Can't Stop

Games are ….

…complicated. … simple.

… for adults. … for kids.

I mean, some games are complicated or simple or for adults or for kids.

Few games are “All of the above.”

Photo by W. Eric Martin

Sid Sackson’s Can’t Stop works in any setting. The rules are simplicity itself: roll four dice, create two pairs of dice, and advance a marker on those rows. But you only have three markers and if you can’t advance, you bust and end your turn. Stop after any roll, and whoever caps three columns first wins.

I’ve played with my children when they were young enough that adding the dice together was a slow, methodical task.¹ But their non-existent knowledge of addition (much less advanced probability) didn’t prove much of a problem. They’d roll dice, go through the possibilities advance a marker (assuming they could) and …. roll the dice again until they couldn’t.

That’s not the best strategy, but honestly its not terrible².

The classic game board. Image from Wikipedia.

So that’s kids. As for adults? While supposedly studying for my Master’s degree, I also created numerical simulations to derive (or discover) an optimal first turn stopping rule.³ Can’t Stop is a game that pre-literate kids can play AND that mathematicians and engineers tinker with. Sure, during the actual game it’s mostly gut instinct and probabilities; but as I say while playing “Those dice smell fear.”

There are plenty of “Push your Luck” games, but Sackson’s⁴ design strips out everything else. Can’t Stop couldn’t be more pure. So there’s no great story here. Sure, I’ve seen games where “you just can’t believe it luck” happens⁵. But no retelling could recapture the electricity.

“You had to be there.”

Just as I’ve never heard a good story about a craps game⁶ (maybe I’m sheltered); I’ve never heard a good story about Can’t Stop. Bad for articles like this. But it’s a hell of a game, and that’s why I think it is worthy of consideration for inclusion as one of the Most Influential Games of the 20th Century.

1. My children learned counting from Haba’s Monster Speziale (a children’s game specifically to teach counting), then graduated to addition with Can’t Stop.

2. Particularly for “Fools, Children and Ships named Enterprise.”

3. And even published the results in a gaming zine that I no longer remember the name of.

4. Who also designed of the first entry into the 20th Century Project — Acquire

5. As is typical, the “bad” variety happens to you and the “amazingly good” happens for everyone else.

6. Although I’ve heard some amazing ones about the people sitting around the table….