I would be remiss not to talk about this a little bit.

As of March 11, 2025, we’re still relatively safe on this matter. Marmalade Mussolini has decided to wait 45 days on the reciprocal tariffs on everyone but China. There is still an ongoing trade war with China as of this writing and that could affect the TableTop RolePlaying Game community adversely.

We tend to rely a great deal on products coming from China here in the TTRPG industry. The least of which is dice. A lot of larger TTRPG publishers get their books printed there as well. As much as 145% tariff on said books would be unbearable to anyone involved. I don’t want to see a $60 gaming book jump up to over $100 after shipping costs.

I’m already balking at some of the latest game prices and Kickstarter deals. I can’t afford to get behind Kelsey Dionne/Arcane Library’s West Marches setting. Imagine what happens when the $129 buy-in jumps sky high to pay for shipping. If I couldn’t afford it before, I sure as heck can’t buy it now.

My favorite company in the whole world, Fria Ligan, is in Sweden.

Free League publishing makes Dragonbane, Mutant: Year Zero, and scores of other popular TTRPGs. My personal biggest concern is that the tariffs are going to cause Free League to raise their prices on print as well as PDFs. They might also stop sending review copies out or switch to all PDF previews.

The Dragonbane Book of Magic was supposed to be coming this year. If this tariff business hits us as hard and some pundits say it will, then I might have to sell some things and take out a loan just to pay for it. This is getting out of hand rapidly. I guess my homebrew magic professions may have to do in the meantime.

I think that’s really the route many of us are looking at taking from both a content creation and consumer point of view. We old timers especially have tons of material to fall back on in most cases. I think PDF prices might climb, but not as steeply as print products. At least we have our imaginations here at home to fall back on.

I don’t even watch mainstream news any more.

If I had only gone through a spiritual awakening in college. I had given up on the news completely after being immersed up to my eyeballs in it for over 10 years. Honestly, I just got burned out on all the human tragedy. By the time 2020 rolled around, I realized it’s all a program. I just shut it out completely unless something directly affects my family.

When the tariff story broke I shrugged. It’s par for the course in 2025. We still have this guy in charge as president for another three years and six months. I think the people who voted for that guy are starting to have second thoughts. This tariff situation just drives home how utterly demented the people in Washington truly are. Not much I can do about it. Not my candidate.

Conclusion:

I’m looking out for myself and my family more than ever. The majority of my TTRPG spending is going to be curbed save for about two games. Homebrew rules for just about any game I run will become the rule of the day.

There is an up side to this. Any content I create can be shared either here on the blog on in a published product. My PDF prices are going to stay reasonable. I’m not trying to get rich off of TTRPG content sales. I’m happy if it pays for my long wish list on DTRPG and maybe some equipment upgrades. (Please note we are a very long way off of any of that.) My final thoughts about the tariff matter as it applies to us in our hobby is we need it and each other. Let’s support one another and make the best of the situation as it comes. Take care of one another. Get together in person when you can.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.