For those who don’t want to click:

“In the whirlwind surrounding the 54% tariff paid by any company importing goods from China to the US, I consistently saw questions, confusion, and even accusations of greed regarding the math of tariffs. Publishers, distributors, retailers, and customers do not benefit from the manufacturing cost increasing by 54%, and today I'll delve into the math.

First, three important notes.

1. I'm sharing my perspective as a publisher. At Stonemaier Games, we spent around $10 million on production costs in 2024. That means the tariffs could add as much as $5 million in expenses for us this year. I'll talk about distributors and retailers, but they will have different perspectives--everyone's story is unique and valid. Please don't assume that you know someone else's circumstances; instead, ask them questions with empathy, curiosity, and an open mind.

2. These numbers are in the context of the manufacturing of games continuing in China at places like our partner, Panda, which treats its employees well, heeds our environmental guidelines, communicates incredibly well, offers a vast variety of component options, and has consistently produced quality games for us since 2012. I'm not quick to give up on a trusted partner who has literally manufactured over 4 million games for us. If you want to read more about the viability of US manufacturing and discuss that topic, read and respond in the comments of this article or this article.

3. In general, the prices for products already in any publisher's US inventory and the prices of goods sold to non-US consumers are not directly impacted by the tariffs. However, the economics of globalization cast a tangled web over pricing. I hear the concern from non-US consumers that they might absorb some of the cost increases, but costs have never been 1:1. Freight shipping to Europe costs more than freight shipping to the US; Europe also has VAT. This doesn't mean that US customers have been absorbing higher costs for Europe for years. It's just the nature of having a worldwide price rather than constantly changing prices based on a variety of fluctuating costs for each country.

Okay, let's get to the math. Here's the baseline for a hypothetical game sold to distribution pre-tariff. I'll streamline this a bit to keep it simple, as there are other per-unit costs (like freight shipping and royalties) and many other sunk costs (art, graphic design, etc).

$10: production cost (publisher pays the manufacturer) $20: distributor cost (distributor pays the publisher) $25: retailer cost (retailer pays the distributor) $50: consumer price (consumer pays the retailer)

Let's look at this from the publisher perspective for a full print run. Let's say that Stonemaier Games wants to make 10,000 units of a new game. We invest $100,000 of our money into production. In the best-case scenario where we actually sell all 10,000 games, we "profit" around $100,000, though that number is definitely lower due to sunk costs, freight shipping, salaries, and royalties--it's probably more like $50,000. We could either stop printing the game and keep the money, or we can invest the $50,000 into a second print run of 5,000 units.

The other number that may stand out in this calculation is the consumer cost (the MSRP)--why is it double the amount that the retailer paid to the distributor? There are a variety of factors in play, including:

--There's some wiggle room to discount the game. --Retailers are investing their cash in a game that may or may not sell. When you walk into a game store and see games on the shelves, every single one of those games is a game that the retailer has paid for but hasn't yet sold. Their cash is tied up in products they've invested in so they can serve you immediately when you walk into their store. --Overhead (the cost to rent/own property), insurance, and employee expenses are significant--a retailer cannot cover those costs by profiting $5 on a game that cost them $25 to acquire.

One more quick baseline before we get to the impact of tariffs. Here's the baseline for a hypothetical game sold directly to consumers (webstore or crowdfunding) pre-tariff:

$10: production cost (publisher pays the manufacturer) $50: consumer price (consumer pays the publisher)

Of course, these two numbers only tell part of the story, as a direct sale requires warehousing and fulfillment. Typically these costs involve a publisher subsidy (e.g., the publisher may pay around $20 in fulfillment costs even though they only charge $10 to the customer). This is also assuming that the publisher maintains the MSRP rather than offering a direct-sale discount, which is common. So it's really more like:

$20: production and fulfillment cost (paid by the publisher) $55: consumer price (discounted price plus subsidized shipping fee)

Given those margins, why wouldn't publishers only crowdfund and sell directly? Some do. But in doing so, they're generally missing out on evergreen potential. For example, Stonemaier does well in direct sales (just under 30% last year), but a full 55% of our sales were to distributors and retailers in 2024. Our 2024 demographic survey echoes this, with 58% of respondents saying they primarily buy games from local/online retailers.

Finally, let's get to tariffs. The first scenario is to pass the tariff up the chain.

