Digital Game Products Don't Come With Tariffs! (A Run Down Of This Nonsense)

There are always a contingent of people who say that you should keep politics out of gaming... the problem is that politics affects everything, your games included! There has been no more obvious, on-the-nose example of this than the American Republican regime's intention to put huge tariffs on countries across the world without any seeming rhyme or reason. And this is going to hit everything, tabletop games included.

In fact, one might argue this is going to hit tabletop gaming particularly hard.

We're doing what we can, but you need to understand what's happening.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

What's Happening (And What You Should Be Ready For)

For those who've been living under a rock, the U.S. is currently doing the same thing it did in the early 20th century that was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression... putting tariffs on across-the-board imported goods. A tariff, for those who don't know, is basically an extra tax the government puts on a good imported from a specific country. The company pays that tax to the government, and then (typically), they pass that cost along to the customer by increasing the price of a good.

So if you wanted to get a 12 pack of a particular soda that comes from overseas, and there's now a 10% tariff on that good, the company importing it has to pay the U.S. government that extra cost, and they'll typically just raise their prices to compensate. So if it cost you $5 before, that extra 10% tariff will now raise it to $5.50... at least.

And that's not a big deal for an individual unit, perhaps. But when your inventory is thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of units, that cost adds up. And that tariff has to be paid as soon as the goods come in, and you pay it regardless of whether or not those goods sell.

With me so far? Good.

Now, the stated purpose of a tariff is generally to discourage trade with a particular nation, and to make businesses and customers seek out goods produced in their own country. Given the massive interconnected modern world we live in, that isn't what happens, but that's at least the stated purpose.

The problem, however, is that America is not a nation of manufacturing, and hasn't been for decades. Ever since the 1980s (and arguably earlier), corporations have been moving manufacturing overseas, shutting down domestic operations, and reaping the benefits by paying foreign labor a pittance to make goods they then sell to the American public, pocketing the difference. This is how it's possible at all for us to buy goods that seem ridiculously low-priced. From fast fashion to Wish.com's rock bottom prices, it's a shell game of companies making things overseas for a cheaper cost, then shipping them to the U.S.

And this is where we circle back to tabletop RPGs and board games.

Because practically every part of your games are manufactured overseas and imported. Books, dice, board games, playing cards, and all the little bobs and bits that go into these games are all made somewhere else. And there are two major reasons for that. The first is that companies who make these games have paper-thin profit margins, and so they are forced by necessity to seek out the lowest-cost options possible just to make sure they don't take a loss on their games. I believe my own RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic was printed in China because it was the only viable option for keeping costs down.

The second reason is, of course, these facilities don't exist in the U.S. So when there is no alternative for you to turn to, you're just stuck with your costs being blown up astronomically for no real reason by the government, which has the potential to take a bat to the knees of the entire gaming industry.

We're Going To Need Your Support More Than Ever

Making a living in TTRPGs is already hard. Anyone who's watched my series Tabletop Mercenary over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel knows that already. This obsession with tariffs and trade wars is already leaving gaming companies scrambling because even if companies started setting up U.S. manufacturing today for the things we need, it will be at least 5 years (and more likely a decade) before there's even a robust enough sector to handle what it is gaming companies would need to produce.

And, honestly, that's really unlikely to happen. The best case scenario is that we manage to hold out long enough for someone to undo these disastrous decisions, and ensure that the industry can function at least as well as it was this time last year.

Between now and then, though, there's going to be a lot of creators and companies scrambling to stay afloat. And we are going to need you to help us get to the other side of this!

As the war bonds posters said... we need you!

If you aren't sure how to help the companies and creators you like, but you want to make sure we can keep making games for you to play, then consider the following options:

- Purchase Digital Options: Whether you get digital supplements and books, or if you want to purchase 3D printing schematics to make your own minis at-home, putting something in the coffers is going to be key to helping people survive. If you want to help me out specifically, you can find my 191 titles on Drive Thru RPG at this link, or you can check out my Pinboard for them!

- Subscribe To Their Channels and Social Media: A lot of creators and companies make more than just games. So check to see if the people you want to support have podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, and follow them on every social media platform you can. The more engagement they get, the more views, listens, and comments you provide, etc., the more they will get paid, which will help balance out the hits from the current tariffs. Again, subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel if you want to help me out!

