Fantasy Flight Games

The Tour Has Begun

Published 27 September 2012 |

The Tour Has Begun

Rockband Manager, a Card Game for 3-6 Players, Is Now on Sale

Fantasy Flight Games is happy to announce that the tour has begun, and Rockband Manager, the card game for three to six players, is now on sale at your local retailer and on our webstore!

If you want to rock, you need dedication, wits, and a few breaks. As the manager of a brand new garage band, you’ll need to plan everything if you want to rise from gigs at local coffee shops and high school dances to jam packed stadiums full of screaming groupies and fans. Assemble an epic band, grind out some face-melting tracks, and become a rock legend. It’s a tough road, but rock stardom is worth the price.

Making the Cut

In this light and fast-paced game, each player starts with a limited amount of cash with which to assemble a band. Players take turns bidding on and adding musicians to a group. Once each player has created their band, it is time to move on to the Career phases of the game, where bands produce albums, perform gigs, and do anything to get the inside track to success.

The goal of the game is to be the band that collects the most decibels. During the Career phases, player gain decibels by claiming cards from a group of ten Career cards. If your vocalist has tons of Charisma, she can book a sweet show that instantly raises your decibels. The guitar player, the guy with loads of Talent, can start recording in the studio, and the opportunistic drummer? Send him out to sabotage all of your rivals. The path to stardom has many roads and there are many ways to gain decibels, so do everything you can to get to the top.

A Rocking Good Time

Rockband Manager is perfect for gamers who crave a quick game that can easily be shared with friends and family. With only a few minutes of instruction, everyone will be rocking n’ rolling like die-hard fans. Moreover, the game features vibrant art and high quality components that add to the rich theme of the game.

Rockband Manager is on sale now, so pick up a copy, grab your axe and get to shredding! There is only one question: are you ready to rock?

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The Tour Has Been Postponed

Published 23 May 2012 |

The Tour Has Been Postponed

Rockband Manager is Coming in the Third Quarter

In December, we announced the upcoming release of Rockband Manager, the face-melting band management card game for three to six players. At the time, we predicted that its world tour would start at the end of March. So, where is it?

Keep On Rocking

To celebrate the announcement, the lead singer went on a wild bender, got into a fistfight with the bassist, trashed a hotel room, and ended up in court-mandated rehab for the next six to eight weeks. Meanwhile, the band is on a temporary hiatus as its members work on their solo careers.

Actually, the tour has been briefly suspended due to minor production issues, but will commence later this quarter. Look for Rockband Manager then, and in the meantime, keep on rocking!

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Sound Check the Instruments

Published 27 February 2012 |

Sound Check the Instruments

Download the rules for the card game Rockband Manager

With the approaching release of Rockband Manager, garage bands everywhere are polishing up their acts and preparing for this rocking card game for three to six players. Today, the rules for Rockband Manager are available for download (pdf, 4.3MB) on the support page. Read the rules and get ready to assemble a legendary band as soon as the game is released later this quarter.

Gearing up for the big show

Take the role of band manager and recruit the most talented rockers in the world. At the start of the game, managers have a limited amount of money to use to sign stars, so be sure to invest wisely. Once you’ve brought together the most skilled band around, name your band and start rocking. Now it is time to send them out to perform shows, record albums, and gain decibels in a quest to become a legendary rock band.

On the road to stardom, your band has plenty of opportunities to gain benefits from better gear, inside connections, and hordes of screaming fans. In addition, you could also dispatch your band members to sabotage your rivals, slowing their rise to fame. Don’t focus too much on a single task, or you risk being left behind in the hunt for more decibels. And remember, all is fair in rock n’ roll, so roll up your sleeves and be prepared for all kinds of hijinks.

Are you ready to rock? Download the rules for Rockband Manager, and check out the previews Thrashing Your Way to the Top and Building the Band for more information on this fast-paced card game. Pre-order Rockband Manager from your retailer today!

