Hey everyone,

I’ve been holding off on this update in the hope that we’d reach more certainty on tariffs, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon. Here’s where things stand as at today for this project.

Since 2022, we’ve been printing our hardback books in Lithuania with the fantastic Standart Impressa, and splitting our perfect bound book print runs between a number of companies in the USA and UK.

As a result, Pelgrane Press shipments will not be affected by tariffs on Chinese imports into the USA, although - if books are not exempted, which a number of authorities believe they will be - Pelgrane shipments will be impacted by tariffs placed on EU goods coming into the USA (currently at 20%, but with a 90-day pause).

One thing I know we will be impacted by is the effect of those tariffs on the cost of raw materials, such as ink, paper, packaging, and fuel. It’s too soon to predict the full extent of that impact - the tariff war is ongoing and evolving as I type - but I’m guessing our production costs will have increased at least 10% by the end of the year.

We will be monitoring the situation closely, talking with our suppliers, and working through what changes we can make to mitigate these rising costs - such as holding back on new products, moving older products to print on demand only, and offsetting the shortfall with more crowdfunding campaigns - but I suspect these increases will be more than we, as a small company, can afford to absorb, and the worst-case scenario is that we will need to pass these price hikes on to consumers.

My intention is to honour the pledge levels and add-ons you have been quoted, and absorb any cost increases we incur during the printing of these books. The cool stuff you picked up during this campaign will not change in price during this campaign, but will almost certainly increase in price before it is available to non-backers.

Due to vast fluctuations in shipping costs since 2020, we’ve made it a policy to delay quoting and charging for shipping until we are ready to start fulfilment. I hope to be able to honour the shipping estimates we quoted during the campaign, but if there are unprecedented rises in shipping costs due to the ongoing trade war, we might have to increase those costs.

We haven’t yet committed to a printer for Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, Boundary of the Darkness, and the GM screen. I’m currently sourcing US-based printer recommendations from tabletop industry colleagues, and my current plan is to compare the increased cost of splitting the print run (that is, printing the US & Canadian books in the USA, and all the other books in the UK, where they’ll be distributed from) with the cost of printing everything with our trusted print partner in Lithuania and shipping from the EU into the USA.

We'll work this out. Somehow.

~Cat

Hey all,

Apologies for the delay with this update - I'll make sure we're posting these monthly going forward.

The radio silence has masked work progress on all fronts. I'm particularly excited by how the GM screen is looking. We've recruited Alessandro Alaia - whose work you may have seen in our Cthulhu Apocalypse book covers and interiors - to do it. The project has evolved through sketches of jungles, the Antarctic, ships, featureless plateaus and New England houses, and we've finally landed on an ancient desert city, which I think is going to look great! Here are Alessandro's initial sketches:

Also in progress are backer surveys, which have just been sent out. You should be able to make any changes or additions you want in that - please do let Becky know at [email protected] if you have any issues with it. If you've backed at the Retailer level, you'll need to confirm your retail store details before getting access to the wholesale items.

I'm having a meeting later on today with Steven Hammond of The Black Book fame, so expect more details on the Trail 2e character generator in our next update.

Robin D. Laws has taken over the development of Boundary of the Darkness. He's working with Sarah on pre-gens for her Bluestockings adventure, as well as art and layout.

Ken's taken the Trail of Cthulhu manuscript, and is adding his magic touch - what we call his "fairy dust" - to it, which is the last stage of development. His changes will likely be more editorial than mechanical, but I do know he's improved the Fleeing rules, and added a list of the rules specific to Pulp and Purist modes, along with necessary appendices. Once he's finished with it, it can go into layout.

And speaking of, Aileen Miles is working on new layout templates, to an admittedly fuzzy brief from me. On the one hand, I want to have a different look the interior; but on the other hand, I really like the look of Jérôme Huguenin's original design. Here are some of Aileen's drafts:

Until next month,

~Cat