So is the theme late-stage capitalism or is it TTRPGs or both?
Hi !
The theme is late-stage capitalism, as an element of game design. The jam was made with TTRPGs in mind, but there's no reason to limit ourselves to that, anything that includes elements of late-stage capitalism could be a submission.
To give some context, the idea emerged while talking about TTRPG tournaments, players asked to rate their GMs on absurd criteria, and so on. What if we had Yelp reviews for players? What if GMs had to provide music, food and entertainment or face the risk of bad reviews? What if GMs started including mechanics like loot-boxes to hook their players in and make a buck?
It doesn't have to be real-life elements, it could also be in the game world. What if there were Yelp reviews for dungeons, and they were managed by big entertainment companies? What if players were playing the monsters, hired in such a dungeon, and had to face termination if they're not scary enough, or if they let adventurers pass by?
The obvious genre that already includes capitalism in its design is Cyberpunk, which is why I suggested applying similar principles to other genres as inspiration.