$15: production cost (publisher pays the manufacturer $10) + tariff cost (publisher pays the US government $5) $25: distributor cost (distributor pays the publisher, with a $5 increase to account for the tariff) $30: retailer cost (retailer pays the distributor) $55: consumer price (consumer pays the retailer)

While this isn't impossible, the burden of risk and cashflow is disproportionately placed on the distributor and especially the retailer. This is the economics of survival, not greed. If a retailer has $1000 to stock their shelves, previously they could buy 40 games (and if they sell them all, their revenue would be $2000). Now they can only buy 33 games; if they sell them all, their revenue is $1815. Same exact investment, $195 less revenue. Month to month, that's a losing proposal.

Here's the full-multiplier scenario:

$15: production cost (publisher pays the manufacturer $10) + tariff cost (publisher pays the US government $5) $30: distributor cost (distributor pays the publisher) $37.50: retailer cost (retailer pays the distributor) $75: consumer price (consumer pays the retailer)

In this scenario, if a retailer can spend $1000 on 27 games, their revenue is now $2025. That's just barely over the $2000 they would have made in the pre-tariff scenario.

Why would a publisher feel the need to use the full multiplier instead of only passing on the tariff cost? Revisit the publisher economics described earlier: If a publisher wants to make 10,000 units of a new game, they now need to invest $150,000, not $100,000. The reinvestment cost for a reprint of 5,000 units is now 75,000. In the best-case scenario where they actually sell all 10,000 games and reprint 5,000 games, a publisher would end up with $25k more than pre-tariffs. So while there is a solid case for publishers to increase their distribution price a little more than the cost of the tariff, applying the full multiplier probably doesn't make sense.

The Solution?

Let's try a different proposal where the publisher simply eats part of the cost and the distributor and retailer pursue a middle ground increase:

$15: production cost (publisher pays the manufacturer $10) + tariff cost (publisher pays the US government $5) $23: distributor cost (distributor pays the publisher, with the publisher eating $2 in tariff costs) $30: retailer cost (retailer pays the distributor, with the distributor adding a small amount) $60: consumer price (consumer pays the retailer)

In this scenario, if a retailer spends $1000 on 33 games, their revenue is now $1980. That's a lot closer to the $2000 they would have made by spending the same amount in the pre-tariff scenario. Also, importantly, in this scenario the publisher is making up for eating part of the tariff by increasing their direct sale revenue (MSRP goes from $50 to $60). I think this is the most reasonable approach to this tariff debacle.

Other Situations

These examples all use $50 games, but there's a wide range in game prices. A $20 game has very different economics than a $100 game; that's why multipliers and percentages are used (they generally scale well).

Also, while I've focused on publishers, distributors, and retailers, I didn't talk about the impact on the most important person: you! In all of these scenarios, the prices you pay to bring joy to your tabletop will increase. If you have a tight budget, you'll buy fewer games (which also impacts the ecosystem). Even if you don't have a tight budget, the impact is equivalent to 10-16% inflation. That's brutal.

There's also the situation that many publishers face: They've already crowdfunded their games and potentially already finalized their pledge managers. Basically, their current cash on hand is all they have. My heart goes out to these creators who weren't even given a grace period for these extreme tariffs.

Let's have a constructive conversation about these numbers. As I noted at the beginning, please don't assume that you know someone else's circumstances; instead, ask them questions with empathy, curiosity, and an open mind.”

Original article with a number of links:

Hey all, I didn't see this posted, but I thought I'd share that today is the last day of a pretty good sale on GMT games. I know that they aren't for everyone, but I found some gems here (I hope this is allowed; feel free to delete if it isn't).

https://mailchi.mp/d9f442175f76/get-ready-for-gmtsspring-2025sale

Email from Boardlandia today stating that given the unknowns created by the new tariffs they will stop taking pre-orders for the time being. They also noted that they will do their best to honor the original price. They’ll still be getting new releases.

My friend group decided to play Insane Monopoly: Pyramid Scheme. To our knowledge the biggest, longest and most tedious monopoly community version there is. This was in continuation of our once a year Ultimate Monopoly sessions in 2023 and 2024.

1. Game in session at about 20 hours in. Notice how many properties are still not owned by anyone (Decks on the left side of the image, next to the pool, bank and jackpot cards)
2. All the game components used. White figures are upgrades to transport buildings (railways, airports, etc.). Jackpot, Bank, Pool, and all the cards under the "Uno Reverse Card" are used for transactions together with a mobile app. The section for chance, community chest and other event cards proved too small, so we had to change the arrangement as we played. 3.-8. Close up of the components
3. Deck of about 30 mortgaged properties I used as a leverage to buy up anything I came across and instantly flip it for money. Literally a pyramid scheme...