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Thrashing Your Way to the Top

Published 24 January 2012 |

Thrashing Your Way to the Top

Preview the Career phases of Rockband Manager

If you wanna be a star of the stage and screen Look out it’s rough and mean It’s a long way to the top If you want to rock ‘n’ roll -AC/DC, It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n’ roll

In the last Rockband Manager preview, we looked at the Rockstar Recruitment phase and some of the interesting personalities that populate this entertaining card game. This week, we look at the Career phases, where bands compete to put on the biggest show, produce the best records, and get the most decibels to win the game.

Career management

In the Career stages of the game, each manager sends out his newly recruited stars to gain fame and fortune. Managers can send their musicians to play shows, which are represented by Concert cards. Attaining these cards immediately adds to the band’s decibel level. Also, players can collect Album cards that lead to decibel bonuses at the end of each phase, but only if your band has the highest total Album card score. Last, band members can claim Opportunity cards that provide bonuses, or they can also cause grief to rival bands. There are many routes to victory in Rockband Manager, so managers must decide which of these options places their band in position to win the game. With this in mind, here is a closer look at how the Career phases work.

There are two Career phases in Rockband Manager, a Career Debut phase and a Career Apex phase. At the start of each phase, one player draws ten cards, one at a time, from the Career card deck, forming two rows of five face up Career cards. The column nearest to the Career card deck is the first column, while the one farthest from the deck is the fifth column. Columns become important in the next step of the phase, when players start claiming cards. To claim cards, managers take turns placing one of their rock stars on the Career cards.

A rock star can acquire a card from either row, but can only acquire cards from a column that is equal to or less than the value of the characteristic that corresponds to the type of Career card in that column. Charisma (the red number) corresponds to Concert cards, Talent (blue) corresponds to Album cards, and Opportunism (yellow) corresponds to Opportunity cards. For example, Dave Ardilo can only claim Concert and Talent cards in the first column, but he can claim Opportunity cards in columns one through three. When recruiting stars, make sure to take into account members’ individual characteristics, or you might get burned.

Battle of the bands

Inevitably, conflicts occur over valuable cards, and bands are bound to clash. When this happens, managers must flex their fiscal muscles to help their band members win a duel with their adversaries. If two or more stars are on the same card at the end of a round, a duel takes place. In a duel, all players involved secretly choose one of their remaining cash envelopes and reveal it simultaneously; the player who made the largest bid wins the duel and gets the card. The loser (or losers) can then select another card to claim, if there are any cards still available.

Winning duels depletes managers of valuable cash, but many times the risk will be worth it, especially when a duel is for an Opportunity card. For example, winning a duel for the Golden Opportunity or Sabotage card gives the winning band an enormous advantage over competing bands. Also, if there are no cards remaining that your star could claim, it may be worth starting a duel over a card, since not claiming a card in this phase badly hurts your band’s aspirations for greatness.

The Award Stage

At the end of both of the Career phases, the bands earn awards based on their total Album scores. The band with the highest Album score gains a Gold Record, while the band with the second highest Album score earns a Silver Record, and the band with the third most Album points earns a Bronze Record. These awards are worth different amount of decibels depending on the Career phase, which are added to the band’s decibel score at the end of the game. As the manager, you need to decide if you want your talent to produce albums that have a delayed payoff, or if you would rather have your stars performing live shows and immediately collecting decibels.

Rockband Manager arrives first quarter of 2012. So do your sound test and prep your instruments, because it’s almost time to rock! If you still need more information on this rocking card game, check out our previous Rockband Manager preview.

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Building the Band

Published 3 January 2012 |

Building the Band

A preview of Rockband Manager, an upcoming card game

Several weeks ago, Fantasy Flight Games announced the upcoming Rockband Manager. In this electrifying card game, three to six players take the roles of band managers and guide their group of rockers to the top of the charts. This week, we take a closer look at building your epic rock band, using some of the fantastic characters that populate the game.

