Can't Stop Express

24th January 2022

It's time for some impromptu Monday gaming in lieu of Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena.

Can't Stop Express is the roll & write cousin to the excellent push-your-luck dice game; Cant' Stop.

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Caveat: We have only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Dice: Can't Stop Express comes with 5 six-siders, which is 1 more than Can't Stop, so something is definitely different.
• Scorecard: Each player gets their own scorecard which is a sheet full of checkboxes and looks suspiciously like a spreadsheet.
  In essence there are 11 rows numbered 2-12 (For each potential result from rolling 2 six-siders.) and each row has 10 checkboxes, 4 in 'negative', 1 in 'neutral' and 5 in 'positive.
  Each row also has a 'scoring value', this varies according to how likely that number is to come up on a roll of 2 six-siders; the rarer the number, the higher the value. The extremes 2 and 12 are worth 100 VP per positive checkmark, while the most common result 7, is only worth 30 VP per positive checkmark.
  Finally, there's another 3 rows of 8 checkboxes for tracking the 5th die.

And that's it!, Can't Stop Express is a very minimal game and that applies to all of it. I can't comment on the quality of the components, there's no art to speak of in the game and no iconography either.

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How's it play?
Give each player a scorecard and you're ready to go.

​Can't Stop Express has in one regard a similar mechanic to Can't Stop, which is that after every dice roll, players are putting together 2 sets of 2 dice, the 5th die has a different role (Sic). Where Can't Stop Express differs is that once the dice are rolled, the results are used by all players simultaneously.

• Roll the dice: Once the dice have been rolled, everybody performs the following 2 actions:
• Assign pairs: All players create 2 sets of dice that will create 2 numbers from 2-12. Then, on their scorecard, all players mark off checkboxes for those numbers (Going from left-to-right.). If a player has a 4 and a 9, they would mark off the leftmost empty checkboxes on the rows for 4 and 9.
• 5th die: So what does the 5th die do? After assigning the 2 pairs, the player must​ assign the value of 5th die to one of the 3 rows in the 5th die area of the scorecard and mark off a checkbox. So if the 5th die was a 6, the player would write '6' in one of the rows and mark off the first checkbox.
• Next roll: When all players have finished assigning all their dice, the game then proceeds to the next roll and players again assign 2 sets of dice to their scorecard.
  Once again the player will need to assign the 5th die, except now it must be to one of the 2 remaining 5th die rows. This number must have a different value to the number they previously assigned, using the example above, the player must assign a value different to 6 (And mark off a checkbox.).
  After the third roll, a final unique number will be assigned to the last row. Now that 3 numbers have been to the 5th die rows, a new rule comes into play when the dice are rolled.
• 5th die restriction: From now on, whenever a player chooses which dice to assign to the 2 sets, the value of the remaining 5th die must match 1 of the 3 numbers in the 5th die rows. This means it's likely that players will not always get to choose all the dice they want for their sets because a die may be needed for it's 5th die row instead. Furthermore, every time a value is assigned to the 5th row, one of its checkboxes is marked off.
  If none of the dice match any of the 3 numbers in the rows, then they is no need to assign a 5th die.
• Scoring: There are 3 types of checkboxes in each scoring row, negative, neutral and positive, they are always marked off from left-to-right. This means starting with the 4 negative boxes which must be marked off before the neutral, which must be marked off before the positive boxes.
  Negative: Even a single marked off checkbox here reduces that row's score to -200, that's right -200! This doesn't change until after all 4 negative boxes are marked off.
  Neutral: Once all 4 negative boxes are filled, then the 5th box, i.e. the neutral checkbox can be marked off. This takes the row's score up to 0! Bargain!
  Positive: Finally, when a player gets to the positive checkboxes, each one marked off scores that row's scoring value. Each marked off positive checkbox in the 2 row would score 100 and each one in the 7 row would score 30! Bonus - literally!
  Each row has 5 positive checkboxes, so the maximum the 7 row can score is 150, any dice assigned to a maxed row add nothing to the score.

Play progresses with the dice being rolled and assigned until the endgame is reached.

Endgame
When a player fills the 8th and final checkbox in any one of their 5th die rows, then they stop scoring and the game is over for them.
Once all players can no longer score dice, the game is over and players calculate their scores for all scoring rows, rows that have no boxes checked off score 0.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

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Mmm.... spreadsheets!

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Overall
One thing I found interesting about Can't Stop Express is how it twists the paradigm of Can't Stop.

In Can't Stop, the objective is to reach the top of any 3 tracks using the results of the dice rolls, which tracks are used is unimportant; they all score a point each. Since it's much easier to get a 7 than a 2, this is balanced out by needing to get many more 7s to reach the top than you would for 2s.
The points have equal value but getting them requires varying numbers of dice results depending on the number.

In Can't Stop Express players are also trying to move along tracks but it is changed around. To reach a scoring position for both 2 and 7 requires getting the same number of pertinent results, either six 2s or 7s, but in Can't Stop Express, they score differently.
Six 7s will score 30 but six 2s will score 100 and in fact seven 2's would more than all ten 7 results.
The dice results required for each track to score are equal but they score varying amounts depending on the number.

Anyway, talk about mechanics aside, I found Can't Stop Express to be a bit of a middling game.
I like how it shares a concept with Can't Stop of setting aside 2 sets of 2 dice and it probably plays a little quicker. There's no going bust, so no 'wasted' rolls - at least in theory. Luck can mess with players in Can't Stop Express, just in a different way!
The push-your-luck element works very differently here, there are no extra dice rolls to make here. Instead players will need to judge which rows to try and fill out and it's in the planning where players push their luck, when a player decides to start marking off the checkboxes in a specific row, they're essentially gambling on that number reappearing again and again.
The 7 row is the safest bet but is not much of a scorer. The further away from 7 you move, the greater the rewards but also riskier it is to fill out 6 or more checkboxes.

​In terms of what I don't like Can't Stop Express is a game completely lacking in theme and feels a little dry (Although to be honest Can't Stop's mountain climbing theme is paper thin.).
My biggest bugbear though is the scoring; those first 4 checkboxes that penalise players 200 VPs, occasionally being forced to mark off checkboxes in rows you don't want to and watching your score drop by hundred of points can be very frustrating.
I know why it's there, it replaces drawback of going bust from Can't Stop, even so, it makes the game feel negative and I'm not fond of it.

I don't think Can't Stop Express is a bad game, mechanically speaking it's pretty solid but it lacks the extra bit of thrill that comes with deciding to re-roll the dice from Can't Stop and doesn't really bring anything new or different to the table.
I'd have no issue with playing Can't Stop Express more times but if given the choice between this and Can't Stop, I'd pick the latter every time.