Your Top Push Your Luck Games

Does anyone still play Can't Stop (1980) after years of newer Push Your Luck games coming out?

I saw someone on BGG make a DIY Can't Stop board look like a casino game with felt & poker chips- I think that would appeal more.



Has anyone played Reiner Knizia's Exxtra ?


Not all PYL games use dice. I recall repoman say he likes Knizia's Double or Nothing , which uses cards.

One of my favourites is a dead simple game called Gefühle. You use a rectangular piece of balsa wood with numbers on. 2 on one of the flat sides, 5s on the sides, 10s on the ends and on flat side is blank. You place it on the edge of the table with the two-side up and the have to flip it. You can score your points or keep going, but if you fail (by hitting blank, dropping it on the floor, or if it doesn't do a full turn) you lose all points you haven't scored on a previous round. First to 25 wins.

The game is super easy, super fun and very beer friendly. But we also play it with the kids as a short filler before bedtime for instance. Sans beer, though.

ubarose wrote: We still play Can't Stop. We will probably be playing it over Thanksgiving as it is a family favorite.

Heck Meck is another push your luck favorite.

Yes a classic, plus has the bonus of attacking your opponents trophy pile !

Another can't stopper here. My board is a piece of paper and junk from other games.

I played the iOS version of Can't Stop all the time, until it died the 64-bit upgrade death. Maybe I should make a physical board.

Does World Championship Russian Roulette count?

I've played a *lot* of Exxtra and it remains in my Top 100 list of games. It satisfies the same itch as Can't Stop though so if you're looking for only one "push your luck" game, Can't Stop is probably the better choice. On the other hand, Exxtra handles 5 & 6 players pretty well (CS does not) and the interaction is more immediate.

Does Talisman count?

I’ve played Exxtra a few times and enjoyed it, don’t see it very often but would play it again if it was on offer.

Another couple of games that index heavily on PYL:

Diamant/Incan Gold is great fun and scales well to higher player counts.

Deep Sea Adventure gets a bit of a mixed reception but is generally well received.

It’s more an auction game, but there is a push your element in RA. Great game.

The one I play most often has to be Incan Gold. It is a pretty pure design, and scales really well. It's one that we've been able to play with a wide variety of people, which is always nice.

Pass the Pigs has always been a fun game for our group.

I thought I'd be clever and say, "Talisman!"

But Boothwah beat me to the punch.

Incan Gold is indeed great, and scales up easily.

Deep Sea Assholes [Adventure] is a current favorite, though any individual game seems a bit hit-or-miss, and it really changes drastically based on player count. It's also a game where the first time you play it you will get absolutely destroyed despite everyone telling you what not to do.

I think my all time favorite is Geschenkt (No Thanks!). Super fun, easy to learn, tiny footprint. I may also be biased by a game that involved my parents-in-law and a bottle of absinthe...

All these push-your-luck games fall squarely into the bucket of great things to bring to family events that feature people who are 65+