Many people have fantasized about becoming music stars, singing to sold-out stadiums, raking in the bucks, and generally being so famous your mere presence causes fans to swoon. Well, now there’s a board game that lets you live out a version of that fantasy—or at least the more realistic, early-stage scramble that might eventually lead to music star fame.
Real-life musician Jared Lutes poured his 20+ years of music industry experience into designing a theme-heavy strategy game that lets players experience the adventure of making it in the competitive and sometimes capricious music industry. In Famous: Stage I, 1-4 players will compete over 40-200 minutes to put together a band, write songs, rehearse, network, and advertise, all for a rare chance of musical success.
Gameplay Overview:
Famous: Stage I is played over 12 weeks (rounds). Each week, competitive and asymmetric band leaders must decide how to best spend their precious 15 afterwork hours to get their band ready for gigs of gradually increasing import and eventually prepare for the game-end finale: recording of a 5-song album.
Every action has a cost in hours, and the most time-intensive main actions (5-7 hours each) are:
- Writing songs
- Rehearsing
Together, these increase your band’s repertoire and musical skills, both of which are important for booking better gigs and eventually recording a respectable album.
- Networking – making new industry contacts is helpful for a variety of tasks.
- Advertising – bigger audiences at gigs means more money and fame.
Each time a player does the same main action, they’ll move up its associated track which makes the action better over time. Hours can also be spent promoting the band, scrounging through thrift or pawn shops for costumes and gear, and investing in merchandise that may provide small benefits.
At the end of each week, band leaders may perform at pre-scheduled gigs, earn associated rewards, and subsequently book the band new gigs for which they are qualified.
Recording your game-end album involves dice rolls, but song quality, band skill, equipment, use of hired professionals, and additional factors will ultimately determine success (and fame points!)
Game Experience:
Famous: Stage I is a medium-weight game with a healthy dose of luck and music industry theme dripping from every element of its design. There is humor throughout, some of it self-deprecating, and some of it leading to laugh-out-loud moments. The individual actions are straightforward: writing a song or networking, respectively, comprise simply drawing a song or contact card. Advertising involves assigning crowd dice to an upcoming gig.
The most complicated aspect of the game is the number of action types (10 total), plus multiple card types rolled into the “play a card” action. Contact cards come in five categories that all function slightly differently, with several subtypes within each category. Types include musicians, supporters, prospects, services, and private gigs. Musicians fill out your band, providing skill and end-game scoring from their personalities. Supporters fill non-musical roles like photography, which help improve attendance at gigs. Prospects are one-time auspicious opportunities like radio interviews that help the band. Services include for-fee professionals, such as agents who make networking more time-effective. Private gigs are special one-time local gigs, such as “spoiled brat’s birthday party,” reserved for just one player, granting variable rewards. The theming of all these cards makes perfect sense with respect to the gameplay, costs, and types of benefits provided.
It’s impossible to do everything and max out every track. Depending on the initial set-up and which basic venue is available for early performances—some pay only in networking opportunities—funds may also be severely limited, which forces tradeoffs regarding who to hire and which stuff to buy.
Certain actions, however, are essential; your band is dead in the water if they don’t have a solid song repertoire and haven’t rehearsed enough to book better gigs or record a decent album. Advertising, which equates to paying customers, is something that must be done repeatedly for every new gig booked or you’ll be ineligible for the better rewards. In most games, players will want to mostly or completely max out these three tracks; heavy gamers may thus feel that strategic depth is somewhat limited.
The Networking action/track is also important, but less essential, as the game provides many other avenues for making contacts. Also, as described above, there are numerous types of cards in the contact deck, and you may not draw the right contact at the right time. You might have the cash and desire to hire a recording professional, but you may never meet one. Musicians are usually easy enough to find (35% of the deck), but do they play the right instrument in your music style (pop rock, country, or metal)? You might get desperate for a drummer, any drummer, in late-game, and compromise by hiring a grandmother-aged lady named Elanor who claims to be a rocker.
The contact deck represents one of the heaviest luck elements of the game; finding all six types of supporter cards (needed for maximal dice mitigation) has proven an impossible task in each of my plays. The dice rolls can thus be swingy. Yes, there are several ways to mitigate some of this luck (ex., advertising to get more crowd dice), but poor rolls still likely mean lesser rewards. There are also random events that happen during the game, and some, like the Twangytown Festival being in town, may specifically benefit one band. So while smart game decisions and cobbling together a band with rich songs and skill definitely matter, luck can influence success, which admittedly does seem appropriate for the theme.
So yes, Famous: Stage I is impressively thematic, but how does it compare to Rock Hard? An important thematic difference is that Famous: Stage I is a more PG-rated experience; there is no hint of “candy” addiction or late-night romantic encounters. The most offensive bit might be the song lyric toilet paper merchandise. Gameplay-wise, the two games are quite different: Famous: Stage I is action selection without blocking other than booking gigs (one band per weekend) and purchasing items from common shops.
The biggest difference between the two music-themed games, and probably the most problematic aspect of Famous: Stage I overall, is the lengthy playtime. My first play at 2 players took about two hours. Experienced players can get it down to 40 minutes per player, but that’s still a bit long for a game that doesn’t have the most robust arc. Yes, players become eligible for better gigs as the game progresses, but the sequence of actions round-to-round is generally similar, and the game could have benefited from fewer rounds and some mechanism to make up for the lost actions.
Final Thoughts:
Famous: Stage I immerses players in the exciting journey of aspiring band-leaders in an incredibly thematic board game. Filled with ample music industry references and a range of humor, this game is ideal for medium-weight gamers intrigued by the modern music industry and accepting of a healthy dose of luck. Heavy gamers may find the game lacks strategic variability after a few plays, and lighter gamers may be intimidated by the number of card types and actions. All gamers should be prepared for at least 40 minutes of playtime per player. For the right group, though, that will be a fun-filled time of forgetting real-life woes and instead focusing on performing your newest hit single, “You Make Me Wanna Swipe” at the exalted “Moolah Rouge”.
Final Score: 3 stars – a medium-weight thematically immersive game that lets you play out your music star fantasies
Hits:
• Immersive real-life inspired music industry theme
• Fun, straightforward actions
• Nice production
Misses
• Long playtime
• Lacking strategic depth for heavy gamers
• Possibly intimidating for lighter gamers
