If you try to be hip, you either come off as cool or a fool. There are six new reputation cards included in Backstage Pass and all are right on the money with their commentary. Now, you have an incentive to carefully piece together your band. In the original Battle of the Bands, what mainly mattered was the "hip points" of each musician. For instance: Ace hates to lose and if you lose a gig he will quit your band (taking all your musicians with him), with The Geezer in your band you're automatically signed, The Donnette gains 4 "hip points" if she's in an all-girl band, and so on. Backstage Pass takes that one step further as musicians can now provide your band with greater bonuses or become stronger in certain combinations. In the original Battle of the Bands deck, certain band members received bonuses with specific types of instruments. Lovecraft's famous monster), The Donnette (an homage to the do-wop girl groups of the 60's), and The Geezer (a very Keith Richardsesque antique rocker). Cuddles (the adorable kitten), Urple (the infamous "Purple People Eater"), Myoshi (the Japanese pop star), Booties (the "funkadelic" R&B star with props to George Clinton), K'tulu (a reference to H.P. Backstage Pass also includes eleven new band members: Ace (the brawling Australian), Kitten and Pussycat (nods to a famous cartoon band), Dee Struction (the blonde heavy metal star a'la Lita Ford), Mr. This allows you to play with two additional players for a total of six. While this game is fun for everyone, anyone who has ever been in a band or in "the industry" will get an extra level of enjoyment as Smith has once again perfectly captured the happy insanity that is the music business.įirst, there are two new "Me" cards in the deck. The sense of humor found in the original is still fully intact from the extremely funny flavor text to the situations you can create for your band. The new cards all have more of Dan Smith's great artwork that gives both Battle of the Bands and Backstage Pass that great cartoon pop feel. Many cards include new mechanics that add an additional level of strategy and game play to the original. Unlike some expansions for other games, it doesn't just include more cards of the same types. If not, please first check out one of the reviews of the original here.īackstage Pass adds 60 new cards to the mix. Since it is an expansion, I'm going to assume you are familiar with the original game. Backstage Pass is the first expansion pack for the card game "Battle of the Bands".