Benny Sperling
United States
Arlington
Texas
-
Can't Stop is one of those games that most gamers know. The classic Stop Sign board, the bright white numbers and letters. The traffic cones marking progress. The 4 red dice that mock you by falling in just a way that you go from top of the heap to losing it all in a moment.
When I sat down to run a demo of the newest edition of Can't Stop, there wasn't much I could say about it. Or was there. I had the fortunate event of 3 new players sitting down with a game that has frustrated and elated gamers for 30 years. Nora, Rod, and Barret joined me for the game.
I have a new copy of the Gryphon Games recent reprint and it holds true to the classic board, but changes up some of the classic colors. The 4 red dice are still there, but the tiles and pyramids are gone and are replaced by traffic cones in bright colors, purple, yellow, green and blue. They stand out quite well against the red board.
Can't Stop is a push your luck game, its a game of urging opponents to keep going and make that one bad die roll that ends their progress for the round. Taunting was encouraged! The players received the note about how the combinations of dice are based on probability and how 7 was more common than 2 or 12 and therefore there were much more 7 spaces than any other space. They seemed to understand so we began.
Nora took an outside track and tallied a space in 2 and 12, then added 3 spaces in 5 before stopping. Rod took a similar track of putting down 3,4, and 6. I followed them by staying in the middle of the board, rolling 6, 8, and 9 which sent my white markers motoring up the board. I stopped all three about halfway up and passed to Barrett. Barrett chose a strategy of high numbers, 8, 10, and 12.
The game continued in this fashion until I capped the 8 and I saw the motivation in their faces change. No longer was the 8 available. Nora and Rod both went on to cap 5 and 11 respectively. Rod and I followed this by capping the 10 and 6. The game continued to tighten with the availability of numbers disappearing. Rod capped the final number, a 3 and won the game. The players all seemed to have a good time and it was remarked that it was a great way to start off a night of gaming.
-
|
|