Recruiting a Rockstar

At the start of the game, players get the chance to start auctions and sign one of the colorful characters to their bands in the Rockstar Recruitment phase. Each manager selects one of the five available stars, one for each instrument, and offers them a contract. Rival managers then have the option of offering a larger contract, or simply passing on the star and allowing another manager to sign the talent. The player who offered the largest contract gets to add the star to his or her band in exchange for the appropriate amount of money. Then, another Rockstar card is revealed and the next player starts a new round of bidding. This process takes place until every player has a complete five member band with one character of each instrument type.

So, what makes a good band? Well, each star has three stats that represent his charisma, talent, and opportunism levels. Generally, you are going to want to recruit musicians with higher skill levels, but having members with low skill values doesn’t necessarily hurt a band. Characters with low skills values still play an important role in the game, as we’ll see later on.

Band-building strategies

There is no right or wrong way to build your band in Rockband Manager. In fact, there are multiple valid strategies that could pay dividends. Let’s considers some possible routes...

You may want to be aggressive and try to sign only the best musicians right from the start. This straight-forward tactic is sure to land you some prime talent, but be careful not to blow all your cash, because you only have nine cash envelopes to spend. For example, Doc Dark is an appealing band mate, but going after such a star could be costly. One downside to this strategy is that sometimes there are only mediocre artists available, and you don’t want to kick yourself for signing one of these ho-hum stars later in the Rockstar Recruitment phase when better musicians become available.

Waiting until the end of the Rockstar Recruitment phase to sign stars works too. Players can’t participate in an auction when they already have signed a star to an instrument, so if an excellent bassist becomes available and you are the only player without a bassist, you can sign the star for any amount of cash. When a star like Kaylee Sung shows up and all your rivals already have keyboardists, you can add this talented musician for a mere pittance. Additionally, if all your opponents have already signed stars to a particular instrument, you can even mill the Rockstar decks trying to find the best available star, since you can pay musicians you don’t want in your band to disappear. However, this strategy can backfire if the only performers left are not very skilled, and you can only pay three performers to go away.

Although it seems counter-intuitive, signing only the least talented stars could be a track to success in the future. While having a group of Ursula Red-like characters has little lure, you do score decibels (used to track victory) at the end of the game for having money, so remaining frugal does pay off. Also, at the end of the Rockstar Recruitment phase, the least talented band gains the Most Promising Award, which gives them a seven decibel bonus. This strategy is dangerous, because you’ll have fewer options in the Career Phases of the game, but you gotta live dangerously if you want to rock, right?

With 40 Rockstar cards from which to assemble your band, there are all kinds of options from hardcore rockers, complete wannabes, and every level of musician in between. These stunning and often amusing characters cards set the energetic tone for the game, and it’s your task to find the best ones to make rock history.

Once every player has formed their band, the next, and maybe most important, step is to come up with a killer band name. After that, the game moves onto the Career phases, which we will discuss in more detail in the next Rockband Manager preview. Be sure to check back for more info on this killer card game.

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It's All About the Decibels

Published 15 December 2011 |

It's All About the Decibels

Announcing Rockband Manager, a thrashing card game

If you want to rock, you need dedication, wits, and a few breaks. As the manager of a brand new garage band, you’ll need to plan everything if you want to rise from gigs at local coffee shops and high school dances to jam packed stadiums full of screaming groupies and fans. It’s a tough road, but rock stardom is worth the price.

Assemble an epic band, grind out some face-melting tracks, and become a rock legend. Fantasy Flight Games is excited to announce the upcoming release of Rockband Manager, a card game for three to six players. There is only one question: are you ready to rock?

Making the cut

In this entertaining and fast-paced game, each player starts with a limited amount of cash with which to assemble a band. Players take turns bidding on and adding musicians to a group. Once each player has created their band, it is time to move on to the Career phases of the game, where bands produce albums, perform gigs, and do anything to get the inside track to success.

A rocking good time

We are thrilled to announce that Rockband Manager drops late first quarter. Check the Description page for more previews in the coming weeks.

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