Top 10 Press Your Luck Games

Top 10 Press Your Luck Games

Taking big risks and seeing how they work out can be disastrous in real life but it's great fun in games. I find that when a game forces me to press my luck to win, victory feels sweeter. (Defeat seems more bitter, too, but let's not focus on that.)

1. Incan Gold

Published by Funagain / Sunriver Games, 3 to 8 players. Heart pounding decisions, thrills, heartbreak: Incan Gold has them all. Designers Alan R. Moon and Bruno Faidutti send gamers deep into a temple in search of treasure and hoping to avoid snakes, explosions and other hazards. But if you venture too deep, you won't get out alive. Another great twist comes when players decide whether to return to camp: those who do might collect extra treasure, but it's worthless if too many return simultaneously.

Image courtesy of Face 2 Face Games

Originally published by Parker Brothers, most recently published by Gryphon Games, 2 to 4 players. This gem from master game designer Sid Sackson is quite simply a must play. It's amazing how much anguish can be caused by four dice. On a turn, you roll and split the dice into pairs. The board includes columns combinations from 2 to 12; the middle columns are much longer. Each time a roll matches a column, you move your marker up but you can only use three columns per turn. If your roll doesn't fit those columns, you lose all your progress. When designer David Moffat first envisioned a game of tossing small plastic pigs across the table, friends may have questioned his sanity. But it works wonderfully. Players score points depending how the pigs land. You keep rolling as many times as you want to, but if the pigs land badly, your turn ends with nada.

5. Circus FlohcatiPublished by Rio Grande Games, 3 to 5 players. This fast paced card game from Reiner Knizia challenges players to balance patience with the need to score. On a turn, you play cards from the draw pile face up. If you don't want to take an available card, draw a new one. But if that card matches one already available, your turn ends. The goal is to make matching sets of three.

6. PickominoPublished by Rio Grande Games, 2 to 7 players. In this press your luck game, also from Reiner Knizia, you roll eight dice, set some aside, then re roll the remainder. Once you set aside some dice, you can't set aside that number again. (To be successful, every turn must include at least one worm roll.) When you stop, take a tile from the center of the table, or from another player. When all the tiles are claimed, the player with the most worms on his tiles wins.

7. Cosmic WimpoutPublished by C3, Inc., 2 to 7 players. The five dice in this game are imprinted with various special symbols, and players roll them to come up with various scoring combinations. If you roll good combos, your score can add up quickly. But one bad roll will send you back to earth.

10. RaPublished by Rio Grande Games, 3 to 5 players. This game (another by Reiner Knizia) would be higher on this list except that it's primarily an auction game. At the end of most rounds, one player is confronted with a gut wrenching decision: Should he continue drawing tiles hoping to get a better result, or stop before winding up with nothing?