Last Year The Nightmare – Characters Guide

The survivors and killers of Last Year: The Nightmare.

Last Year: The Nightmare Survivors

Amber

Amber is East Side High’s breakout star and she knows it. Her grades are as winning as her million-dollar smile and her social engineering skills and acerbic wit have kept her at the top of the food chain since freshman year. She’s smart, savvy, and can move from bubbly to cutting in a flash. Amber is not about to let a few serial murderers get in the way of her college applications, so when she enters the Nightmare, it’s with a ferocity and a drive that is a surprise to the group, and perhaps to her.

• The Ace: Pretty, popular, smart, and as the game shows, a pretty damn good athlete.
• Alpha Bitch: Pretty? Check. Popular? Check. Endless stream of sarcasm and rude remarks? Check.
• The B Grade: Being given an A minus is apparently enough for her to celebrate the offending teacher’s demise.
• Deadpan Snarker: Nearly every sentence that comes out of her mouth is sarcastic disdian for her current situation. Even if she’s been caught in a bear trap or about to be executed, she’ll just be insulting the Nightmare’s apparent lack of creativity.
• Determinator: She’s worked incredibly hard to get to medical school after graduating. And since she knows it’ll all go to waste if she dies in the Nightmare, she’ll stop at nothing to escape.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted. She’s actually one of the smartest, hardest working kids in the school.
• Insufferable Genius: One of East Side High’s brightest students. And she’ll be sure to mention that every time she tries to make something, aside from being the meanest member of the group.
• Kick the Dog: When discovering the dead body of a teacher, occasionally she’ll say this:
  Amber: That’s what you get for giving me an A minus!

Chad

Chad is the quintessential popular kid, a jock whose good looks and success on the football field excuse his academic delinquency. Though he might seem like the type, he’s far from a bully, always sure to stand up for his team and lend his considerable strength to the cause, of kicking ass. Loud, confident and occasionally overbearing, Chad doesn’t know what it feels like to lose. For him, the Nightmare is just another challenge.

• Brilliant, but Lazy: Implied. Though he has terrible grades, including a C+ in shop class, he’s still able to construct complex gadgets such as bombs, tasers, and flamethrowers with limited resources and tools. Given that he’s been described as an academic delinquent, his C+ may have come from misbehavior rather than bad work.
• Meaningful Name: A chad, in internet slang terms, is a stereotypical jock who’s handsome but also arrogant and rude. Though he’s nicer than you may expect, this is a pretty fair description of Chad.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Swears the most out of all the Survivors.
• Jerk Jock: Averted. He may be huge, play sports, and be at the top of East Side’s social pecking order, but he’s a team player who’ll always stand up for his friends.

Nick

Nick is a proud nerd, entirely comfortable with himself and his archetype. Though fashion-impaired and frequently the target of school bullies, Nick sees everything as “classic” high school, and manages to carry himself with confidence and an innate charm. Nick realizes that the Nightmare might be supernatural, but there’s a certain logic to it, a fascinating temporal loop that must surely possess some underlying science. This is his chance to “boldly go”, and as terrifying as the killers might be, he’s going to take it.

• Geek Physiques: The skinniest, palest member of the group. Doesn’t stop him from laying a beatdown on the Killer if he’s on Assault, though.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Downplayed. Though he’s determined to escape the Nightmare, at the same time, he’s also the most curious about its supernatural aspects and tries to find some science to its inner workings.
• Proud to Be a Geek

Sam

Sam can’t seem to catch a break. A meek and mild-mannered girl, her efforts to be cool (or even noticed) are constantly undone, and the reason she never gets bullied is the bullies don’t seem to know she exists. Sam strives to break free of her loserdom and become a cool kid at last… but for now it’s mostly online penpals, orthopaedic shoes and her pet bunny, Sprinkles. Sam’s arrival in the Nightmare feels like an inevitability: of course she’s going to be chased by crazed killers in an alternate dimension, just like she’ll be the one who gets caught in a lawn sprinkler on picture day.

• Apologizes a Lot
• Fragile Flower: Very shy and apologetic.
• Friend to All Living Things: The only member of the group besides Nick (who’s more interested in training them as minions) who’s friendly towards the rats skittering around the Nightmare. She also owns a pet bunny and aspires to become a veterinarian after graduating.

Troy

Troy’s family moved from New York City to Forest Hills when he was four years old. While he has little memory of his former home, he’s happy to take the cred it affords him in the sleepy suburbs. Charismatic and trustworthy, Troy’s used to having people to look up to him, but being the sharpest guy in the room can mean more responsibility than he’s happy to take on. Troy’s seen a lot of horror movies, so when he arrives in the Nightmare, he doesn’t love his odds. But in the midst of terror, it’s up to him to lead the team, devise escape strategies, and get everyone out alive.

• Black Dude Dies First: Entirely possible in-game. Ironically, though, for all his Genre Savviness when it comes to 90’s horror, Troy seems to have this trope backwards, occasionally yelling that they can’t kill the Token Minority first.
• Genre Savvy: He’s seen his fair share of horror movies.
• The Leader: The leader of the group of students trapped in the Nightmare.
• The Strategist: Usually comes up with the escape plans.
• Token Minority: Currently the only African-American character in the game.

Last Year: The Nightmare Killers

Strangler

• Bandaged Face: Most of his face is covered in bloody bandages.
• Eye Scream: Nearly all of his executions involve this.
• Laughing Mad: His most common sound.
• Shear Menace: Uses a pair of oversized scissors as his weapon.
• Sociopathic Soldier: It’s implied that he used to be in the military, judging by his dog tags and the emblem on his vest.
• What a Drag: Drags survivors along the ground towards him with his chain.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Can grab survivors from a fair distance away with a chain to pull them towards him.

Slasher

• An Axe to Grind
• Death from Above: The Slasher can ambush the kids by dropping in from the skylights, planting his axe blade in their faces for an insta-kill.
• Jack-of-All-Stats: A rough balance between the mobility of the Strangler and the high health and damage output of the Giant.

Giant

Bald of Evil
Barrier-Busting Blow: The Giant has the option to ambush by smashing through a wall, instantly killing the survivor unlucky enough to be in range.
Mighty Glacier: The toughest killer of the three – and also the slowest. However, his charging ability compensates for this slightly.
Punched Across the Room: Sort of. The Giant can grab a survivor and throw them quite a bit away, dealing a heavy amount of damage to them that, sometimes, can drop them to zero health with a punch immediately after leading to an easy kill.