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Project Update: Planning our Initiatives (Tariffs Part 2)
Today’s project update will touch base on several aspects of our last major update “Tariffs & Tabletop” which if you haven’t, we’d invite and recommend reading HERE.
FIRST, THANK YOU!
Some of those recent industry stories include:
- Cephalofair on CNN | Polygon | ABC10 | KCRA | Spectrum 1 News | PC Gamer | ICv2
- The Toy Association - Christmas and Toy Companies are at Risk! Toy Association Member Survey Reveals Alarming Impact of 145% Tariffs
- Catalyst Game Labs - “Tariffs: Rolling Against American Game Publishers”
- Cardboard Edison - "The Cost of Cardboard: How Tariffs Will Impact Board Game Publishers and Designers"
- Stonemaier Games - “We Are Suing the President”
- Wargamer - “Yes, a board game company is suing the president”
- Run Away Games on WBUR/NPR - “Tariffs against China threaten the booming board game industry”
- Calliope Games - Forced to cancel major retailer order, 15,000 unit production on hold.
- Boardlandia - “Important Notice: Closure of Boardlandia”
- Spikeybits - "New Tariffs Poised to Disrupt Miniatures & Board Games Industry"
- Backerkit - “Introducing the BackerKit Tariff Manager for Crowdfunding”
Q. So what are we seeing right now in the U.S.?
Freight is actually fairly affordable, as you can imagine the U.S. has seen a significant drop in demand coming this way from China. This is nice, but not even close to cover a +145% increase on our costs.
Q. Any other trouble on the horizon?
Well, other than even higher tariffs there are a few things Cephalofair and others in our industry may be anticipating and doing out best to navigate even in the event that we see tariff reversal or reduction:
-Retailers with limited stock around the holidays, their most critical time of year.
-Surge demand and pricing on freight container availability.
-Backlog of containers at ports and in warehouses (like our 25 containers worth of products in China now).
-Backlog of fulfillment centers available for crowdfunding project fulfillment, leading to delays.
-Surge demand on our normal manufactures from multiple clients resuming production at once.
-Tighter cashflows due to multiple product restocking needs at once.
-Etc.
That being said, a complete reversal is most ideal and still the absolute end goal, at least as it pertains to our industry.
Okay, so this one is not a question. But we’ve seen it repeated a few times and want to acknowledge that timelines on our creative visions have always been a weak point for Cephalofair when we embark on a project. This is something we own, and is a reality for a multitude of reasons (not excuses) from expanded product scope, world events, production delays, underestimations, growing pains, mistakes, etc.
Ultimately, we are proud to maintain a 100% fulfillment rate on our projects and want to express that we’re our biggest critic and want to continue making improvements in this area. While we don’t have a crowdfunding project planned now or anytime in the foreseeable future, this is an area that will take a leading focus for our design, development, and project management teams.
But we understand the criticism and, trust me, I wish we’d have been in position to ship even a month earlier than we have found ourselves. We look forward to making improvements for you in the future and understand that may take some proving on our part.
Currently we are consulting with a) legal teams, b) customs brokers, c) freight forwarders, d) multiple factories, e) the majority of our industry peers (yet to ship, and already shipped), f) other industries of trade, etc.
I would STRONGLY advise backers, upcoming publishers/creators/designers, and others facing devastating cost increases to be leery of any “easy fixes” or “one size fits all” narratives they may come across by asking for receipts, looking for evidence of proven methods and track records, and scrutinizing incentives they may have for offering said solutions. It makes sense to double check your homework. Some of us are on our third and fourth check. Personally, I can’t blame a single one of our peers for taking conservative and precautionary steps to fortify their businesses, rather than rolling the dice on an untested game theory.
Regardless, the fact that these overnight changes in trade policy consistently come communicated in the form of tweets, Truth Social posts, and candid press comments, while leaving wide room for interpretation, miscalculations, and confusion should be testament to how ineffective and harmful this administration’s actions are on small and medium size businesses, many of whom are one or two world events away from troubled waters and are still recovering from the last one.
