Review Detail
Can't Stop
Rating
5.0
Dice, my friends are alive! Dice have a mind of their own. Our friends in the statistics field can tell us the odds of a number showing up on two six sided dice but many of those who have played the odds walk away dumbstruck. Don't believe me? Talk with a veteran boxman at a Craps table in Las Vegas. They will tell you amazing stories of players who have beaten the odds. But another way to see the fickle behavior of dice in action is to play the game Can't Stop.
Can't Stop is a push your luck type game similar to craps in that you are trying to roll numbers two thru twelve and capture columns with those numbers. You roll 4 dice instead or two and can keep rolling as long as you can advance your marker toward victory. You will never see crazier behavior of dice dancing in the face of scientific odds in any other game! Which is why Can't Stop is a favorite game of mine to play with math/ statistics people! I love to watch their face as the dice just don't seem to behave the way they should! HA!
I have the stop sign version of Can't Stop which is currently out of print, but you can find a copy on Ebay pretty easily. I suggest you do find a copy because the game is fantastic!
One of the main criteria for a League recommended game is laughter! If the players don't laugh or at least smile during the game, I find it hard to recommend the game. No one in the League takes notes during a game like the Grand Poobah and the other game politicians do when they review a game. I don't have to take notes to remember if I enjoyed the game. The Grand Poobah seems to treat games like a "lab experiment" and goes into a deep analysis of a game in order to rate it. This is totally unnecessary! Actually, the main reason the Grand Poobah must take notes is because of the type of games he plays, which are mostly the Euro variety. Most Euro players suffer from "cube confusion" and they must take notes during the game to remember what happened!
Cube Confusion---A dazed and confused state of mind a Euro game player experiences while endlessly pushing around colored cubes on a board. The confusion is coupled with a false sense of euphoria that is short lived and later the player seems to have no memory of this pleasure and can't recall the details of what caused the sensation.
(Source: League of Untouchable American Gamers Guide to Better Gaming)
In the Grand Poobah's defense there are no doubt some very good Euro games, but not nearly as many as the Grand Poobah and his minions would have you believe.
I really believe you can't go wrong with Can't Stop. I can only relate my experience with the game to you. I have played the game dozens of times with many different types of people and it has never failed to deliver.
I will even go out on a limb as to recommend Can't Stop as a better game than Settlers of Catan to bring new people into gaming. I say this for the following reasons:
First: Can't Stop has no set up time and Settlers does. This may sound like a small point but it is something that I have experienced with new gamers. When they see you putting together the "puzzle" like map of Settlers they can get scared off into thinking it is too complicated.
Second: The trading aspect can scare new gamers off, they really don't have a grasp of what the key elements of trading entail, and how to trade smart and they soon realize this is a key element of the game.
Both Settlers and Can't Stop have dice which is essential to attracting new gamers. Dice allow them to think that they have a chance to win. All the player has to do in Can't Stop is throw a few dice and make a decision of what numbers to go with and whether they will continue to roll. And these decisions, to quote the Grand Poobah are truly "delicious" :D
I can't explain why this game works but it does! It is the perfect example of a game that if you read the rules and don't play it you might say , Is that it? And brush off the game! That is a mistake! You really have to experience the game to appreciate it, the game doesn't come off well just from reading the rules. It amazes me these guys on the geek that rate games based on just reading the rules! The League will never review a game without having played it multiple times.
Can't Stop is a push your luck type game similar to craps in that you are trying to roll numbers two thru twelve and capture columns with those numbers. You roll 4 dice instead or two and can keep rolling as long as you can advance your marker toward victory. You will never see crazier behavior of dice dancing in the face of scientific odds in any other game! Which is why Can't Stop is a favorite game of mine to play with math/ statistics people! I love to watch their face as the dice just don't seem to behave the way they should! HA!
I have the stop sign version of Can't Stop which is currently out of print, but you can find a copy on Ebay pretty easily. I suggest you do find a copy because the game is fantastic!
One of the main criteria for a League recommended game is laughter! If the players don't laugh or at least smile during the game, I find it hard to recommend the game. No one in the League takes notes during a game like the Grand Poobah and the other game politicians do when they review a game. I don't have to take notes to remember if I enjoyed the game. The Grand Poobah seems to treat games like a "lab experiment" and goes into a deep analysis of a game in order to rate it. This is totally unnecessary! Actually, the main reason the Grand Poobah must take notes is because of the type of games he plays, which are mostly the Euro variety. Most Euro players suffer from "cube confusion" and they must take notes during the game to remember what happened!
Cube Confusion---A dazed and confused state of mind a Euro game player experiences while endlessly pushing around colored cubes on a board. The confusion is coupled with a false sense of euphoria that is short lived and later the player seems to have no memory of this pleasure and can't recall the details of what caused the sensation.
(Source: League of Untouchable American Gamers Guide to Better Gaming)
In the Grand Poobah's defense there are no doubt some very good Euro games, but not nearly as many as the Grand Poobah and his minions would have you believe.
I really believe you can't go wrong with Can't Stop. I can only relate my experience with the game to you. I have played the game dozens of times with many different types of people and it has never failed to deliver.
I will even go out on a limb as to recommend Can't Stop as a better game than Settlers of Catan to bring new people into gaming. I say this for the following reasons:
First: Can't Stop has no set up time and Settlers does. This may sound like a small point but it is something that I have experienced with new gamers. When they see you putting together the "puzzle" like map of Settlers they can get scared off into thinking it is too complicated.
Second: The trading aspect can scare new gamers off, they really don't have a grasp of what the key elements of trading entail, and how to trade smart and they soon realize this is a key element of the game.
Both Settlers and Can't Stop have dice which is essential to attracting new gamers. Dice allow them to think that they have a chance to win. All the player has to do in Can't Stop is throw a few dice and make a decision of what numbers to go with and whether they will continue to roll. And these decisions, to quote the Grand Poobah are truly "delicious" :D
I can't explain why this game works but it does! It is the perfect example of a game that if you read the rules and don't play it you might say , Is that it? And brush off the game! That is a mistake! You really have to experience the game to appreciate it, the game doesn't come off well just from reading the rules. It amazes me these guys on the geek that rate games based on just reading the rules! The League will never review a game without having played it multiple times.
DU
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