Let's Reassess

A week ago, the US Government instituted sweeping wide tariffs that not only include islands inhabited only by birds (I'm not making this up), but astronomically high rates upwards of 60% on countries such as China and Vietnam.

This was "cataclysmic" for the paper and plastic manufacturing industry, which tabletop games are obviously included in. A week later, I wake up to information that the tariffs have raised even more: 104%. Each product that arrives from china will be charged a tax of more than the actual value of the product itself. A day later, we find out that all ships arriving from china will be charged $1.5 Million on entry to the US. That's the info we have now, who knows what's next.

The entire industry is not reacting well to this. Publisher Steve Jackson Games is now assessing their production lines and trying to figure out what to do.

Here are the numbers: A product we might have manufactured in China for $3.00 last year could now cost $4.62 before we even ship it across the ocean. Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins, and that once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That's not a luxury upcharge; it's survival math.

These people are massive, bulk, large scale publishers with credibility. We at Station Square have zero clue how it's going to affect our small print runs. And this was when the tarriffs were at 50. Not 104. We're now looking at a $3.00 manufacturing run now more-than-doubling.

Needless to say, the current market, and the foreseeable future market, is too volatile to trust large scale manufacturing for such a small scale business. I'd like to stress that Base Set was printed. It is being shipped as we speak. I am sending them in waves of ~20 units biweekly. Everyone who backed the Kickstarter or preordered the product will receive it by the end of may. However, we need to shift gears moving forward.

As it is now, we are simply unable to pay the costs that even a generous, conservative estimate would offer for mass manufacturing. RAILGRIND!!'s production costed about $3.2K. This isn't counting shipping, which I am paying for out of pocket. So, let's look at the future for RAILGRIND, other Station Square Studios games, and where we can go from here.

FOCUS ON ONLINE

The first step we're taking is to make our online experience better, more engaged, and more involved. I personally really dislike using Tabletop Simulator for games, but its our best option to keep the game accessible. I've considered switching new releases of the game to a paid DLC model, but have ultimately decided against it. I think that the non-physical version of my game should be as accessible as possible.

We're looking into starting digital leagues, updating our leaderboard system, and hosting online events. I'm going to start streaming development, art, and playtesting on youtube and twitch, as well. If you haven't yet joined our community, games are really starting to pick up!

PRINT AND PLAY

The second step is to switch to a print and play model. Our first expansion was planned to release in august, and we can keep to that schedule by offering you a product which-- admittedly, offloads production costs-- to you. Print and Play documents are .PDF files which you can simply take to any printer, cut out, and shove in a card sleeve to play the game. Our prototyping service, LaunchTableTop, also has .PDF files for individual cards. Buying the print and play file will also include the LTT pdfs, and the images for the cards in high resolution for you to mess with however you'd like. It'll take some time to set up the files, but this can be done as soon as possible.

PRINT ON DEMAND

Our third step is to offer cards through DriveThru. This is a print on demand service used very much in the TTRPG scene, and they offer cards as well. This company sources their paper in the USA, and performs the printing in Germany. The tariffs have affected them, too, but not nearly as much.

Unfortunately, the quality and cardstock used is slightly different than the ones that were shipped out to our backers, which may cause some concerns, but ultimately it's something we'll have to deal with.

So What? Is the Game going to be more expensive?

The print and play documents will be cheap. Under $12 US. I legitimately, truly, don't know what it's going to look like for Drivethru. I will keep you updated.