PROJECT UPDATE
Cephalofair Games
CREATOR
about 10 hours ago

Project Update: Major Gloomhaven Errata

Good day! This is Isaac coming at you with an off-cycle update about some notable errata for Gloomhaven, which is, of course, in mid-fulfillment. We wanted to let as many people know as possible as soon as we realized the issues to minimize the impact they have on people playing the game right now.

It was brought to our attention (thanks JamesyWamesy1) that it is not communicated in the game that a number of events should be unlocked when certain classes are unlocked. Basically, every time you unlock a new class, you should add one or two events to your event decks, but there's no indication in the game that you should do so.

But fear not! We have a simple fix in the form of a new campaign sheet you can download and print out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fF6p_ZzkNMfWytOifGr0NqBBwopWfzmY/view?usp=sharing

And while we're at it, there was one more event card that should have been added at a specific point in the campaign that was also overlooked, but that fix is also taken care of with the updated campaign sheet linked above (in the first bullet of the "Additional Reputation Unlocks").

I apologize for the extra inconvenience of having to print out a new campaign sheet, but it is the easiest thing in the game to print out, as it is just a black and white A4 sheet of normal paper. And if you don’t want to print out a new sheet, you can just note the changes on your current sheet (marking all the event numbers along the bottom next to their corresponding classes and adding in the additional unlock for C-57).

We'll be back on July 29 with the next regularly scheduled update, which will include another segment from Danielle expanding on the modifier deck changes she mentioned in the last update. Catch you then!
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PROJECT UPDATE
Price Johnson
Repeat Backer Badge
CREATOR
3 days ago

Project Update: U.S. & Asia Fulfillment Begins! RPG Mod Decks & Class Spreads

Hello Grand Festival Backers!

We’re back this week with lots of Gloomhaven fulfillment updates and additional looks at how gosh-darn good this Gloomhaven RPG book is coming along!

But first….

Please join our communities!

If you haven’t already, we have some stellar Gloomhaven online communities you should check out and consider joining! Lots of great reviews, insights, questions, and fan content are being shared every day.

- BoardGameGeek: Gloomhaven Forums
User @Yknits just dropped a very impressive “Gloomhaven 2nd Edition: a 60 scenario campaign review” worth checking out if you want to know how much has changed in this new edition!

 u/Gripeaway and u/Themris will be running a contest soon to win a copy of the Gloomhaven 2nd Edition Class Upgrade Kits, subscribe for details coming soon!

One of the best places to follow for fan creations, content, and info/suggestions.

-Cephalofair: Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube
Our social pages are one of the best places to catch breaking announcements, like today’s Frosthaven: Digital Early Access announcement (July 31st!), and exclusive art drops from our many wonderful artists, like this Inox Bodyguard by Runa Ivana Rosenberger!

Inox Bodyguard. Art by Runa Ivana Rosenberger

Frosthaven Digital: Early Access starting July 31st, 2025!


Now let’s get into…

-GLOOMHAVEN FREIGHT & FULFILLMENT-

-United States

With containers arriving last week we successfully ran pledge managers for U.S. tariff surcharges and have uploaded those orders for fulfillment starting THIS WEEK!

NOTE: We had approximately 400 failed tariff payment attempts, who were sent emails Friday, July 11th. Your order will need to be updated, and outstanding balance paid, before your order will be slated for fulfillment. Please email us at [email protected] once you have done so, and we will queue your order for fulfillment. Failure to do so may result in delayed delivery or possible pledge loss (with refund), as we can only store pledges for a reasonable duration of time before incurring losses. (If you did not receive the Friday email, and had a $0.00 balance due as of 12pm Pacific on Friday, July 11th, NO ACTION IS REQUIRED)

The first 2 containers have been delivered to the warehouse and unloaded. Three more containers have arrived at port and are on the way to the fulfillment warehouse, and ONE SWAN is bringing up the rear with about half a container scheduled to arrive at port on Aug 1st. Please note that fulfillment order is randomized and at the discretion of our fulfillment partner based on a number of factors including a) outstanding pledge balances (tariff charges), b) operational efficiency, c) bulk orders logistics, d) regional demand, etc. 

-Asia & South Pacific
Shipping to local hubs has commenced! Please be aware that it can take a couple weeks from arrival at the hub for individual orders to arrive. You can always get the most up-to-date information at VFI’s hub page under the “Gloomhaven” section.

