Can't Stop

The first time I played this, I thought it was moronic.  You roll two pairs of dice and advance up rows based on the sums of numbers on the dice.  I made the mistaken assumption that the game was no better than Yahtzee.  Sid Sackson’s Can’t Stop is a board game of the purest variety.  It is Russian Roulette, the PG rated version.  The game draws on the inner gambling demon in all of us, asking us one simple question: how far can you go before you wuss out?

Sure, plenty of games are heavily dependent on luck.  It’s part of what makes games work.  But Can’t Stop’s particular breed of luck dependence has a strange way of making you feel like it’s your fault when you screwed up and your brilliant planning when you succeed.  It’s a game of probability.  You can only land on a maximum of three columns during your turn, and once three are ‘locked in,’ you have to land on them or lose all progress: the alternative is stopping, saving your current progress.  A few lucky rolls can keep you out of the ‘lock in’ phase for a while, but eventually you will have to make a judgment call.  Can I press my luck, or should I take what I have?

The typical wise gamer will say “You have to take what you have.”  He’ll think you have to stop when the odds are against you.  Play it safe.  However, Can’t Stop magnificently illustrates a simple truth: quitters don’t win.  At some point, you have to take a chance.  This leads to long strings of turns that seem like insane luck out of the blue.  When an opponent gets one, the careful player will be furious, bemoaning his luck and get enraged at the game.  This type of thinking is an error.  In truth, one’s chances of getting a long string of successful rolls are decent on most turns.  Risks must be taken.  Players who make crazy rolls early can stay ahead the entire game.  Players who never get markers on the board can win in a single round in the late game.

Can’t Stop’s greatest strength is that it sucks you in to the experience.  You will live by the dice.  The clack on the table will become sweet music to your ears.  The thrill of reloading your hands during a round will overcome you, and nothing is quite like dice escaping one’s sweaty palms and smacking the table like fallen ice cubes melting in the August heat.  The most inexperienced player can win.  The underdog can become a millionaire.  The natural, base human need to gamble is fully satisfied with just a few rounds of this game.

“Live the dice.  Love the dice.” – The Giz

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