RPG: The Tabletop Industry Buckles Up for Trump Tariffs, Increased Prices, and ‘Company Extinctions’
The tabletop industry prepares for the fallout of an economic catastrophe. One that the people in power could stop at any time.
Nobody in the industry is happy about the newly imposed Trump tariffs. They’ve been enacted based on limited tariff authority delegated to the President decades ago. The US Constitution puts tariff power solely in the hands of Congress; which could step in and stop the Trump tariffs any moment (if they so choose.)
And it’s not that hard to say nobody in the industry is happy about these Trump tariffs. Last week, industry leaders across the tabletop space spoke out about the harm that is about to befall the industry.
This includes the CEO of Steve Jackson Games, the board of directors of GAMA (GAme Manufacturer’s Association), the president of Ares Games, and the co-founder of Stonemaier. Not to mention hobby and game store owners. Literally across the industry in every sector folks are speaking out.
And for good reason. As Stonemaier co-founder Jamey Stegmaier has stated, “There is no silver lining, it is a lose-lose-lose situation for everyone involved, except the US government.”
Tabletop Industry Prepares For Decades of Growth to Be Deleted
So we’re on the same page, “tariff: a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.” If you would like more of a primer, we’ve covered this before. The Trump tariffs are hitting the economy as a whole pretty hard. But the tabletop industry is particularly vulnerable due to the nature of its products. Which brings us to this past weekend, when industry leaders sounded alarm bells.
Sounded new alarm bells, that is. DriveThruRPG sent out a newsletter in early March, ahead of expected tariffs. The letter warned that the cost of print-on-demand books was about to go up by as much as 50%. But the actual Trump tariffs are much higher than estimated, resulting in a newer, more dire outlook for the industry.
John M. Stephens sits on the Board of Directors at GAMA. He wrote about the potential impact of the tariffs on industry profits. Included was a “very simplified explanation” of Landed Cost and how the costs to everyone from will increase. According to Stephens, publishers, distributors, and retailers will be affected. Stephens outlines how tariffs lead to increased prices for consumers. He also advocates for transparency of what’s being passed on and how:
“Here’s the truth. We could all agree to eat these tariffs equally, and just make less money at every step. We could dramatically raise the MSRP of games, but people will just stop buying them, or we can work together to pass these fees directly to the consumer and not make or lose money on them.”
Meanwhile, Jaime Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier games (Tokaido, Wingspan) talks about the “deep impact” of the Trump tariffs on the industry at large. Stegmaier outlines a future in which publishers switch to low-cost, high-markup products. Meanwhile, crowdfunding and other direct sales become the backbone of the industry. This means that many games will only have one print run and then be gone forever.
And Stegmaier goes on to explain why the Trump tariffs, especially when not backed by a plan to incentivize increasing American manufacturing, won’t actually make industries more reliant on making things in the US:
“Manufacturing the types of games we make is not an option in the US. People have tried, even recently. Even if a company wanted to invest in the infrastructure to try to make it happen, the short-term losses from the tariffs will eat too deep into their cash to make it possible (plus many of the machines used to make games are also made in China, so you’ll pay a huge tariff). […] If the government was serious about increasing American manufacturing, instead of penalizing companies for manufacturing overseas, reward them heavily for manufacturing in the US, pecially for the first few years when the risks are highest.”
More Tabletop Makers Talk Tariffs
Roberto Di Meglio, director of production at Ares Games (War of the Ring) recently spoke with BoardGameWire. In the interview, he talked about the looming tariffs likely being an industry death note:
“[My] gut reaction was ‘the board game industry in the USA will be killed by these tariffs’… together with the rest of the US economy. With the previous announcements of tariffs at 20%, we were already concerned, but we thought they might be handled with a combination of price increase and reducing are margins, wih an expected increase between 10% and 20% as new products were reprinted […] 54%is a game changer—if not a game killer—and our immediate response was ‘the industry as it used to be is no more—we have to redesign our business model. And the USA market, which was essential to our company, will need to become less of a focus for our business.”
Di Meglio echoes a sentiment that many are fearing. Many believe the new tariffs will certainly harm consumers by increasing costs. But it will also lead to a smaller US market in general. This may mean other countries see games that never get an American release.
RPGs Not Exempt From Trump Tariffs Either
Sadly, even the tabletop RPG industry, my traditional beat, isn’t exempt from Tariffs either. Sure, as the meme goes, you can’t tariff downloading a .pdf. But it does mean that you won’t find as many physical books. Especially as Kickstarters and other crowdfunded projects run on typically very slim margins. Like the board game industry, it’s likely that more games will print once and then that’s it.
Meredith Placko, CEO of Steve Jackson Games, said in a post last Thursday that the entire industry is having tough conversations right now.
“We’ve done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely. […] The entire [tabletop] industry is having very difficult conversations right now. For some, this might mean simplifying products or delaying launchs. 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.
Tariffs […] only work when there’s a plan to build up the industries needed to take over production. There is no nationalplan in place to support manufacturing for the types of products we make. This isn’t about steel and semiconductors. This is about paper goods, chipboard, wood tokens, plastic trays, and color-matched ink. These new tariffs are imposing huge costs without providing alternatives, and it’s going to cost American consumers more at every level of the supply chain.”
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The Future of Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding may well be one of the few ways the industry weathers the Trump tariff storm. Right? Try again. It’s also set to be impacted. As Gamefound CEO Marcin Swierkot outlined in a post, the cost of Trump’s tariffs isn’t going to suddenly vanish because of direct sales. But creators might be able to select different prices for the same product depending on which region it’s sold in:
“Unfortunately, this situation creates EXTREME disruption to all businesses and creators on Gamefound as well. While there is a very limited amount of action we can take as a platform – we want to clearly communicate how we plan to assist creators and backers.”
Among those tools, Swierkot proposed allowing different prices for products depending on the country. That way, creators could include tariffs in new campaign prices. This basically means multiple prices for different countries.
It also means offering better communication tools for creators to outline to backers which costs are tariff-related. Plus better tools for managing refunds and creating an “information base” of how creators, publishers, manufacturers, etc. might survive.
Of course, the chaotic trade policy was only enacted as an executive order. The power to levy tariffs rests in the hands of the American Congress, as outlined in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the US Constitution. Which means that the US House and Senate could, if they wanted to, end this all today.
If you’re as tired of hearing about the tariffs as I am writing about them, contact your state and local representatives. Which is anyone’s right.
More on this story as it continues to unfold, for better or worse.
