How Will The New Tariffs Affect TTRPG Prices?

New US tariffs have hit the world, and the tabletop gaming industry is bracing for impact. Every company (including us) will be doing a thorough analysis of how the recent US tariffs will affect their business, and then plan accordingly.

Of the raft of global tariffs on US imports declared yesterday, two in particular affect the tabletop gaming industry--the tariffs on the EU and on China.

The new tariff on goods manufactured in the EU is 20%, while those which originate in China are 34%. This is in addition to a recent 20% tariff on China, raising that level to 54%.

The tariff applies to the place of origin of a product, not the country where the company is registered. Many game companies in Europe, the UK, and Scandinavia print books in the EU; and more complex products which require boxes or other components, including those from game companies in the US, often come from China. The tariff on UK-produced products is 10%, but most UK-based companies print in the EU and China.

There is something called the 'de minimis threshold', and generally shipments below that value do not incur tariffs. In the US that is currently $800, and it mainly affects individual orders bought from overseas. However, that no longer applies to goods made in China. It also won't help with shipments of inventory (such as a print run) shipped to a US warehouse from the EU. When somebody in the US orders a book from, say, a UK game company, that order will often be fulfilled from inventory stored in a US warehouse rather than shipped directly from the UK. That US inventory will have incurred the tariff when it was shipped as part of a larger shipment.

A shipment of our books from our printer in the EU​

Of course, these aren't the only way that tariffs can affect prices. Even products manufactured in the US might use materials or components from China, Canada, or the EU, and that will affect the production cost of those products. For example, a US printer which uses paper sources in Canada is going to have increased costs. DriveThruRPG's print-on-demand costs have already increased by as much as 50% in the US.

How might game companies go about handling these increased costs?

• Eat the tariff themselves. That might be possible in some instances, but the size of them will likely make that non-feasible. Most game products do not have a 54% profit margin.​
• Manufacture in the US. That solution might be feasible but runs into a couple of barriers. (1) US printing costs tend to be higher; (2) goods would then have to be exported to the EU, Canada, and other countries, which may have reciprocal tariffs in place; (3) US printing capacity isn't up to the task (remember printers don't just print games--we're talking books); (4) US non-book game component manufacture capacity is even more difficult; (5) splitting a print run between a US and EU or Chinese printer greatly reduces the per-unit manufacture cost as the volume at each location will be halved; (6) as the recent DTRPG printing cost increase shows, even US printers use raw materials from elsewhere.​
• Pass the cost along to customers. This, unfortunately, is probably going to be the most feasible result. This means that the price of games will be going up.​

It gets really difficult when the production/shipping process straddles the tariff. We at EN Publishing have four Kickstarters fulfilling (Voidrunner's Codex, Gate Pass Gazette Annual 2024, Monstrous Menagerie II, and Split the Hoard) which have been paid for, including shipping, by the customer already. Two of those (Voidrunner and Split the Hoard) involve boxes and components, which meant they were manufactured in China. The other two are printed in the EU (Lithuania, specifically). All four inventory shipments will arrive in the US after the tariffs come in. We haven't yet worked out exactly what that means, but it won't be pleasant.

I suspect in the future, in these days of sudden tariffs, companies will hold back on charging for shipping right up until the last minute. And that's also bad news for customers, as they won't know the shipping price of a game until it's about to ship. This might also mean a shift towards digital sales which--currently--are not affected.

Most game companies are likely crunching numbers and planning right now. It is not known how long the tariffs will be in effect for, or what retaliatory tariffs countries will put in place against US goods. But this is a global issue which is going to drastically affect the tabletop gaming industry (along with most every other industry, but this is a TTRPG news site!)

Steve Jackson Games posted about the tariffs (the site seems to be experiencing high traffic at the time of writing)--

Some people ask, "Why not manufacture in the U.S.?" I wish we could. But the infrastructure to support full-scale boardgame production – specialty dice making, die-cutting, custom plastic and wood components – doesn't meaningfully exist here yet. I've gotten quotes. I've talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren't.

We aren't the only company facing this challenge. The entire board game industry is having very difficult conversations right now. For some, this might mean simplifying products or delaying launches. For others, it might mean walking away from titles that are no longer economically viable. And, for what I fear will be too many, it means closing down entirely.

Note: please keep discussion to the effect of tariffs on the game industry. This forum isn't the place to discuss international politics.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The wealthier the country, the longer is can sustain tariffs before the money runs out.

Again keeping this general, I think internal anger at price increases is more likely to end a high-tariff regime in wealthy developed countries rather than actual running out of money, in the 21st century. Hence my belief this will be probably a low-single digit years problem in terms of actual tariffs.