Japan: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-08-10
Malaysia: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-08-15
Philippines: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-08-20
Singapore: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-08-08
South Korea: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-08-08
Taiwan: Estimated Hub Arrival: 2025-07-31
China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Thailand: In Consolidation to be shipped out.

Monolith. Art by Mates Laurentiu

-Europe, Mexico, & “Rest of the World”
Both landed containers have been unexpectedly (and very frustratingly) held up in customs, meaning they haven’t started their short journey over to Fulfillment Europe just yet. We’re working with our logistics and import partners and believe this issue has finally been resolved as of today. We expect to see movement towards the warehouse for fulfillment to begin any day now. 

-Canada
All pledges and backerkit preorders that did not have FoldedSpace(FS) items have fully shipped! If you ordered Gloomhaven and FS accessories, your FS items will ship separately. If you ordered only FS + Gloomhaven Accessories (including the Class Upgrade Kit) your order will ship once FS items arrive. Canadian FoldedSpace items are estimated to hit port approximately one week from now. 

-Australia/New Zealand
Fulfillment complete! Please note that some items may still be in transit. If you have not received any type of tracking information at this time, please contact [email protected].

-United Kingdom
Fulfillment complete! Please note that some items may still be in transit. If you have not received any type of tracking information at this time, please contact [email protected].

Candlekeeper Ollana Trice. Art by Phan Tuan Dat


-GLOOMHAVEN RPG UPDATE-

And now here is Danielle with a brief look at class spreads and modifier decks in Gloomhaven RPG:

Hello mercenaries!

I know we’ve been sharing some Gloomhaven RPG layout pages with y’all the past couple of updates, and we have another one for today, but I wanted to do a little more treatment on the game itself, how the development cycles are going, and some behind the scenes looks.

One of the things I’ve wanted since day 1 of stepping on this project is to ensure the game can be played by anyone just by picking up the book in their local game store and bringing it home. The nature of turning a board game into a tabletop RPG caused the game to ask for a lot of components. 

We really like the modifier deck system, and a small tweak allowed us to use it to randomize both combat and non-combat situations. Choosing two actions at the start of a round, then adapting in the moment on your turn made combat feel more streamlined than most traditional RPGs I’ve played and run. But, these all use cards or feel best playing with cards.

If someone purchases this book but not the RPG card set, they won’t have the required modifier deck. 

And what about class perks? 

While we had some ideas for handling those, they were mostly impractical, and asked the consumer to purchase additional materials to play. So, we thought about how we could lessen that load. 

I have been reminded recently that poker is still a thing (wildly popular too, who knew?), and most everyone owns at least one standard poker deck. So I thought, what if we map the modifier deck to a deck of traditional playing cards and provide clear representation so people can still use cards, but they don’t need a special product.

So, that’s what we did, and it turns out the base modifier deck’s Attribute numbers map pretty well to the base card numbers, and I could even vaguely map the negative attack modifiers to red suits and positive attack modifiers to black suits. That wasn’t perfect, but with a mapping reference, it’s pretty easy to recall that if I see a 2 of diamonds or hearts, it’s a -1 attack modifier. You can see the mapping below.

Modifier Deck Table

And here’s the layout page I promised. As you can see, we’ve upgraded the graphic elements and worked hard to make the actions easy to parse for casual and first time readers. Layne has been key in making this look as good as it does, and Arch’s eye for art has been fundamental in producing all the lovely assets you see employed across both spreads.

RPG Bruiser Class Spread


Bruiser Class Talens & Skills



-UPDATE END-

That's it for this week! We'll be back on July 29th with some more updates and a few small surprises!
"There are four types of Mercenaries in Casskia. Those who can count and those who can't." - Unnamed Savvas


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PROJECT UPDATE
Price Johnson
Repeat Backer Badge
CREATOR
17 days ago

Project Update: U.S. Tariff Surcharges & Fulfillment Progress


U.S. Tariff Surcharges & Fulfillment Progress


Hello Grand Festival Backers!

Today is all about Gloomhaven fulfillment updates and the rollout of U.S. tariff surcharges. Important information below for all our backers, but especially our American audience. We also have a brief update from Danielle on the RPG with a quick look at a “Factions” page.

Just as a reminder, we’ve launched our Cephalofair.com/Gloomhaven page, which will serve as your primary game resource repository with features like:

- How-to-Play Video (Gaming Rules! w/ Paul Grogan)
- Crossover Character Sheets (Frosthaven & Jaws of the Lion)

Still have questions? 
After checking the above rulebook and FAQ, consider dropping a question over in our official BoardGameGeek FAQ or Reddit r/gloomhaven FAQ threads! 

