ?

It's not a BuzzFeed quiz . That would be really fun and you would know what Harry Potter character you were at the end of this . Yeah , but I don't think you are . So we played Rock Hard 1977 .

Okay .

I'm going to quiz you . I'm going to give you a band that was popular in the 70s .

Okay , you just got to give me the title of one of their songs . A song , yeah , okay , let's just see if you can do it .

Okay , we'll start out .

What if I can sing it , but I don't know the title .

Then just hum it and I'll tell you what it is . Okay , we'll start out easy , ready , okay .

That's great . I'm glad you said it was easy .

The Eagles .

Hotel California yeah .

See Easy Okay . Here's another easy one Queen .

Bohemian Rhapsody .

Perfect , here's one . We're gonna up the difficulty A little bit , okay , leonard Skinner .

Um .

Um Birmingham . We love the governor .

Oh , sweet Home Alabama , yeah , oh yeah .

Uh , two Alright ready .

We're gonna do two more I always thought sweet home alabama was kid rock oh my gosh , get out of here .

Um , here's one , um and you . He started in this decade but has been more popular beyond this decade .

Okay , tom petty free falling , yeah uh how about eric clapton ?

uh yeah , stairway to heaven no , not stairway to heaven .

What's it called ? No , it's Free falling , yeah Easy . How about Eric Clapton ? Yeah , stairway to Heaven . Nope , not Stairway to Heaven . What's it called ? No Heaven ?

It's crying , it comes out of your eyes when you're crying .

Tears of Heaven , yeah .

We know .

Because his son died .

Money . Yeah , he fell out a window . Yeah , and finally , here's a tough one Ready .

Heart Barracuda . Oh , you got it .

Nice , good job . Did you learn most of those from me or from when we used to play Guitar Hero in my apartment ?

Guitar Hero , okay , guitar Hero .

All right , thanks everybody for listening to this episode of the Married and Bored podcast . We're going to end this show , as we end every show , and just talk about a few things that are going on beyond board games .

That is a good title for this segment Beyond Board Games .

Look at you coming up with ideas . Ange , what's going on with you beyond board games ?

Are you laughing ? Because you know what I wrote .

Well , yes , but also I just think my , my title is so good it's so good , okay ?

um well , after we all get , let's just take a moment appreciating that title shall we a moment of silence ?

no , because silence in a podcast is death okay , well , I'll fill it with something .

With like yay , yeah , okay , woo , yeah , go get it , boy , great , okay . So I have been really enjoying sunflower seeds .

That is so why .

You guys I know you're laughing , shaking your head , rolling your eyes .

Is it because the baseball playoffs are on ? It's not , no .

I think so . Last time we alluded well , I think I said- we didn't allude to it , we just said we totally just said it . I said nothing was bringing me joy because I can't eat anything .

That's true .

So still doing that .

Yep .

And what I have noticed about myself is that I'm very tired at the end of the day , but that's also our only time to like watch breaking bad and and commune in that way . So , in order to stay up , I would eat candy I would eat candy oh , like the candy candy .

So but how many days has it been since we've had , like , refined sugar ? It's been like 37 days . Yep , yep , and I just wanted more I just want more .

It's candy , yeah , so we know . We know how addicted we are to .

Shudder , yeah , seriously .

All right . What's bringing you joy ?

Beyond board games , you mean .

Oh yeah , beyond board games in this section , what is bringing you joy ?

Okay , I will say that I haven't really like what's the word I'm looking for Sealed the deal on a lot of these , but I've just really been thinking a lot about and enjoying collecting and thinking about collecting things . True , is it a problem I have , or is it a healthy habit ?

Right now , it's a healthy habit . We are not in hoarder status .

No . As soon as we have to buy and get to the point where I say we need a storage unit , you can throw everything away .

Everything , no , okay .

Just things that I have marked with the green sticky tape .

Okay , so nothing . Well , yet Okay , as I start divvying out what goes to storage and doesn't , then you can be like okay , green , I think , if you start spending our mortgage payment on toys every month retro toys or if we start to get to hoarder status . I'll let you know .

