Tate & Renner

Can't Stop is a board game by Sid Sackson. Parker Bros. published it in 1980. Players take turns. Each turn consists of as many rolls of the dice as the player wants -- until the player "wipes out." On each roll of the four dice, the player must group them into two pairs. Two dice make one pair, and the remaining two make the other pair. The player has three white markers. On the first roll of the turn, the player must place a marker at the bottom of an open column (or, on the space above that player's place holder, if the player stopped on that column before). If the other pair of dice can be played, then it must be played. On each subsequent roll, the player must either place a remaining marker, or advance one of the markers. If the player cannot, then the player has "wiped out" and must remove all the markers and yield play to the next player. The trick, then, is to judge how many rolls the player can take without wiping out. If the player is too shy about taking risks, then that player will not advance enough on each turn to win. If the player takes too many rolls, then the player is more likely to wipe out and gain nothing.

A player wins by getting to the top of three columns. Each time a player gets to the top of a column and stops (a player can get to the top and keep rolling, but must then advance on another column or wipe out), the player owns the column and all other players must "promptly remove" their place holders on that column.

Players naturally need to know the odds that they will advance on any particular roll. The inverse of these odds are the chances of wiping out on that roll. Below is a table of these odds. Notice that the odds are given for one column, two columns and three columns. Usually, a player will be looking at the odds when placing the third marker. This table will give the odds of advancing during each roll. The "expected gain" is the same as the odds of advancing. The "expected loss" is the product of how many advances you have had and the odds of wiping out. As a player advances, the expected gainstays the same for each roll (unless a daring player gets to the top of one column, and decides to roll for just the remaining columns). However, the expected loss will increase with each advance. When the expected loss exceeds the expected gain, then a player is just reckless in continuing a turn.

Each row in the following table gives the percentage chance of advancing on one roll for the given columns. The number after the percentage is the number of rolls one can take before the expected loss exceeds the expected gain. Still, there are times when it is worth the risk. If an opponent has stopped just short of the top of a column, then it could be very risky to stop short of the top of that column and let the player win the column in the next turn.

Face 2 Face Games plans to re-release Can't Stop. I, for one, look forward to renewed interest in this thoughtful game.