Big shout out to William (@dwarf74), Cephalofair's official "Keeper of the FAQ", who will be bravely relaying all your uncertainties across our various design team members, replying, and adding to our FAQ over time.

So let’s get into it!


-U.S. TARIFF SURCHARGES-

With our first containers fully imported, we’re now feeling more confident about our assessed, and to-be assessed, additional tax charges on U.S. orders.

As of today, we are implementing the following charges to U.S. pledges, which will need to be PAID via Backerkit Pledge Manager prior to your order being queued for fulfillment:

- Gloomhaven: $15/copy
- Class Upgrade Kit: $10/copy
- Gloomhaven (Retail Backer): $10/copy

The above are flat fees that will be charged to any “Wave 3 - Gloomhaven” cart containing any of the above SKUs on a per unit basis. As a reminder, these U.S. tariff surcharges are a result of new import taxes on board games under the most recent U.S. administration’s trade policy and are out of our control. We greatly appreciate your assistance with these new taxes, as paying them is fundamental to the success of this project as a whole and our ability to fulfill our commitments to you.

We will be running your Pledge Manager payment method automatically on Monday (July 7th) and again on Friday (July 11th) so that we can clear as many orders as possible for fulfillment beginning Monday (July 15th). No action is specifically required, unless you need to update your payment method.

If your card on file is declined, you will receive an email notification from Backerkit about the failed attempt alongside instructions to update your payment method. You can manually re-attempt your payment method, or wait for us to attempt to clear it again on Friday (July 11th).

NOTE: Any failed payments after Friday (July 11th) will result in your order not being queued for fulfillment, and you will need to contact us directly at [email protected] for fulfillment of your order. Failure to contact Cephalofair within a timely manner may result in additional charges, additional refund fees, and/ or loss of pledge as we are assessed monthly storage fees on all unshipped products and cannot hold onto incomplete orders indefinitely.

Reminder: Tariff surcharges are subject to local sales tax rates.

-GLOOMHAVEN FREIGHT & FULFILLMENT-

SUPPORT REMINDER: A friendly reminder that we are NOT ABLE to individually check fulfillment status or ETA for orders until AFTER FULFILLMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED (Which we will confirm in our updates). 

Requests sent to our support inbox prior to our signal of “FULFILLMENT COMPLETE” will likely go unanswered and will slow down our response times on other and more urgent support requests. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding! :)

-Forteller Backers
We’ve seen some confusion about how to retrieve/redeem your Forteller Audio Narration redemption codes, so wanted to provide some clearer instructions. Thank you to BoardGameGeek user Kobe S. for bringing attention to this and providing the following steps:
- on Backerkit, click on the avatar icon in the upper right corner
- go to ‘Your pledges & surveys’
- click on ‘Your surveys’ in the upper menu
- click on Gloomhaven Grand Festival
- scroll down to the link ‘Get your digital downloads’
- click the button ‘get your digital downloads’
- copy the Forteller key
- finally, redeem that code in the Forteller app at:
https://fortellergames.com/

-Asia & South Pacific
Pledges have finally arrived at our partner VFI and our project has been added to their fulfillment queue. Orders are being scheduled and shipped in bulk by region for distribution and end point fulfillment, so we should finally have further completion progress by next update!

-Canada
All pledges and backerkit preorders that did not have FoldedSpace(FS) items have fully shipped! If you ordered Gloomhaven and FS accessories, your FS items will ship separately. If you ordered only FS + Gloomhaven Accessories (including the Class Upgrade Kit) your order will ship once FS items arrive. Canadian FoldedSpace items are estimated to hit port in about three weeks.

-Australia/New Zealand
Fulfillment complete! Please note that some items may still be in transit. If you have not received any type of tracking information at this time, please contact [email protected].

-United Kingdom
Pledges arrived at Spiral Galaxy last Thursday! Address confirmation emails have been deployed (check your email!), and fulfillment is scheduled to start before the end of the week!

-United States
PLEASE READ ABOVE “U.S. TARIFF SURCHARGE” SECTION ABOVE IF YOU HAVEN’T YET

The first 2 containers have arrived and cleared customs, we’re expecting them to arrive at our fulfillment warehouse on Friday, July 11th, with orders to start the following week.

