Sometimes the most clever game designs are those that take a solid, yet tediously common, mechanic and add a slight tweak that transforms the mundane into the sublime. Sid Sackson achieved perhaps the greatest example of this design principle in his game, Can't Stop.

Somewhere a couple thousand years ago, someone invented a six-sided die. Cubes were common enough, and it probably didn't take too long for some enterprising individual to realize that adding unique markings to each face would produce a fantastic randomizer. Perhaps this invention occurred at a tavern, where others were looking for entertainment. And just that quickly, gambling on dice was born.

How much time must have gone by before gamblers grew tired of the stale, 1-in-6 odds of each result? After all, equal odds don't give the players any sense of strategy. Somewhere in the ensuing centuries, someone else realized that rolling two dice at once produces a far more interesting range of results: 36 distinct possibilities, divided into 11 sums, with an appealing bell-curve distribution. It was a gambling revolution!

A revolution which, it turns out, was extremely successful. Even today, wagering on the results of two dice is hugely popular, with hundreds of millions of dollars played at craps tables around the world every year. Every day, someone walks into a casino with a plan to beat the dice, ever-so-sure that his/her strategy will prevail. Invariably, that person walks out far poorer.

So now, in the present, we have many boardgames that utilize dice to provide random results for a staggering array of situations. I generally find dice to be tedious, consuming vast amounts of time with no decisions being made or direct influence being exerted by players, arbitrarily ruining their best-laid plans (often developed over the course of several hours). Clearly, there are many, many others who disagree with that sentiment, as dice are included in a large percentage of the board games in publication.

Most modern games use the simpler, basic 1-in-6 odds provided by one die. Two games in particular stand out for using the more complex, normally distributed two-dice rolls. One is the somewhat lightly regarded Can't Stop! The other is the consensus granddaddy of modern board games: The Settlers of Catan.

Before I go further, let me say this: Can't Stop! is one of my favorite games ever, while Settlers is a game I hope to never endure another session of. That statement necessarily begs the question: why would these two games, that share a spectacularly elegant root mechanic, have such different effects on me? Or stated another way, how does Can't Stop! recreate the gambling experience so much better than Settlers?

The answer lies in the context surrounding the two-dice roll.

Settlers seems somehow ashamed of the fact that it incorporates the gambling tradition: trading of the resources paid out mitigates the finality of the dice. Moreover, the Euro theme and other mechanics (building cities, acquiring victory points) deflect attention away from the core element of the game, the beauty of the two-dice roll. Proponents of Settlers claim the mitigation is good, because it allows players to strategically manipulate the dice results to their benefit.

Can't Stop!, on the other hand, is unabashed in its treatment of the dice. The game is essentially only dice, along with some markers to track results of rolls. Each player comes into the game knowing that his or her success ultmately rests in the fate of the dice, the unrelenting assault of randomness. This is the same way humans have played dice games for thousands of years: understanding that the fundamental element is pure chance.

Sid Sackson, in all his game-designing wisdom, saw fit to add one minor twist to the old standby that elevates Can't Stop! to the level of the sublime. Players roll four dice, and divide them up into two pairs of two, giving two results in the familiar 2-to-12 spectrum. Why is that so important? It provides the same element players seek in Settlers: strategic manipulation of the dice results, but without the implied embarrassment about using the dice to begin with.

Sackson took an elegant, simple game of chance, and added just enough manipulation to increase the complexity to a level satisfactory to non-gambling gamers. Settlers took the same elegant, simple game, and tried to make a traditional Euro out of it, teaching its players to despise the very elegance of its foundation. Speaking even as a dedicated Euro-enthusiast, I am proud to declare Sackson's design to be the true heir of all those late-night gambling sessions held over the past several centuries of human development.

So, you may ask, am I conscious of the kinship I share with generations of gamblers while leaning over the Can't Stop! board, cajoling my opponent into the one last roll that destroys his progress? It's not at the forefront of my mind, certainly. And yet, after each game's inevitably tense conclusion, I can't help but reflect on the innocent exhilaration and joy that the game inspires, and at that moment I am indeed connected to all the gamers who came before, transcending the simple fun of the dice rolls into a truly humanizing experience.

This is my first review. Thanks for reading and responding.