Okay . So yeah , that's what I mean . I'll just say I was born in 1983 . Yeah , it's a good year it was , so I've just been , I was born in 1983 . Yep , it's a good year . It was . So I've just been really into reliving all that stuff . One of my favorite things and I talked about it before is the show and toys called Mask .

Yes .

Mobile Armor Strike Command K Command with a K Don't get it whatever , but I just love . I found some great offer up steals and deals with that . I've also , uh , transformers . I wasn't as into as a kid , um , but I've gotten some in my adult life too , because I always thought they were cool .

Yeah .

So I don't know , Just in like I found some old cartoons online just to put on my phone for when I can't sleep at 2amm .

X-Men 97 .

That helped 77 would be interesting . Maybe there's a game coming out called X-Men colon 1977 . X-men 97 figurines , so that helps . I have a couple right there and they're so hard to find . Why are adults buying all the toys ?

Seriously , because of people like me , you should start a toy podcast .

I should , but who would watch or talk about ?

Listen , yep , okay .

What would we talk about ?

I don't know . I'm not part of that venture .

Yeah , that's true . What would it be called ?

Christian's Toy Chest . Okay , alright .

Just like Duncan's Toy Chest at Home .

Alone , would it be called christian's toy chest . Okay , all right , just like duncan's toy chest .

Yeah , home alone , you mean like my other instagram uh , oh , yeah that's called crispin's toy chest there you go .

Perfect . Now everyone's gonna follow you on instagram . Yeah , crispin's toy . So like , I don't know .

I just , I just like looking at those things , I like impulse buying some of that stuff yes , you do I definitely do . I haven't done it in a while , um , which is great , except this one here . But you bought that . You're like , hey , do you want this ?

and I said yes I got you that transformer , so you bought it , yeah um , so I love you there you go . You're welcome , are you is ?

anyone into collecting , like I . I got this from my mom . She collects stuff and we used to go to antique stores when I was like in middle school , junior high , and look for vintage .

Because it gets older and older and rarer . How that ?

yeah so , and does anybody have a collection like that ? I mean , I'd be interested to to hear what you're into like I don't do gi joes never was big into that like that's kind of like the same era yeah but transformers mask I like . I like legos , but I limit myself to like certain ones , but not old legos that's true .

You do have a few of your growing up years like yeah and those are .

I could probably like vintage . Those are cool , but I don't have them like set up or anything . They're just in the garage , maybe with a green sticky tape getting ready oh , there you go real quick .

Uh , the most recent impulse buy adventure that I went on with christian's toy chest here , um , I went with you to pick up mask the board game , oh no , the white glove experience , yes it was .

He got out white gloves , yep , and he took every piece and showed you every piece yep like he had a little he put a tv tray down yeah , he had a flip down like tray .

He like touched all the pieces with the white gloves . He didn't . Everything was immaculate .

I mean , I was , I was impressed , I've never seen that happen before either , because I've bought some stuff from some weird people on OfferUp . And he was just like , yeah , here you go . And he flipped it down . He's like do you want to look at it , or should I just put it back ? He's like you can just put it back , it's fine .

You are doing a great job you're doing a great job , angela .

how can they contact us and reach out and , if they want to , you know , answer any questions on the show ? Obviously , text or they can find us on instagram is probably the best place I'm still having .

I will say I'm still having problems with our email address , so uh , so Instagram , yeah , message us at married and bored Uh , you can also text the show , which is super cool . Um , just kind of let us know who you are .

Yeah , if you're going to text us , say . If you want to say your name , you can , and where you're from is always fun to know .

Yeah or give us some sort of name to call you yeah , if you don't want to give your real name um , and guys leave a review on itunes . Oh yeah , it helps other people find us yeah , and we'll read it .

Yeah , please do .

All right , guys , I hope you have decided if you're rocking hard in 1977 and if that is for you Until next time .

Rock on .

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Married and Bored podcast . And guess what ? We have a website where you can listen to podcast episodes and so much more . Website where you can listen to podcast episodes and so much more . Find us at marriedandboredcom , or you can email us at hello at marriedandboredcom , or follow us on Instagram at marriedandbored .

That's funny .