I need Gloomhaven, and I need it now! What are my options?
This is not our doing (Twin Sails handles sales/marketing of the digital game), or specifically anything to do with tariffs, but if you haven’t checked out the PC version of the original game now might be a great time while awaiting the new physical second edition!
(Retreat = Vacation rental or cabin and a week of home cooking from yours truly)
As a fully remote company, we lack a common office so this is the one time a year we get to come together as a team and work together in person playtesting, brainstorming, and planning for current and upcoming projects. It’s also the time we get to celebrate our hardworking staff with some afterhours home cooked meals, games, and festivities.
While admittedly a less than desirable time for our industry and selves, one of the few things we can make sure we’re continuing to do is doubling down on development and planning for happier/easier times.
I’ll be keeping up daily on news and changes to policy through next week even at “Gloomcabin”, but we’ll assess where things look upon our return and continue pushing forward and adapting to each obstacle. Updating you along the way.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
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So, I see a lot of people here linking to Dwight's blog on the High Noon website. As a counterpoint, I'd like to post some links to real data that everyone can look at and form their own opinion. Dwight's blog post has garnered several critical comments - comments which when I returned later seemed to have been deleted. It's a bad sign when an author deletes those that disagree with them. Dwight says lots of things that can easily be verified as wrong, e.g., he claims that Frosthaven (which he conflates with Gloomhaven) is about 1 cubic foot. Anyone that owns Frosthaven knows that's not even close. He talks a lot about HTS codes, but what he doesn't mention is that that's just a part of the issue. There's extra stuff tacked on to that. Don't believe me? Take a look at Trump's own executive orders: February 1 - 10% IEEPA tariff increases by 10% - https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-imposes-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-mexico-and-china/ February 2 - Clearly stated ad valorem duty is 20% - https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/further-amendment-to-duties-addressing-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of-china-as-applied-to-low-value-imports/ April 9th - 125% reciprocal tariff - https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/ The value of 145% that people are quoting is based on the fact that the 20% ad valorem duty and the 125% reciprocal tariff stack on top of each other. For those that like to look at the HTS codes, make sure you're looking at 9903.01.20 at https://hts.usitc.gov/search?query=9903.01.20 because that's where you will see the duty mentioned in the February 1 and February 2 Executive orders. The reciprocal tariff is added on to that, hence the 145%. I'm not trying to make a political statement. I just want to make real information available to people so that they can see the truth for themselves.
First it’s very sad to witness all that is happening with this awesome community. Hope in time things could change for the best :) My question is: I live in Mexico, shipping here is consider international or is part of the US group/cluster etc? Thanks, 😊
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I know you all at Cephalofair are probably exhausted by ignorant amateurs like me suggesting things that you likely already thought of and eliminated a a possibility, but by way of encouragement, the idea of anything getting in the way of more content is terrile. All of this is a mess, but the true tragedy isn't financial. It is that this impacts hundreds (thousands?) of developers, creatives, fans from getting their ideas out into the public and sharing them with the world. We all appreciate the top quality of the final products, but aren't the ideas and concepts what we really enjoy? How many Gloomhavens will never see the light of day as a result of this? Would anyone rather never have Frosthaven, or would they rather play a janky paper-based p-n-p copy with old buttons and pennies as components, or a simple digital version similar to early chess and solitaire games? I would be willing to plunk down some money for a sheaf of paper that I have to cut out, but could still experience the GAME. So much thought and work has gone into the RPG, it'd be a fremling shame if no one ever got to play it because the cardboard and plastic were stuck overseas, or were insanely costly. Especially if this allows the companies to survive through this period. Maybe the paper copies of the IP come with a promise of a full version once it is producible at a certain price-point . . . just a thought. I certainly prefer things as they were, but I'm willing to apply a little imagination to make an inferior version of the IP accessible. At least temporarily.
