Diagesis
Diagesis refers to something that is experienced within the boundaries of a story's reality by both characters and audience. The most common example is if music is playing in the background and the characters can hear it and see it being played by a musician nearby, then the music is considered diagetic. However, if it is part of a story's soundtrack to set a tone for a scene, and is not heard by the characters or produced in-world, then it would be non-diagetic[1]. As a term it may be used as a more formal way of checking if something visible out-of-game also exists or is happening in-game.
Within a larp, this might also come into play in a few different ways. For example, in a 360° or "What You See is What You Get" larp, all costumes, sets, (and often actions) are considered diagetic and are experienced both by players and characters as what they are. The setting of a castle is depicted by hiring out a real castle; characters can only jump as high as their players can jump.
Conversely, traffic cones set up on a field for a fantasy-style battle game that denote the edges of the play area would be non-diegetic. The characters may have some other way of believing that they wouldn't go beyond those boundaries, such as difficult terrain, or they may be unaware of the boundaries completely, focussed on their mission; while the players take note of the border out-of-character and steer[2] themselves back into the play area whenever they come close to them. Player characters would need to break the fourth wall[3] to acknowledge their existence.
See also
References
- ↑ Diegetic music on Wikipedia. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
- ↑ Jose Zuell (2016, 23rd June) Diegetic Steering, blog post, Boria Larp website. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
- ↑ Fourth wall on Wikipedia. Retrieved 10 July 2026.