- Donate To Their Crowdfunding: Whether there's a Kickstarter going on, something on BackerKit, or there's a Patreon or Ko-Fi that you can drop some cash into so they can survive one more month, consider getting directly involved. And even if you don't have the money to do a lot right now, use your social media presence to boost signals, and spread the word. And if you're inclined to help me out, I have a Patreon and a Ko-Fi.

Everyone is reeling, and a lot of us are tightening our belts. But if you have the ability to help creators get through this storm, that's the only way they're going to still be making games when we come out on the other side of it. We're all in this together, and escapism is going to be a big part of what is going to help a lot of us maintain our sanity.

So please, help if you can, and understand why things are getting so ridiculously expensive right now. We are (for the most part, at least) just trying to keep making stuff so we can keep you all entertained!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Want A D10 System That Does More Than Monsters? Try Era!

While I may not talk about them as much on this particular platform, I greatly enjoy White Wolf's games. While I have a preference for Chronicles of Darkness games like Changeling: The Lost (whose second edition just came out not too long ago, by the by), I'm still more than happy to roll some 10-siders in old world Werewolf or Vampire with the right crew.

However, one thing that always frustrated me was that the d10 system seemed so inherently tied to those games. While it was possible to translate it to another genre, it required you to do a lot of the heavy lifting as the DM.

If you've ever wanted to play a survival-based game, or to blast off into the stars with your d10s, though, then you might want to check out the Era system from Shades of Vengeance publishing!

Go on... give it a look. You've got nothing to lose but your life.

What Does Era Have To Offer?

Well, if you've wanted to break your d10s out for another ride, and you just haven't been in the mood to brood, then Era has several games that you should be able to pick up and play with relatively little adjustment.

Want a sci-fi game? Era: The Consortium has you covered! Want to try a d10 superheroes game? Well, then Era: The Empowered may be just what you're looking for! Want some gritty, highly-lethal survival based game play? Then Era: Survival should be right up your alley!

But how does it play?

While I made the White Wolf comparison above, that's really just a place to get started. Both systems have you roll a pool of d10s to determine your successes, and the formulas for generating things like your Health, your Defense, etc. are going to feel very familiar.

The game is far from a carbon-copy, though, even those some of the mechanics will feel familiar. And then you slather on the world-building (and hoo boy is there a lot of it; if you're a fan of complex worlds with a lot of backstory, then this is your lucky day!) and you'll have a game that definitely has its own, unique identity. But it also won't require you to get a new set of dice and other supporting tools, which is definitely a win for folks who want to take their game in a new direction!

Seriously, go check out Shades of Vengeance publishing, and take a look at some of the stuff they have on offer. It's definitely worth your time!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday post! If you'd like to see other work from yours truly, then check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, along with the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or if you'd prefer to get your hands on some of my fiction, stop by My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

To stay on top of all my latest posts, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, to help support me, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi or going to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today! Every little bit helps... trust me.

Have You Tried Adding Survival Aspects To Your Games?

Traditional fantasy games tend to be about epic quests and slaying monsters, rather than about the small details of day-to-day life on the road. However, if you're looking to try doing something fresh, then it might be a good idea to shift your focus a little bit. To make sure that everyone brings enough food to keep going when they head out on their adventure, to count how many arrows you have in your quiver, and to be sure that you can actually haul all that gear you brought along with you.

Captain, is this the kind of fruit we can eat? I'm on my last pack of trail rations.

While actually keeping track of survival elements isn't fun for a lot of people, it can make for a different, interesting sort of challenge. Not only that, but it can make character archetypes and skills that aren't typically considered useful feel much more potent.

Will You Survive?

Survival games take resource management to the next level, and they generally deal with rules and mechanics that are often hand-waved by DMs who'd rather not bother with them. For example, a lot of DMs don't bother tracking encumberance rules, or keeping track of how many bolts, arrows, or spell components the party brought with them into the wild. A lot of the time it's just assumed that you can find places to camp, and that you either brought enough to eat with you, or that you can forage for it.