The EVER FOCUS ship has three more containers and is scheduled to hit port on July 7th and ONE SWAN is bringing up the rear with about half a container scheduled to arrive at port on Aug 1st. 

As a reminder, we’ve been booking freight as it’s become available from China to the U.S..The surge in the tariff situation has meant needing to book multiple container ships as they have become available, but we can now confidently say everything is on the water and moving towards our U.S. warehouse for fulfillment. 

-Europe, Mexico, & “Rest of the World”
Both containers arrived in port (Hamburg) over the weekend. Once they clear customs, it will be a few days until it arrives at Fulfillment Europe and will be placed into the fulfillment queue!


teaser3.png (Price: insert clever pun here)

-GLOOMHAVEN RPG UPDATE-

And now here is Danielle with a brief look at “Factions” in Gloomhaven the RPG:

“We're still working hard on the layout and design aspects. Last week was curating the faction spreads. Here's an example of how they look using the Keepers of the Great Oak. We've been striving to balance lore and mechanics, giving you a clean spread with fun information to read, but easy to reference mechanical information. This is happening on all chapters, so while it seems like it's taking us a long time, this part is effectively the last finishing touches made to ensure the game has the best presentation for readability and accessibility.” - Danielle

Gloomhaven RPG Factions Page: Keepers of the Great Oak

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PROJECT UPDATE
Price Johnson
Repeat Backer Badge
CREATOR
about 1 month ago

Project Update: Gloomhaven CA & AU/NZ Fulfillment Has Begun!

Canadian and Australian/New Zealand Fulfillment Has Begun!

Hello Grand Festival Backers!

We’ve got exciting news this week of Gloomhaven fulfillment OFFICIALLY UNDERWAY in select regions, and others approaching fulfillment very soon. Scroll to the bottom of the update for miniature project updates and a brief recap of our Washington D.C. trip.

We also have the announcement of our official Cephalofair.com/Gloomhaven page which will serve as your primary game resource repository with features like:

- How-to-Play Video (Gaming Rules! w/ Paul Grogan)
- Crossover Character Sheets (Frosthaven & Jaws of the Lion)

Still have questions? 
After checking the above rulebook and FAQ consider dropping a question over in our official BoardGameGeek FAQ  or Reddit r/gloomhaven FAQ threads

Big shout out to William (@dwarf74), Cephalofair's official "Keeper of the FAQ", who will be bravely relaying all your uncertainties across our various design team members, replying, and adding to our FAQ over time.

So let’s get into it!


Fulfillment gets a star!



GLOOMHAVEN FREIGHT & FULFILLMENT

SUPPORT REMINDER: A friendly reminder that we are NOT ABLE to individually check fulfillment status or ETA for orders in a region until AFTER FULFILLMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED (which we will confirm in our updates).

Requests sent to our support inbox prior to our signal of “FULFILLMENT COMPLETE” for a region will likely go unanswered and will slow down our response times on other and more urgent support requests. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

-Forteller Backers
If your pledge contains Forteller Audio Narration, redemption codes will be distributed digitally today/tonight following the publication of this Backerkit update! The team over at Forteller have done a beautiful job translating our game narrative into yet another compelling and attention grabbing audio narration. (In case you missed the announcement last week: Forteller will also be providing the audio narration for Frosthaven: Digital!)

UPDATE:
Codes are still in the process of being distributed s of 6/18/25 due to an error we encountered on our end last night. These will still be distributed via the Backerkit Pledge Manager as soon as we've resolved. 

-
Preorder Backers
Backerkit Preorders are included in "project fulfillment."
Cephalofair.com webstore preorders will ship immediately following Backerkit fulfillment in their respective regions.

-Asia & South Pacific
We’ve been informed by our distribution/fulfillment partner VFI that a severe typhoon in their area has delayed all incoming projects—unfortunately including ours. We and our over-the-road freight partner are actively keeping in touch with them to schedule delivery ASAP. Thanks for your patience as we strive hard to bring you DRY pledges.

-Canada
FULTILLMENT HAS BEGUN! Congratulations to our northerly neighbors who are “first out the gate” for this fulfillment project, having officially started late last week. Orders have already started being received by backers. Special shout out to reddit user u/Levy99 who proudly posted their copy yesterday! We anticipate fulfillment of pledges+Backerkit pre-orders to be complete by the end of next week. With cephalofair.com pre-orders following shortly there-after.

