Rock Hard: 1977 Board Game Comes From Runaways’ Jackie Fox

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The Runaways in their video for “Cherry Bomb.” That’s Jackie Fox on bass

A new board game that aims to replicate the path of becoming a rock star has been created by a musician who knows the ordeal first hand. Rock Hard: 1977—which arrived in August 2024 via Devir Games—comes from Jackie Fox, who was part of the 70s rock band The Runaways, and is herself a board game lover.

From the game’s official description: The year is 1977. You are a promising musician and you dream of success with your band. Over the next few months you will rehearse, perform, write songs and promote your band. With careful planning and a little luck, you will become more famous than everyone else and become the breakout artist of the year.

Along with Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, and Sandy West, Fox was part of the all-girl teen rock band when they were formed in 1975 by music svengali Kim Fowley. She was still just 15 years old. Between 1976 and 1977, they released three studio albums and one memorable single with its highly suggestive lyrics, “Cherry Bomb,” which failed to reach the Hot 100. Two years later, Fox quit the Runaways and as the New York Times notes in their August 3 interview with her, she never played music professionally again.

Watch the official clip (with Fox on bass)

In 2015, six months after Fowley’s death, Fox alleged that he had raped her on New Year’s Eve 1975 at a party following the band’s performance, shortly after her 16th birthday. Fowley was 20 years her senior. Fox recounted that the assault, after she had been drugged with quaaludes, occurred in full view of partygoers including three of her band members.

Fox, whose real name is Jacqueline Fuchs, went on to earn a B.A. with honors at UCLA and then graduated from Harvard Law School, where one of her classmates was Barack Obama. She has since become an entertainment lawyer.

More from the game’s description: Each round of Rock Hard: 1977 represents a typical day. You win the game by accumulating the most Fame… And how is Fame scored? Increasing your reputation, skills and song quality, earning production, performance and publicity bonuses, landing record deals and royalties, playing gigs and hanging out at the hottest nightspots. The game is for two to five players who take on the role of a rising rock star and compete to earn the most Fame points over several rounds of play.

Each player will have a unique manager, who will help them boost their musical career with a particular skill. Of course, you will have to pay for their work if you do not want to lose Fame points. And sometimes a rocker needs a little help to get through a difficult day… That’s why players can also consume candy to take an extra turn and perform more actions… But overusing sweets can cause a sugar rush.

The turn order tokens are guitar picks and the bills look like real dollars. (Rock Hard: 1977 was designed by Jennifer Giner.) Players will have a feeling of constant progression, from the beginning of the game, where they must combine a job that feeds them and the humble beginnings of the band, to the big concerts on the most legendary stages. All this with a lot of different event cards and unique abilities of rockers and managers, which change with each game. Are you ready to become a rock star? The game is available to order here.

As Fox told the Times, board games are “a callback to happy times in childhood.” Her own was cut short, and the game has given her the opportunity to access the heady joys of becoming a famous and pioneering rock musician as a teenage girl. “There’s bad blood within the Runaways,” she told the paper, but “I don’t want to live in that space.” At the time, she noted, “I had fun with every single person who was in the band.”