Post Mortem LA Trilogy: Spoiler-free Boardgame Review

[@COOPFORTWO]

ps. I just got a (generic) email from the company with a 25% discount code (MORTEM-25) for the weekend of April 16th. But I read on another forum that they run discounts relatively frequently, so if you do want to buy these, seems like the thing to do is sign up at their website and wait for a discount.

[@castor3331]

You reviews are top-notch. It's amazing how you manage to go into such detail without ever spoiling the story or experience. Really helps me to decide on whether to buy these sets. Thank you!

[@COOPFORTWO]

Awww thank you for such kind encouragement. I really do appreciate it :) -jesse

[@castor3331]

@@COOPFORTWO And you really do deserve it. BTW: There are huge discounts on MPC this week.

[@COOPFORTWO]

@@castor3331 Yeah it seems these puzzle experience type companies seem to run big sales regularly, and most I think will have a black friday sale this coming weekend.

[@MrTuco40]

Greatly appreciate this channel. His videos are very well produced. Clear audio, video.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Thank you, MrTuco.

[@mpaice]

Thanks Jesse. Excellent review as ever. I really appreciate the reviews, as I won't let myself watch the playthroughs. Please can you recommend which of the cases to start with?

[@COOPFORTWO]

Definitely start with the first case "Lights.. Camera.. Murder".. The real question is whether one should buy the set of all 3 for a slightly reduced cost. Since they are so expensive, my suggestion is don't be in a rush -- sign up at the company email list and wait until they are 20%+ discounted, which they seem to be every few months.

[@mpaice]

@@COOPFORTWO Many thanks!

[@teresavacarr7851]

How was your Christmas? Hope you have a good new year and many more to come in 2023

[@theokkali467]

I have never successfully played a "mystery game" before. The toymaker incident ("Who's the toymaker!?!") is what I mean by "never successfully" btw.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Although I tried in my review not to set too high expectations for this series, I really did love the experience of playing these games. Thinking about it, I wonder if I need to start emphasizing more how big a role in your enjoyment is having someone else to share the experience with -- that's something I am coming to realize more lately (and is fitting given the name of this channel). In some ways the best of these narrative mystery game experiences can produce the otherwise near-impossible experience of people reading a good book together at the same time.. Or maybe it brings us back to our days as a young child when our mother or father would read to us from a book.. At it's best these games do offer a portal back to such special moments that we don't often get to have as adults (except maybe when reading to children?). -jesse

[@debbielevy3539]

It's a big part of it for me, definitely. When I was a kid, my family and I used to like watching TV murder mysteries together (Agatha Christie etc.) and trying to work out who did it before the final reveal. I don't see that much of them these days, and my hobbies and interests are quite different from theirs, so it's great to have an activity like that which we can all enjoy together. From the standpoint of solving the mystery, it's also really useful to have several people approaching the case from different perspectives. When you're alone it's easy to get fixated on one particular theory and try to 'fit' all the evidence to that - whereas someone else might suddenly come up with a completely different idea, leading to a 'eureka moment' for the whole group. In addition, it can be helpful to divide up up tasks, having one person scanning newspapers etc. while others focus on following up leads - it's a lot of information for a single person to take in at once, which can sometimes make you blind to potentially useful information. When my family plays SHCD, I usually take the role of 'lead investigator' as suggested in the instructions (at their request, not because I like hogging the role!) I'll read out the introduction, draw up a list of potential leads, and suggest a general direction for the investigation ("OK, we should probably visit the crime scene first, followed by the coroner and the criminologist.") The others can then follow up whatever leads they prefer, while I scribble down brief notes for each location visited. That way you get some structure to the investigation, while still leaving people free to pursue their own theories, which sometimes throws up leads I'd never have thought of. It would be interesting to try playing with different numbers of people - with only one other person in the group, I might be inclined to split up the work more equally.

[@COOPFORTWO]

@@debbielevy3539 It's absolutely undeniable that playing alone makes these games much harder -- your mind does get stuck on particular ways of thinking about things and you become blind to considering alternatives and re-evaluating your assumptions. Of course, that challenge may be just what some people are after!

[@jonathanwarner2893]

Good recommendation that the people who really enjoy the longer written passages and longer feel for the case might enjoy reading the crime dossier novels.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Thank you for all your comments on the draft outline for the review!

[@debbielevy3539]

This sounds amazing, but $69 for ONE case?! Plus international shipping, customs etc... nope, doesn't look like I'll be getting my hands on these anytime soon. Now I find myself wanting to go to the US and play board games with you guys... :D Speaking of which, I wonder if these games are popular enough now to hold some sort of convention? I know there are cons for board games and tabletop games in general, but not for 'narrative mystery games' specifically.

[@COOPFORTWO]

Life becomes simpler once one frees oneself of the compulsion to buy things immediately.. Wait until you can borrow it from someone. For these one-time play games, I like the idea of a group of people sending games by mail to each other as they finish them, and I'd be happy to send my finished games down the road to the next person as long as I was convinced they would play it and send it along to the next person in short order.

[@Rob_W]

Where did you see that price? These cases are available as downloads for $2 each.

[@COOPFORTWO]

@@Rob_W I think you must be thinking of something else.. same computer game maybe? Here's the link to the Post Mortem LA experiences: mysteriouspackage.com/collections/catalogue/products/post-mortem-trilogy

[@Rob_W]

@@COOPFORTWO Yes, my bad... The comments showed up under the Martian Investigation video so that's what I thought it was about. 🤦

[@COOPFORTWO]

​@@Rob_W Yes Martian Investigations case 1 and 2 are $2 downloads each. We are playing that on Tues night: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHrHg4eFgp6fgJY

[@rcatone2103]

Love the Odd Couple theme 😂

[@COOPFORTWO]

Thank you :) The Odd couple is one of my favorite shows. The intro made more sense when it was me+gregg instead of just me (you can find it on some of our old videos), but I can't give it up :) -jesse