Please note: FoldedSpace addons are still incoming to our warehouse and will be shipped separately. No need to panic if you don’t see it alongside your pledge at this time, or need to contact us until fulfillment is complete. This includes any orders of JUST FoldedSpace + Gloomhaven Accessories Only as well (no base game). Laserox addons will also ship independently directly from Laserox.

-Australia/New Zealand
FULFILLMENT IS BEGINNING TODAY! Our partner, Aetherworks, is scheduled to begin shipping orders imminently.

Please note: FoldedSpace & Laserox addons are shipping to you separately from their respective manufacturers directly. No need to panic if you don’t see it alongside your pledge at this time, or need to contact us until fulfillment is complete.

-United Kingdom
Your vessel, the HMM HOPE, is still on track for arrival to the port at the end of the week. Once unloaded, through customs, etc., it will be a short trek of a couple days over to Spiral Galaxy where we will be added to the fulfillment queue.

Please note: FoldedSpace & Laserox addons are shipping to you separately from their respective manufacturers directly. No need to panic if you don’t see it alongside your pledge at this time, or need to contact us until fulfillment is complete.






-United States
The first of two ships, the ONE FUTURE, arrived at port Thursday! This is the first two containers, once it clears customs, rail cars will be scheduled to have them shipped to our fulfillment warehouse. This can take 1-2 weeks, depending on rail car availability, but we expect to have it arrive by the end of the month. The second ship, EVER FOCUS, is still in transit and is currently scheduled to hit port near the end of the month.

Tariff surcharges are still pending implementation to your cart pending our first official customs clearance which will hopefully be any day now. We should have more information by or before the next update.

ONE FUTURE in port, waiting for unloading & customs.


EVER FOCUS due to port at the end of the month.

-Europe, Mexico, & “Rest of the World”
Your vessel, the COSCO FORTUNE, has made some great progress and is looking to arrive almost 2 weeks ahead of schedule! Once it arrives and clears customs, it will be a quick hop over to Fulfillment Europe where they can start shipping out orders.

Please note: FoldedSpace & Laserox addons are shipping to you separately from their respective manufacturers directly. No need to panic if you don’t see it alongside your pledge at this time, or need to contact us until fulfillment is complete.

COSCO FORTUNE has arrived two weeks ahead of schedule!

MINIATURES OF GLOOMHAVEN

We’ve got an updated miniatures project tracker for you today and several more recently approved red wax samples below! 

Several new Gloomhaven Summons samples approved and a few other SKU's update as well. 12 new PU samples arrived to our office this week as well!

















CEPHALOFAIR RETURNS FROM WASHINGTON D.C.

Attendees included Robert Geistlinger, Arcane Wonders; Dustin Wessel, Arcane Wonders; Price Johnson, Cephalofair Games; Molly Zeff, Flying Leap Games; Matt Fantastic, Forever Stoked; Kevin Bertram, Fort Circle Games; Boyd Stephenson, Game Kastle College Park; Jason Matthews, JOE Design Studio; Kristin Looney, Looney Labs; Jordan McLaughlin, Rookie Mage Games; Curt Covert, Smirk & Dagger Games; Monica Rasso, Tabletop Enterprises LLC; Michael Piacsek, The Game Steward; GAMA President Nicole Robertson Brady; and GAMA Executive Director John Stacy.

Last week we put in a good amount of work with some really passionate and hard-working industry peers lobbying in the U.S. Capitol against tariffs on toys and games. Game designer Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan) was but one of our cohort and did a really great job summarizing our time in D.C. and recaps some of the data we shared with congressional representatives. I’ll link to her debrief HERE for those that may be interested.

The biggest call to action for those wanting to help support our industry is to call call/write your members of congress and let them know we are looking for the following assistance:

What we were asking for:
  • In general: Save Christmas by eliminating tariffs on toys and games -- either by exempting our industry, or by exempting small businesses more generally. 

  • In the Senate: cosponsor S. 1593, the Small Business Liberation Act (exempting small businesses from paying tariffs imposed by Executive Order 14257).

  • In the House: introduce a companion bill to S. 1593.

U.S. Census 2022 - Toy & Game Jobs in domestic manufacturing vs. retail. This data speaks directly to the lack of widely available manufacturing options for small U.S. business & publishers. Source: Wall Street Journal


END OF UPDATE

That’s it for this week! We’ll be back in two weeks with more project and fulfilment updates. 

Have a great week!

Fulfillment is....kicking off!


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PROJECT UPDATE
Price Johnson
Repeat Backer Badge
CREATOR
about 1 month ago

Project Update: Gloomhaven Ocean Freight, Miniatures Update, & Operational Actions/Changes

Hello Grand Festival Backers!

