Our Last Year is a psychological exploration of people at the end of the world. The main themes of the larp are the search for meaning, self realisation and human connection, all within a setting where the difference between hope and despair is in the eye of the beholder. 

Search for meaning

Being confronted with the end of the world will make most of the characters re-evaluate their lives. Everyone will seek a purpose, but the new goals they find, if any, will be very different:

• Working hard to prepare for the apocalypse.
• Religion and spirituality.
• Trying things they've never dared before.
• Seeking redemption and closure.
• Hedonism and debauchery.
• ​Creating a perfect community, a better world.
• Leaving something behind.
• Living a normal life, despite everything.

God, please, I need to hear your voice again, your true voice, I need to know it's you and not the devil talking to me, that's it's your angel and not the Whore of Babylon. The vision you sent me - there were too many voices and I don't know which one to follow. I try to lead the others here towards you, though so many of them are lost. I will try to find and mark the twelve chosen for salvation. But... another voice told me to love a woman. To have a son. That it is another way to salvation. Was it your voice too? God, oh God, what should I do?

I don't know what to believe anymore. They said in the radio today that Malaga looks like a battlefield now, people ransacking shops and houses, rioting, killing each other, dying on the streets. As we listened to the broadcast, Harvey seemed to be beaming. Is he fabricating these transmissions? He needs us to create his little utopia here, maybe he's lying to us just to keep us from leaving? And I tried to leave, I swear, I walked all the way to the perimeter, but then I started feeling dizzy, I felt as if something was pulling me back. Is he adding something to the water?

Shifting interpretations

The characters have differing beliefs on what is actually happening, both on the physical and metaphysical levels, and this confusion grows with every passing day.

• Is the outside world falling apart in panic and unrest, or are things going on as normal and we could return to our regular lives?
• Will the asteroid hit us or miss? And if it hits, do we actually have any chance of survival, or is it just a lie?
• The fact that we're all here: a coincidence or a sign? The way this year changes us: a divine test or human desperation?

Here's one of the many possible interpretations:

Deconstructed identinty

Separated from the external world and with an uncertain future, the characters have a chance to redefine themselves. There is nothing more to gain by pretending, and it is easy and tempting to shed the disguise of a dutiful employee, a happy family member and a well-adjusted adult. What will remain when they remove these masks? "Who am I really? Who do I want to be?" become pressing questions without an easy answer.

A life or a story? Anger. Issues. A drink will fix it. Will it? Regrets, sacrifices. Art needs sacrifices. People expect sacrifices. A mother is never good enough. God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson. Still a pair of damn fine thighs you’ve got there. I talk to myself. First person, third person, second person? We become one as the world is ending. Krapp’s last tape. A piece of crap. Worthless. Empty except for the anger. Smashing things, breaking things, breaking people. Smash through. If only. If only. No mirror would contain my radiance.

Would you do me a favour, Riley? Would you marry me? It would just be playing pretend but I’d like to believe it was real for that one evening, so I’d need you to pretend quite well. I’d like to believe that you loved me, and that I loved you, and that we’ll live happily ever after, grow old together surrounded by our grandchildren. I will wear a white dress and you will need to wear a suit, and we'll have a wedding cake even if it has to be made of canned milk and bread rations. We'll say "I do" and music will play, and we'll kiss and feel on top of the world, even though I will never love you and I hope you never love me. It's just for one evening, but we'll do it right, because we'll never get another chance.

​Human connection

Ultimately, what matters most to most of the characters are their relationships to other people. All of the characters will have strong pre-existing relationships, designed to evolve or change dramatically during the larp, and a motivation to develop new ones. Everyone will grasp for the last chance of human connection, be it seeking comfort in the arms of a stranger, reconciling with an estranged daughter or helping a former enemy.