ABSTRACT
Studying RH+TRPG+LARP as narrative genres, Chapter 4 begins with various approaches to fictionalisations of historical settings. Whereas the setting (storyworld) enacted in RH is always history-dominated, TRPG and LARP historical settings may be dominated by myth and legend, or by popular fiction (fabulation), or by supernatural fantasy. The ontological gap between fiction and real-world referentiality in historical storyworlds is discussed in the context of possible worlds theory, larp ontology, and virtual heritage studies. Subchapter 4.2 revisits the questions of mediality and narrativity in first-person audience media (already covered in 3.2). It postulates that first-person audience exploration of historical settings crosses the fiction/non-fiction and mediated/unmediated divide with the concept of immediatedness: a harmonious unity between the mediating fiction and the immediate visceral experience. This is contextualised in enactivist and anthropological narratology, which finds elements of role-playing and biosemantic embodiment in any consumption of character-driven narratives.