Price here with this week’s update. We’ve got lots of important project updates for you this week on Gloomhaven ocean & land freight, Miniatures of Gloomhaven progress, RPG, and unfortunately continued U.S. tariff impacts.

Let’s jump in. 

-GLOOMHAVEN FREIGHT & FULFILLMENT-

100% of our Gloomhaven ocean freight has shipped! Please see below for an updated Grand Festival project tracker and individual regional freight/fulfillment updates.

Also, please note that Forteller Audio Narration is on target to be distributed via Backerkit pledge manager as we get closer to regional fulfillments We’re also working on making “live” some support FAQ infrastructure and video tutorials for those of you stepping into Gloomhaven for the first time, or returning from your time “away”! More info on all of this in our next update(s)!




-Asia & South Pacific
You don’t have a vessel as we have a truck(s) incoming to our fulfillment partner VFI from our factory. We’ve got a bit of time until delivery and I’m waiting on some updates from our partners but we’ll report back as soon as we have more from both partners. 

-Canada
Your vessel, the YM MUTUALITY has arrived at port in Vancouver! We’re currently awaiting an update on ETA to our fulfillment center Universal in Toronto, but anticipate land freight to take approximately 1-2 weeks once it’s been confirmed to have left the port yard. 


-Australia/New Zealand
Your vessel, the PUSAN C, is currently expected to arrive at port in Melbourne around June 9th according to our docking pre-alert! Yesterday we paid our deposit payment with our fulfillment partner, Aetherworks, and are currently being placed into their fulfillment queue as soon as possible once it arrives. 


-United Kingdom
Your vessel, the HMM HOPE, is continuing its journey and should be rounding the corner on South Africa any day now. We understand the ETA to currently be near the end of June at which point it will land freight to our fulfillment partner Spiral Galaxy. We’ll provide more updates when we have them but are lining up everything we can to keep things timely once it hits port!





-United States
Your ships, the ONE FUTUREEVER FOCUS, are both on water and starting their journeys about a week or so apart. These ships will ultimately be heading to our fulfillment partner, Ware2Go, in Nashville Tennessee. We don’t currently have an exact ETA to our warehouse at this point but will of course keep our U.S. backers updated in the weeks to come. We have some updates on the pending/anticipated U.S. tariff surcharges later in this update, so please make sure to read that. 




-Europe, Mexico, & “Rest of the World”
Your vessel, the COSCO FORTUNE, recently rounded the corner on South Africa and is projected to port in Europe around the end of June. We’re working with our fulfillment partner, Fulfillment Europe, to have things lined up to be inserted into their queue and keep things as timely as possible. Pending no major changes to U.S. tariff policy, orders to Mexico are currently planned to ship from Fulfillment Europe. This is something we’ve done in past campaigns and have no problem doing again to help avoid unnecessary U.S. tariff surcharges on your orders. 




-MINIATURES OF GLOOMHAVEN-

We’ve got an updated Miniatures project tracker for you today. While internal reprioritizations led to some delays over the last several weeks, we’re back to making standard progress on digital modification approvals, red wax approvals, and polyurethane (PU) sample approvals. Check out some of my favorite recent samples received from our factory below!

Miniatures of Gloomhaven Progress Tracker - 6/3/2025


Gloomhaven: Decoy


Gloomhaven: Killbot


Gloomhaven: Battle Boar


Gloomhaven: Rift Spirit


Gloomhaven: Fey Subjugator


Frosthaven: Shadow Beast



-GLOOMHAVEN: RPG-
I was just sent an exciting page spread this morning by our own Danielle (RPG Project Manager/Developer) and Layne (Graphic Designer) that we wanted to share with you! Progress continues on shaping and perfecting the “guts” of the book. I know Isaac recently provided some insights to the curation being done now that it’s “all together” so things are getting put through the usability/digestibility “machine” that is Layne Huber’s excellent eye for layout & presentation. Arch Anderson (Art Manager) has done a great job working with the ever-talented Francesca Baerald on the page accents you see here too. 

Gloomhaven RPG: Bestiary Pages


-U.S. TARIFF SURCHARGES: UPDATE-

Last update I’d indicated we would be calculating and putting for U.S. tariff surcharges. While I’d hoped to spend last week doing this, we were hit with a number of breaking news updates, vendor price increases, and new potential surcharges from our freight companies as well that required our attention. While unexpected, it’s sadly not surprising. These updates all required our attention primarily so we could make sure IF we have to charge you for U.S. tariffs, it will be in confidence and ONLY ONCE.

