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.

 

[Morrus]

When I checked my 3e books, literally ALL of them were printed in the US.

Yes, WotC prints in the US. Note that they recently had to split their print runs between printers, as no single US printer can handle them.

This isn't a problem, except short term. We certainly HAVE the capability to make stuff in the US, because not that long ago, we made all of that stuff here.

This is not correct. The manufacturing companies that were around 20 years ago (in the US and in the UK) don’t exist any more.

Sure, sure... short term, there may be some ramp up required to get that stuff turned back on again. But this hand-wringing from SJG and others about "it can't be done!" is pretty easily debunked by looking at even slightly older gaming products that were made before the big scramble to send everything to China in the first place.

So your solution to SJG is for them to create a national infrastructure of manufacturing for their next game?

I don't know about the print run sizes or what kind of deals Paizo was able to negotiate for printing vs WotC, and I'm sure that's a factor.

The bit you don’t know about is a really, really important bit

 

[KYRON45]

The answer I receive can change depending on who I speak with and how they interpret the applicable laws so I suspect we will see some variance in enforcement here, which is really crappy for people trying to plan for expenses.

This has been my experience for most things.

 

[Desdichado]

Yes, WotC prints in the US. Note that they recently had to split their print runs between printers, as no single US printer can handle them.

The only recent(ish) WotC book I own was printed in China. They USED to print in the US. It doesn't look like they do anymore. But I didn't check any other books, because I don't have any. Whatever printing of the 5e PHB that I have was printed in China, however.

This is not correct. The manufacturing companies that were around 20 years ago (in the US and in the UK) don’t exist any more.

It is correct, because they can be started again, or others can replace them. Which, of course, is the whole point of putting tariffs on imports in the first place.

So your solution to SJG is for them to create a national infrastructure of manufacturing for their next game?

I didn't propose any solutions, I pointed out that this is a short term problem, not a permanent one. The discussion is getting lost in the weeds and lacking context, which was my whole point in offering some. If they were printing in the US 15-20 years ago, we certainly can print in the US. Just like we can grow our own flowers in the US and don't need to import them from South America. The fields where they used to be grown in California just a few years ago are still sitting there fallow and unused. There just needs to be economic incentive to turn that spigot back on again.

The bit you don’t know about is a really, really important bit

Sure, sure, of course. Only large multinational corporations are capable at profitably producing things at low cost. Slightly smaller, but still significant print runs by the second largest publisher have to be at least 25% more expensive to the consumer.

 

[Belen]

As an aside, on the Steve Jackson board games comment, I don't have my board games handy because I just relocated less than a year ago and that wasn't a priority to unbox. But I do have a bunch of gamebooks and other books. I checked the two 5e books that I have; an older PHB and a third party book. They were printed in China and Korea, respectively. I checked a lot of the nice Flame Tree and Barnes & Noble books that I've bought recently to have nice copies of stuff. They were mostly printed in China, with one in India.

When I checked my 3e books, literally ALL of them were printed in the US. Third party 3e books were a little more variable; I had China, Canada and some US. Novels, include game tie-in fiction like my Fantasy Flight Arkham Horror novels (printed in the '10s) were printed in the US. My slightly older Del Rey Lovecraft trade paperback collections were all printed in the US. I no longer have the packaging of the dice I bought. I'm pretty sure most of the dice I've bought in the last several years were made in China, other than the Q-Workshop dice which are made in Poland. I'd be surprised to find that the older dice I bought 15-20 years ago or more were made anywhere other than in the US.

This isn't a problem, except short term. We certainly HAVE the capability to make stuff in the US, because not that long ago, we made all of that stuff here. Sure, sure... short term, there may be some ramp up required to get that stuff turned back on again. But this hand-wringing from SJG and others about "it can't be done!" is pretty easily debunked by looking at even slightly older gaming products that were made before the big scramble to send everything to China in the first place. Which as a procurement professional, I remember quite well when it was all the faddish rage. In my industry, we were forced to demonstrate to upper management that we'd quoted someone in China before we could source ANYTHING, although we didn't actually make a business case to go to China all that often, as it turned out, and the fad kinda petered out after a couple of years, as we looked for even cheaper markets.

