Have you ever looked upon a dusty pile of board games and thought "Gee, I sure wish I could play one of these and practice guitar at the same time"? Well, your prayers may have been answered.
Re-Chord is a board game that lets aspiring players use real picks, chords, and play songs to gain the most fame. It is designed for 1-5 players, and a typical game runs between 40-60 minutes.
An in-depth, visual guide as to how to play the actual game is provided on its Kickstarter page, though it doesn't show you how to use Song Cards, a feature only available in the game's more recent prototypes.
Developed by Marshall Britt and Yanaguana Games, Re-Chord was launched on Kickstarter on January 9, and met its initial fundraising goal of $7,500 within seven hours. After just a week and a half, and with 20 days still to go in its fundraising drive, the game is within $3,000 of tripling its initial fundraising goal.
"I've been playing guitar since I was about seven years old and have a large collection of guitars, but still about 2 dollars worth of talent," Britt told Guitar World in an e-mail. "I've been a board game developer since 2013 and finally decided to try to incorporate my love of guitars into a game about them in 2015."
The end goal of the game is to gain the most "fame," something Britt said was inspired by the fact that "All of us guitar players are show-offs at heart."
"It's the first ever board game to use real guitar picks as a component, and the first game to ever put each player in the role of a 'guitar player' who wants to become famous," Britt said. "It's also the first game to ever use an instrument's fretboard as the play space which in turn teaches players actual chords. In terms of uniqueness, it's certainly the first of it's kind in so many places."
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Yanaguana has been showing Re-Chord at game conventions across the United States, and the company hopes to show it at some music trade shows this coming year. Its current estimated delivery date is September.
To check the game out, or make a donation, check out its Kickstarter page.
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