The First Curveball:
On May 28, 2025, the Court of International Trade ruled that the reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are unlawful. This court, made up of Reagan, Obama, and Trump appointed judges ruled unanimously against the tariffs stating “trade deficit” was not a valid reason to declare a “National Emergency” and that these powers rest by default in the hands of Congress.  To quote, “"The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President's use of tariffs as leverage….That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it." The judges also ordered the Trump administration to issue new orders reflecting the permanent injunction within 10 days.

The Second Curveball:
As we’ve been conditioned to expect from this administration, The US government filed a motion to stay the order pending an appeal. AKA, they are appealing and in the meantime continuing to collect tariffs until rejected by higher courts (appeals court and/or Supreme Court).

Obviously, we don’t want to charge a U.S. tariff surcharge if we aren’t truly being charged ourselves, so we pumped the brakes to wait and see what the rest of the week would bring. Within 24 hours, we were essentially right back where we started at a known 30% tariff tax for the time being.  

The Third Curveball:
We were notified that some of the import/customs partners we’ve traditionally used for clearing our products upon entry and handling duties for us have begun implementing new tariff processing surcharges themselves due to the surge in import duties impacting their cash flows. 

Basically, just as we’re finding ourselves needing to pass along these new taxes to you, existing logistical partners are also running into various situations in which their cost of business are increasing dramatically, cash flows are becoming tighter, and risk factors heightened, so to offset that, additional charges are being levied on our cost of doing business too.

We do believe we have ways to circumnavigate these payment pass-throughs ourselves though, but it’s going to take some more manual processing from us—frustratingly taking more of our time and effort we’d rather be putting into other aspects of our obligations to you.

To summarize: Given we have several weeks ahead on the water, we’re taking some more time to confirm what our true import costs are looking like so we can make sure we’re not overcharging, undercharging, or putting you through more annoying steps than absolutely necessary. We’ll likely have more confident information to share by next update, if not sooner.
 

-TARIFF IMPACTS & CEPHALOFAIRS ACTIVE EFFORTS-

We’ve been doing our absolute best to be transparent with our audience and community here about what tariffs mean to our project timelines, production challenges, and company resource hurdles. For this reason, I feel it’s important to share some hard decisions we’ve had to make recently as well as some proactive steps we’re taking to help advocate not just for our organization but this industry we love as a whole.

Last month we let our staff know we’d be concluding some re-forcasting of the year ahead, and even into next year, as we realize that without confidence in trade policy we may be looking at further delays on top of our own existing project creative/production delays (of which we acknowledge and take ownership of those parts we are ourselves responsible).

Last week we came to the conclusion of that new forecasting and determined that a few steps were in our best interest to uphold our existing obligations. Those obligations being first and foremost to:

#1) Our Backers. You have invested in us and our creative vision. We have a fiduciary responsibility to you to make sure we’re protecting your pledges and in position to produce/fulfill as soon as the landscape permits us to move forward.

#2) Our Staff & Creative Contractors. We are blessed to work with incredibly talented individuals that help us put together our wildest dreams, and it takes dedicated individuals with hundreds of hours under the belt of product understanding, awareness, and insights to build further upon the foundations we’ve already created. We want them to have confidence we’re positioning ourselves in the best place for long-term employment and growth. 

Staffing Changes
With these things in mind, and the fact that the core of our production/import capabilities have largely been brought to a standstill for 70% of our market for the last financial quarter—we communicated some hard decisions last week to our team resulting in one full-time job elimination and multiple temporary 50% furloughs (Of which I am first and foremost included in, effective last month). These reductions in salary/work hours will be in effect for the foreseeable future until we have confidence in our ability to resume standard and catch up to more timely operations. As Cephalofair’s COO my reduction is in salary only, as my commitment to you is still 110%+ of my time and effort as we navigate these waters together.

I want to make absolutely clear, we have confidence in Cephalofair’s organizational standing and future, but want to be able to look back and know we took EVERY step at our disposal to keep our promises to you. Steps taken not sooner than needed, and not later than would jeopardize that confidence.

NOTE: These furloughs impact more background operational/sales based team members as we recognize we still have outstanding product development/production obligations that require our full-time attention in those areas to see RPG/Miniatures through. As well as community support needs as we head into our next round of fulfillment. Please have faith we are not taking any eyes off the ball, but rather shoring up on overhead where it makes most sense and is most advisable by our financial specialists.

