At some point, I;m gonna have to enlist you as a collaborator on my 'Existential Ennui: the RPG' game.
The Player Characters take on the role of ‘ordinary Joe’ (or ‘Josephine’).
Monday to Saturday, from 09:00 to 18:00, they go to work in some menial role (like shop assistant, warehouse worker, bank-teller, whatever).
It takes an hour to get ready for work in the morning (90 minutes if they have kids).
It takes an hour to drop the kids off at school and/or get to their place of work.
It takes an hour to return home after work.
They sleep from 23:00 to 07:00 (if they're lucky).
In the four hours per day remaining to them (after the shops have shut) during the week … and the sixteen hours on Sundays … they cook and eat, go shopping, do the laundry, etc. whilst trying to find things to do that aren’t mind-numbingly, soul-sappingly, spirit-crushingly tedious — examples of such activities being, say, cow-tipping … or going to bars to get blind-drunk and forget how much they wish they could simply lie down, go to sleep and never have to wake up again … or whatever.
Adventures consist of questing for, and participating in, these activities.
Obstacles to overcome along the way include grinding poverty that is inescapable thanks to inflation outstripping wages two-to-one, unemployment, the gig economy, racism, misogyny, ill-health, the depredations of age, traffic jams, vehicle repairs, broken washing machines and the need to take a day off work to wait for the repairman (who never comes, but logs a visit all the same), burglary, muggings, funerals for loved ones (so a reduced support network), the sociocultural oppression of the suburbs, acrimonious relationship breakups, feuds with unreasonable neighbours … and many other aspects of the futility and drudgery of Life.
I hadn't considered unemployment and the elan destroying search for work you never hear anything about (your online applications vanishing into the ether, almost like the job listing were a scam to get your details) though, so, there's clearly more (ha!) work needs doing on this idea ; )