Agree with the general points though. Even a few months would be enough to permanently reshape countless industries.

 

[mamba]

Digital services can really move around pretty easily though, if they want to. I imagine if this becomes common a lot of digital services companies will move in whatever way they need to in order to stop being regarded as US companies. Which will probably benefit other countries by having them move or set up larger bases there.

which kinda would be the goal of imposing the tariff in the first place

 

[Morrus]

Hence my belief this will be probably a low-single digit years problem in terms of actual tariffs.

Agree with the general points though. Even a few months would be enough to permanently reshape countless industries.

Yeah. Years means massive change and a lot of companies going out of business. I'm hoping this will last days or weeks, not years.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Again keeping this general, I think internal anger

Internal anger only matters when there is a genuine threat of an uprising. I don’t think the will exists.

 

[Morrus]

Again keeping this general, I think internal anger at price increases is more likely to end a high-tariff regime in wealthy developed countries rather than actual running out of money, in the 21st century.

Internal anger only matters when there is a genuine threat of an uprising. I don’t think the will exists.

Ok, this is veering too far into political theory. Keep it to tariffs in the tabletop gaming industry, please. Thank you.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yes, we all use printing companies. Nobody in the TTRPG industry prints their games in-house.

I know Wizard Tower Games does their own printing and manufacturing. But I think they are the definitely the exception.

For the topic, when I just launched HORDE, I decided to do rewards a bit differently and let DTRPG do distribution and built the reward tiers so that backers would get links to print their own books at-cost. I went that path expecting tariffs and wanted to have as much transparency to backers as possible while also "proofing" my costs so I didn't end up in the red due to increased costs. Yes, I know this means it's passed to the customer, but that's how tariffs work... It's also the best way to ensure I get product to customers and not be one of those "sorry we can never fulfill, but the costs became higher than we raised." scenarios that are too frequent in crowdfunding.

 

[Piperken]

With the news in the last day, I genuinely feel terrible for any small, indie business in ttrpgs, who're at any point in the process of planning out or finalizing their publishing of hard copies (via kickstarter, backerit etc.); this is definitely adding unwarranted stress and concern for them!

 

[Steampunkette]

I don't see this going well for TTRPG gamers.

So much of what's published comes from outside the US into it, and it's going to result in higher prices probably no matter what any individual publisher wants to do. There's only so much cost they can eat, after all, especially as the tariffs get higher and higher.

Meanwhile local companies are going to see it as a price-increasing opportunity. Even if they're entirely made in America from American materials (Ink, Paper, Plastic, Metal, Whatever) they can just point to the tariffs and claim that the prices on materials and labor are increasing.

Other local companies that aren't being squeezed can also just flatly raise their prices in order to benefit more from the tariffs by undercutting the international competition, but not by much, in order to grow their bottom line.

I hate it so much.

 

[Gilthy]

I think the good news is that companies like your own produce unique products. So if a customer is really interested in something, they'll be willing to pay extra. With unique products, customers will not "substitute" a game they like for one they are not enthusiastic about, just because of a shipping cost differential.

At least, that's how I would view it.

As a EU buyer, I switched to "mostly digital" or "POD through DriveThru" for things like smaller scale Kickstarters (the ones unable to arrange for "EU-friendly shipping" at a sensible cost, paying US$20 shipping + costs on a US$20 game means I won't pick up any physical tier).

Note that this was already the case since shipping costs went through the roof, combined with the EU dropping the minimal threshold on charging VAT for anything outside the EU (meant to stifle Alibaba and Temu packages, but it affected all non-EU packages).

 

[Von Ether]

I know Wizard Tower Games does their own printing and manufacturing. But I think they are the definitely the exception.

For the topic, when I just launched HORDE, I decided to do rewards a bit differently and let DTRPG do distribution and built the reward tiers so that backers would get links to print their own books at-cost. I went that path expecting tariffs and wanted to have as much transparency to backers as possible while also "proofing" my costs so I didn't end up in the red due to increased costs. Yes, I know this means it's passed to the customer, but that's how tariffs work... It's also the best way to ensure I get product to customers and not be one of those "sorry we can never fulfill, but the costs became higher than we raised." scenarios that are too frequent in crowdfunding.

Yep. POD discount links are great for the little guys

If I could go back in time, I would have stuck to that solution. Even sending out a POD book with shipping outside the US was a gamble. Some of my books saw $1 profit.

In talking with a friend about their upcoming KS, they are now promoting it as a PDF with a POD discount link option so the customer can decide if they think getting the physical copy is worth it/a financial struggle.