Callapidder Days

Do you like to press your luck? Then Can’t Stop might be the perfect game for you. On each turn, you’ll keep rolling the dice until you decide to stop and keep the points you’ve earned so far…or until you roll something you can’t use, and lose all your points for that turn. Addictive? Yes. Fun? Definitely.

Can’t Stop is a push-your-luck game for 2-4 players. One game takes about 30 minutes, and it’s recommended for ages 9 and up. Younger kids can certainly grasp the basic mechanic, but it’ll be harder for them to weigh their options and make strategic decisions. The rules are fairly simple, so you can easily teach someone to play in less than 10 minutes, which is always a plus around here.

When you open the Can’t Stop box, you’ll find an octagonal board, four dice, 11 playing pieces in each of four colors, and 3 pieces called “markers.” The board has 11 columns, with the numbers 2-12 across the top. Each column has a number of squares in it (where playing pieces will be placed during the game), with the 2 & 12 columns having the fewest squares, and the central 7 column having the most (see picture of the back of the box for reference).

Here’s how gameplay works:

On your turn, take the four dice and 3 white marker pieces. Roll the four dice, and then split them (however you want) into two pairs. Take the sum for each pair, and place two of the white marker pieces on the board, at the bottom of the appropriate columns.

Example: Jim rolls a 1, 3, 4, and 6. He can split the dice in several ways, but chooses to pair up the 1 & 4, and the 3 & 6. Therefore, he places one marker at the bottom of the 5 column, and one marker at the bottom of the 9 column, corresponding with the sums of his dice pairs.

[Note: He could also have split his dice into 1 & 6, and 3 & 4, which would have resulted in two sums of 7. In this case, he'd place one marker at the bottom of the 7 column, and then move it up an additional square.]

At this point, you may continue to roll, or stop whenever you want to. If you continue to roll, you’ll split the dice into 2 pairs each time, and place or move up the markers appropriately. The tricky part is, once you’ve placed a marker on the board, you can’t move it to another column. You have to hope that you keep rolling dice combinations that pair off into columns you’ve already “claimed”. When you do, you can move the appropriate marker(s) up the column. But if you roll in such a way that you can’t move any of the markers, your turn is over and you lose all your progress for that turn.

Example: On Jim’s second roll, he rolls 2, 2, 3, 6. Because he already has a marker in the 5 column, he decides to split the dice into: 2 & 3, and 2 & 6. He gets to move his marker in the 5 column up one square, and put the third (and final) marker in the 8 column.

From this point forward, Jim will have to be able to split his dice in such a way that he gets a sum of 5, 8, or 9 (since that’s where his markers are). The good news is, once all three markers are on the board, it’s okay if he can only use one pair of dice. For example, if his third roll results in: 1, 1, 2, 3, he’ll be able to use the 2 & 3 in order to move up the marker in the 5 column, and the remaining 1 & 1 won’t affect him negatively. However, if he rolls: 5, 5, 6, 6, he’s out of luck, since he can only make sums of 10, 11, or 12 out of those dice… and he doesn’t have any markers in those columns.

If a player decides to stop, he or she replaces the markers with their own colored pieces, showing that they earned and are able to keep those scores. If they push their luck too far and roll an unusable combination, they remove the markers from the board, but do not get to put their own playing pieces there. They’ve lost all progress from that turn. Either way, the dice and markers are passed to the next player.

On future turns, if a player already has one of his colored playing pieces in a column, he places the marker in the next square up if he goes for that number again. For example, if Jim gets his piece up to the 3rd square in the 5 column before he stops his first turn, then on his next turn, he can start on the 4th square and work from there.

The goal is to be the first player to get to the top of 3 different columns. Once a player reaches the top of a column, all other players are removed from that column, and they are not allowed to claim it. (There’s only one “winner” of each column.) As a variant, if only two people are playing, you can make the object to win five columns instead of three.

The tension runs deep in Can’t Stop. First of all, you’re constantly asking yourself, “Should I roll again? Or should I stop and stay safe where I am?” But then there’s also the added competition for columns. If your opponent is almost to the top of the 8 column, it’s so tempting to just keep rolling and rolling, in an attempt to get to the top first, so you don’t get knocked completely out of the running for that column.

Ironically, Chad and I completely reverse personalities when we play this game. In “real life,” I’m super-cautious, while he’s more likely to take risks and embrace uncertainty. But when Can’t Stop hits the table, that all gets turned on its head. Chad stops after just a couple rolls, in order to guarantee his safety and progress. Meanwhile, I keep saying, “Just one more roll…just one more roll. I can’t stop!!”

In summary:

Can’t Stop

Number of Players: 2-4
Time required: 30 minutes
Ages: 9 and up
Where to buy: Time Well Spent or Amazon.com

Callapidder recommends it: Anyone who’s looking for a quick, fun game, particularly those who like to push their luck a little. Those who’ve enjoyed Pass the Pigs will like this one, too.

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