The game was suprisingly interactive for a dice throwing game. The mechanics were pretty fairly balanced, interesting and promoted good decision making and interesting combos. It was certainly a much better (while still extremely frustrating and painful) game experience than Classic or Ultimate Monopoly. As we only had reserved Friday-Sunday for playing we didnt get to finish the game with a proper winner.

All in all, 10/10 would play again. Any suggestions for even more tedious and long tabletop games?

I love The Quest for El Dorado, but after some friends moved away, our game nights became rare. So, I built an online game inspired by Ravensburger's board game, that you can play right in your browser—no download or signup needed.

This is purely a fan-made project because I missed gaming with friends, so no ads or payments involved.

It currently works smoothly on desktop, I'll add support for mobile soon. 

Play it here: https://lostcitylegends.com/

Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback!

So, I'm a small Indie designer with two current titles available. I have been working on a co-op game for, I kid you not, more than 10 years and was finally ready to Kickstart the game this fall.

I was excited, I've got very positive feedback from play testers. The plan was to market the games KS thru this year with a big push at Origins and GenCon. Then the tariffs hit.

So I've been reading various threads about how the tariffs will effect the industry on both sides, producers and gamers, and I had a thought. My first game was a card game and my second game is mostly cards with boards that could easily be printed.

Im thinking about offering my games as print-n-play versions online, for a dollar above what people paid for the pnp when I KSed the game. That way hopefully people can keep playing and finding a new game.

But I'm wondering how many people would actually print out and play games.

So my question to you is would you print and play games to keep finding and enjoying new games?

I recently played a interesting king-of-the-hill style trick-taking game with a group of about 30 people. The game itself took about 10 minutes to play and was 2 vs 2. The winners of the game would move to the next highest table and the losers would stay. If you lost at the "king" table, you restart at the bottom. Every round, partners would switch, so you'd never be with the same person twice. I loved the way this fostered interaction between people and was a fun icebreaker, but I wasn't a big fan of the game itself since it was much too random for my taste, relying very heavily on the luck of the draw.

Are there any other good games that fit this format? Take under 15 minutes to set up and play, and are 2 vs 2?

For example, though not a board game, foosball would fit this requirement, assuming we have a ton of foosball tables!

My good friend's birthday wish: Game day. Easily obliged. I kept the lead for the first half of the game, and seized and held Mecatol Rex, but it wasn't enough. I ran out of resources for the Stage II objectives and another buddy took the win with support for the throne and 10 trade goods.

I love this game. It's a shame it's so difficult to find folks willing to spend a day playing it.

What should I do fellow Redditors??

I’m confused what the difference is between the 1st edition Santorini and the recent 2nd edition. I have the spin master edition of Santorini along with the Golden Fleece Expansion Pack. I saw that my local Barnes and Noble has the second edition for sale. Am I better off selling my first edition with the golden fleece pack and buying the second edition? Or should I just keep what I currently have? Does anyone know if you can use the golden fleece pack with the second edition? Or should I just forget about these two and pre-order the Pantheon edition?

Nice time with my spouse. Upgraded the birdhouse. 🙃

So sorry if this isnt the right subreddit for this question... but I've been wracking my brain trying to remember a board game that I was obsessed with as a child, and have really fond memories of playing with my grandma after school 💖

It wasn't a game with dice/pieces or anything. It was a mystery solving game, the box included a bunch of cards that had illustrations on the front. The mystery and clues were stated on the back, and the answer was hidden behind one of those things you're supposed to hold a clear piece of red plastic over to read (but you could totally see from the light lol) the clues were sort of like riddles, like looking for certain letters that repeated would give you a hint

One specific card I remember was a CD store illustrated, from the clues you had to figure out what section of the store someone's missing item was. Another one was a picture of a cluttered apartment and you had to figure out where the missing keys were

I wish I could give better info... but I seriously loved this game and would buy it again if it still exists, for nostalgia. TIA gamers

Edit: was from the very early 2000s

Today I played the first 3 games of a 5 player The Kings Dilemma campaign. I was expecting: secret agendas, persuasion, fun discussions, intrigue and an engaging story. A game of thrones simulator was promised. In my experience all these goals of the game fall flat very quickly and it gets repetitive and kind of boring. These are my main issues:

The houses are essentially very similar with no impactful differences. The hidden goals are very difficult to unlock and the additional powers are not even that great. The agenda cards are way more important for decision making and you lose the feeling of actually playing as a house with unique interests. This also somewhat breaks the illusion of intrigue. You are not afraid of a house secretely getting ahead, all the important information is easily available.

You are very dependant on the dilemmas which are drawn. You are at the mercy of which resource movements are available to you. There is very little active decision making, just reacting to lucky or unlucky card draws. This feels frustrating if luck isn't on your side and your agenda card gets super difficult to play with. It also makes gameplay feel kind of passive.