As another aside, being printed in China doesn't seem to have passed on any savings to the consumer. I noticed that the Eberron Campaign Setting and the 3.5 Pathfinder Campaign Setting, published only a few years apart, have the following traits: Eberron is printed in the US, is 50 pages longer than Golarion, and was $40 vs Golarion's $50. You got less content, for more money, printed in China, from Paizo. Eberron was published in 2004, Pathfinder in 2008. Sure, sure... I don't know about the print run sizes or what kind of deals Paizo was able to negotiate for printing vs WotC, and I'm sure that's a factor. But again; for less content and a cheaper manufacturing location, at the very least, you'd expect the price to be the same, not significantly higher.

Just some context around the discussion and what the likely ramifications are. In my experience, still as a Purchasing professional, where literally everything that I buy comes from Mexico right now, all of this tariff business has created a lot of drama at work, needless to say. Most peoples' reactions are based on faulty narratives and assumptions that haven't at all turned out to be true, though, and people like me with an economics background are struggling not to say I Told You So an awful lot...

UPDATE: I think it's worth pointing out that the 5e books are notoriously badly made, and the binding falls apart (reportedly) pretty easily. My copy is OK, but feels noticeably cheaper than my 3e/3.5 books, which are much older. Haven't ever heard that complaint about older material.

There was a shift to cheaper labor and production in China. This increased margins and slowed price increases. It is not just companies that chose to move production to China, we also had US printers move plants to China to increase their own margins. Add to this that many print shops like Sheridan and Cadmus have been consolidated by large globals. The printer capacity remains in the US but a lot of the work is outsourced so volume is down considerably.

My own industry did the same thing. They outsourced editorial assistants and journal managers to India and China. Our clients received a service that was much worse but the commercial publishers made bank on margins. This is still the case for STM publications. The difference in operational quality is dependent on whether you have US/EU team members or outsource those jobs. This is why most societies continue to insist on retaining local talent.

China was also using currency manipulation and state-supported manufacturing to artificially reduce prices and undercut competition and global companies love it because it increases margins.

That said, bringing back manufacturing is complex and much of the infrastructure would have to be rebuilt. I do not know the solution.

For my industry, I doubt the jobs will return. In-house or commercially owned publications will continue to outsource because large publishers stopped caring about quality and only want volume. They want to see more content published in order to justify price increases for their aggregator sites that they sell to institutions. In fact, they push scientific journals to accept lower quality content just to keep growth. That should scare anyone. Open Access has also largely been a disaster as it is ripe for fraud and it places the costs to publish on authors rather than spreading them around to large subscriber bases.

Publications owned by societies and licensed to commercial publishers do still insist on quality although they are moving to accept more lower quality science by starting bucket journals where rejected articles go where authors can pay to publish.

Everything is just a complex mess.

 

[payn]

It is correct, because they can be started again, or others can replace them. Which, of course, is the whole point of putting tariffs on imports in the first place.

You make it sound like the factories are sitting there filled with machines ready to go they just need to be plugged in and workers to to run them. They just so happen to be in enough numbers too to handle all the necessary load required.

Bringing back manufacturing is a smokescreen like the premise of adding the tariffs is to fight the war on drugs. Its not a serious run at solving a problem, its spin to sell the idea to folks who ought to not agree with it.

 

[Desdichado]

For my industry, I doubt the jobs will return. In-house or commercially owned publications will continue to outsource because large publishers stopped caring about quality and only want volume. They want to see more content published in order to justify price increases for their aggregator sites that they sell to institutions. In fact, they push scientific journals to accept lower quality content just to keep growth. That should scare anyone. Open Access has also largely been a disaster as it is ripe for fraud and it places the costs to publish on authors rather than spreading them around to large subscriber bases.