In a survival-oriented game, those are not assumptions you make. Instead, the party needs to allocate those resources, and track them in order to avoid starving, getting heat stroke, running out of ammunition, or finding themselves digging through the bushes looking for just the right root to cast lightning bolt one more time.

Seriously, I just need a bit of fur. Or a tooth... a tooth would increase the spell's potency by +1.

If you're going to include these survival elements, then players suddenly need to take in a whole different group of challenges than they had to deal with before. For example, if the elements are a serious problem, and you aren't allowed to just say you found a nice campsite, then making sure you have rope trick on your spell list might seem more like a necessity than a luxury. If you have to cope with saves versus heat or cold, or deal with foraging for food, then spells like endure elements and a high Survival check might suddenly seem a lot more important than they would otherwise. And if walking around in full plate causes fatigue, and drastically limits the amount of stuff you and your mount can carry, then a lot of fighters might make do with a day-wear of chain and a shield, only putting on their heavy-duty armor when they reach a dungeon. You'll even find spellcasters taking Eschew Materials, and fighters making the rolls to salvage their fired arrows during combat. Heck, you might actually find characters taking Craft skills in order to make alchemical items, fletch arrows, etc. so they can make the things they need out of their environment without slogging through three days worth of rough country to reach a trading post.

And, most importantly, you'll stop parties from picking up every piece of dungeon trash they find, leaving the hordes of cheap goblin steel behind in favor of the gold, and the handful of gems that are worth an easily transportable fortune.

A Different Kind of Challenge

The purpose of a game with survival elements is not to punish players; it is to provide them with an additional set of challenges. It makes them consider the resources they have available, and carefully weigh their options in ways they otherwise might not. For example, if a party knows that travel through rough country is going to be hazardous during the storm season, and there will be roving packs of hungry wolves along with highwaymen to contend with, then it might be worth spending the silver to hire a ship, or to pay for a carriage fare to travel along one of their regular routes.

What was that about wandering threats in the wilderness?

Also, even though I typically am not in favor of random encounters when it comes to gaming, I will say that survival games are one of the exceptions that prove the rule. Because the whole point of these encounters is to make the environment feel like it's a challenge, and to force the players to consider their actions in terms of moving stealthily, keeping a careful look out for threats, and gathering information about the potential dangers along certain routes. So, in this case, random encounters can add that extra air of danger to show that it isn't just keeping yourself in one piece, fighting through storms and the hardships of travel... sometimes you also have to contend with angry bears, or mischievous faeries.

However, I would still recommend that you just pick the potential encounters in an area, as I suggested in For Tighter Games, Consider Nixing Random Encounters, and then just roll to see if they happen or not based on players' precautions. It saves you a lot of time and effort, as well as re-rolling when you get bunyips 12 times in a row.

Also, if you're looking for some random encounters to pick from, then you might want to take a look at 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest, as well as 100 Encounters For on The Road or in The Wilderness. They've got more than just combat encounters, and they can add some unique experiences to any game where you're going to be on the road for some time. The originals are written for Pathfinder, but there are also 5th Edition versions of both 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest and 100 Encounters For on The Road or in The Wilderness. They're both by yours truly, and both from Azukail Games, so they cost less than a cup of coffee, but will provide significantly more value behind your screen.

It's Not For Everyone

It's important to remember that not everyone wants to get bogged down in the minutiae and resource tracking that comes with a survival-oriented game. For a lot of players (and DMs), they'd rather skip all of the cold snaps, the panic of running low on firepower, or the extra rolls that come with salvaging arrows or figuring out how many fresh arrow shafts you can craft during the evenings by the camp fire.

And that's fine. Under normal circumstances, I'm both that kind of player and that kind of DM. But I can't deny that adding these elements to your game can give it a certain charm... just make sure everyone's on-board for this kind of game before you suddenly start hitting the PCs with a slew of environmental penalties because you didn't mention they had to be prepared for them this time around.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday installment! If you've run survival-oriented games before, what elements did you find working the best? Which ones just got in the way? Leave some comments to help out other readers.

If you'd like to see more from me, check out my Vocal archive, or just click over to my Gamers page to see only my tabletop content. You could also head over to the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio, where I work with other gamers to create content for DMs and players alike. To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to support me, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi of heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly supporter. Either way, expect a load of gaming swag as a thank you!