We deeply regret the position we find ourselves in amidst this trade war and to our staff, both dismissed and temporarily setback, we apologize and thank you immensely for your professionalism, understanding, and dedication to our outstanding projects. And while it may not be necessary, I do feel compelled to share that we had several Cephalofair employees be the first to raise their hand and offer to “be the first in line” should our situation require it. While ultimately our decisioning came down to our most obvious income disruptions and greatest business needs- having had the pleasure of working for each of these phenomenal employees for several years now I’m genuinely not surprised and thank them for their compassion for each other and support for our organization as a whole. We hope, and will be working our absolute hardest, to ensure these reductions are for as little time as possible and will prioritize getting staff back to full-time first and foremost. 

-SO WHAT ELSE IS CEPHALOFAIR DOING?-

Local Advocacy (Politics Warning, Ye Who Enter)

We try very hard not to make politics a center post of what we do, we’re game makers, toy makers, and inventors after all. But I am also a firm believer that in business and in life, politics will find you even if you don’t go looking for it. So when appropriate, I choose to engage rather than disengage. I volunteer locally, am a member of our local chamber of commerce, and try my best to attend local small business/governance related meetings when relevant to my needs and interests.

Last week I spent upwards of an hour in my local Congressman’s district office (Kevin Kiley, CA-R). Not with him, unfortunately, but with his district representative and district director. To be frank, I was deeply frustrated and disheartened by how little the office had prepared for our meeting, how few actual answers or pieces of advice they brought to the table, and how uninformed they were with even the most basic level of comprehension around small business economics and trade/manufacturing logistics. Instead of getting an official stance on the existing tariffs, or advice on how we should be navigating this trade policy, or for how long- we were simply told Congressman Kiley was unwilling to make comment at this time. It wasn’t clear what they believed to be the leading strategy behind the tariff negotiations, or the end goal, nor why the Executive office isn’t working with the majority held house and senate to pass legitimate and lawful trade policies rather than the courts.  

Nonetheless, I hope the insights I was able to provide and my offers to be a resource should they desire to represent small/medium enterprises in the future encourages them to consider greater action at some point.

Cephalofair is going to Washington D.C. (Obviously, politics)
Next week I will be heading to D.C. at the invitation of The Game Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA) in joint effort with The Toy Association to do some industry advocacy on capitol hill. While you’re not going to see me in front of any important looking congressional hearings or anything like that (to my knowledge!), it is our hope to be taking as many meetings as possible with elected legislators to directly convey the hurt our industry, our organization, and our customers are/will be feeling under this continued volatile trade policy. We will be spending a few full days in House and Senate office buildings as a cohort of twenty or so toy & game professionals from all different backgrounds who care deeply about what we do, the communities we build, and deep seated desire to “get back to business”. Please wish us all confidence, patience, and clarity as we do something we’ve not had to before (and honestly find a little uncomfortable having to do), especially when we’d much rather be spending our full time making amazing games and works of art.

We'll be on our best behavior in D.C., we promise.


Super Secret Stuff (NOT POLITICS! HUZZAH!)
Sooo…..let’s sandwich some of these less fun updates with positivity, optimism, and excitement for the future!

We’ve been asked numerous times by very generous backers how they can contribute/donate/support Cephalofair in smaller ways to help navigate the current uncertainty ahead. While we’re in a confident position to execute on those obligations without this level of direct financial support, we’re always keen to give our community more ways to engage in the “World of Gloomhaven”! Amidst the disruption of the last couple of months, we’ve not just navigated the lows, but actively looked for opportunities to pivot resources (where responsible) into vetting projects/ideas/etc outside our normal peripheral that may be executable even under these uncertain times.

One of the few things we DO have confidence and ability to execute on at this time is game development, design, and the ability to plan for things in the future that we hope you’re all really going to enjoy.

Some of these are more future proofing our publishing position and most certainly won’t be our focus until our outstanding obligations are fulfilled (RPG/Miniatures), but some smaller things in our “back pocket” maaaay just sneak their way onto your radar sooner than we intended.

And that’s all I can really say about that for now, so I’m going to “tie a bow” on it before I say any more!

Let's tie a bow on this folks...


END OF UPDATE!

That’s “it” for this week, if you’re still here with me and reading this thank you genuinely for your interest, understanding, and support. We’ll be back in two weeks with your next update. 


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