Ironically, this is exactly the problem that the tariffs are (one part of) a strategy to resolve. The economic incentives to socialize the cost to the users/consumers and privatize the profits have been a perverse incentive (in the economic sense) has gutted our ability to make anything, and generally made everything worse for the consumer, with the exception that we have access to a bunch of cheap crap from China on Amazon now. Assuming that we have a job so that we can buy it. In a broad view, that economic model had played out. The privatized profits were drying up looking for yet cheaper labor markets to produce in, and the general consumer/user is pushing back against accepting the socialized cost without anything other than crap consolation prizes as a benefit. It was going to be forced to be readjusted one way or another. A managed readjustment where the actual benefit to Americans is a key KPI is much better than a chaotic readjustment, like the collapse of the old Soviet Union. Or worse, the Roman Empire. But short term, readjustments are always a bit difficult.

 

[billd91]

The only recent(ish) WotC book I own was printed in China. They USED to print in the US. It doesn't look like they do anymore.

No, they still print in the USA. The vast majority of my 5e books, including the 2024 ones, are printed in the USA. The only ones I have that weren't are Planescape and Monsters of the Multiverse. Whether that's because the PS ones also came in a box or not, I couldn't tell you. But they still print substantially in the US for the North American market.

 

[Desdichado]

You make it sound like the factories are sitting there filled with machines ready to go they just need to be plugged in and workers to to run them. They just so happen to be in enough numbers too to handle all the necessary load required.

Bringing back manufacturing is a smokescreen like the premise of adding the tariffs is to fight the war on drugs. Its not a serious run at solving a problem, its spin to sell the idea to folks who ought to not agree with it.

You know all those economic sanctions on Russia a couple of years ago that were supposed to cripple their economy? It didn't. Because it turns out that they could pivot their manufacturing to not need imports, and the very countries (EU, mostly) who thought that they were really putting the screws to Russia were the ones who were significantly harmed economically by the sanctions, while Russia's economy is stronger, healthier, and more importantly, more independent than its ever been. That took less than two years.

Your perspective ignores the actual facts on the ground around the world, it ignores the impact of the all the tariffs that everyone else besides America had and the impact on their economies, and is mired in very short term thinking; what do we do about printing our games right now?! I don't know. I'm not terribly worried about it, because having access to new games wasn't enough of a benefit to me to justify shipping the manufacture of them all overseas a few years ago. I'm confident that it will work out. Because it already is. To Belen's point, in my industry, manufacturing is already coming back that had been shipped overseas. Board game printing and dice manufacturing can easily be re-onshored. The idea that "OMG, I can't get my games printed right now because the companies don't have capacity" is short term thinking. If there is more demand for more capacity, it doesn't take long to add capacity. That happens in my industry all the time, and managing capacity around changing and volatile demand is a huge part of what I do day to day every day all day.

I do agree that the war on drugs was never the point of the tariffs; that was a rhetorical sting. Bringing back manufacturing absolutely is, though, and it takes a lot of deliberate obtuseness to not see that that is literally already happening, it literally was exactly the point, and it literally is exactly the reason that every other region besides America had tariffs in place; to keep manufacturing local. I'm honestly not quite sure how to respond to someone who won't see something that obvious.

 

[Morrus]

The only recent(ish) WotC book I own was printed in China. They USED to print in the US. It doesn't look like they do anymore. But I didn't check any other books, because I don't have any. Whatever printing of the 5e PHB that I have was printed in China, however.

How recent?

I am under the impression--not that I have any insider knowledge--that they moved back to the US for printing relatively recently.

It is correct, because they can be started again, or others can replace them.

Yes, but it is not possible for Steve Jackson Games. Which was the update you were sneering at. SJG can't unilaterally rebuild an industry to cater for their next year of trading.

Sure, anything is possible long-term. Mars landings, moonbases, rebuilding entire manufacturing infrastructures. This has nothing to do with SJG's statement that they can't simply move their production to the US.

Please stay on topic. This isn't a thread about long-term American economics, it's a thread about the current tariffs and how they affect our industry.

 

[Morrus]

You know all those economic sanctions on Russia a couple of years ago that were supposed to cripple their economy? It didn't. Because it turns out that they could pivot their manufacturing to not need imports, and the very countries (EU, mostly) who thought that they were really putting the screws to Russia were the ones who were significantly harmed economically by the sanctions, while Russia's economy is stronger, healthier, and more importantly, more independent than its ever been. That took less than two years.

Drop the political discussion. We've been really clear about that in this thread.