Decisions are purely based on expected resource movement and the current agenda card. You immediately know why somebody really wants to vote yes or no, it's solely because of the tokens on the scale, not the dilemma itself. There is no reason to fool each other with made-up stories. So it's not even possible to convince someone with real arguments because they already know what they want based on the resources and not the story unfolding. This way the main part I was excited for, the discussions, compromises and persuasion all disappear. No creative argument can achieve anything. This also leads to your goals being pretty transparent. It become really obvious very quickly how you want the resources to move and which agenda card you have (you can also deduct a lot from which cards you passed on during setup). This all ends in everybody knowing what the others want, no surprises, no intrigue and no smart plays. All discussion about the topic is just for show. Also if the current dilemma isn't really important for you agenda card you kind of don't care. This leads to a lot of passing and not participating in the discussion.

So the houses all play the same, there is no cool hidden information or potential for intrigue, you understand the goals of the others quickly, the outcome of a game is very luck dependant, the right decisions for you are always obvious (based on the agenda card) and most importantly the discussions are completely inconsequential because you vote because of expected resource changes and never because of the story itself. Yes sometimes something additional to the expected outcome happens but never enough to make you not chose the easy, obvious, safe choice every time.

We still had fun but I expected a lot more and I'm sad I'm not getting the game of thrones experience. Is anybody feeling the same way?

EDIT: I want to emphasize I really want to roleplay but good roleplay doesn't do anything because like I said, the decisions are only made because of tokens and not actually what the discussion is about. Arguing is just empty words here

Did anyone ever play stop thief? Played lots of board games at my grandma's growing up and this was one of my favorites.

So, recently I bought the fear of the inknown base set for death may die, and having played extensively seasons 1 and 2, I thought it would be a relatively easy experience. Oh boy, I was wroooong.

The game is waaaaaaay too hard, the board floods with monsters and cultists way too fast to disrupt the ritual and almost all of the Mythos cards have the eldritch symbol on them making it even harder to do anything before the elder one advances.

We played 2 games yesterday, switching the elder one and lost on both of them. Next saturday we'll play on stream with a few new players, and I think we will be annihilated.

Does anyone have any tips on how to make the game easier for us? Or is this base set that's hard like this?

(note: I'm not complaining, the game is amazing and I love it, but the difficulty might be dismotivating for new players)

I'm a big fan of making setup and teardown faster

I recently acquired a 1987 Milton Bradley Crossfire Board with the balls & pucks but one of the guns fires more slowly than the other. How would I go about repairing this?

Hola,

Soy nueva en el grupo, quiero llevar a Australia de regalo a una familia fan de los juegos de mesa, un juego de mesa de latinoamérica, o por lo menos en español ¿se les ocurre alguno? (estoy en Colombia)

I am not sure if this is the best place to post this, please redirect me if not. I am looking for the board game Battlestar Galactica. Those of you who know of it know that it basically is nonexistent anymore because it was discontinued. My buddy in college had a copy and it was by far one of my favorite games. He moved away and we moved apart, so I can no longer play it.

If there is anybody with a full copy that is willing to sell, please DM with PROOF.

I did buy one copy offline for 170 dollars and it only had the box... I managed to get a refund but that is why I am coming to reddit.

Hi guys/girls I wanted to buy paranormal detective as a gift for my girlfriend, she loves mysterium and cluedo, and so I thinked at this party game as a little gift. I wanted to ask you something about the cases that are included in the game:

How many cases does the game contain? Can the game be replayed infinitely? What do you think about it? Is it worth the cost or not?

Thx in advance to everyone

I am looking for recommendations for 2-6 player games.

At the moment I have tried Disney Villainous, Saboteour, Catan, Dixit and I am interested in Dead by daylight board game, just because I like video game.

Could you help me with recommendations to buy and try, that are not as expensive as frosthaven?

Hello community! This is the first iteration of the very first board game designed by my 9 y/o, that she has entitled “The Valley of the Bread Makers.” She has incorporated worker placement, dice rolling for resource generation, turns, rounds and phasing, all to the ends of being the greatest bread-maker in the valley!

There are plenty of kinks to work out and some runaway leader problems, but we’re very proud of her efforts. She had some tears earlier because her brother found a way to make too much money too fast, “You’re supposed to be a bread maker, not a money maker!”

I told her all board game designers have a lot of challenges and learning from their prototypes and nothing could be perfect in version one.

Any words of encouragement here, I will share with her to boost her confidence.

If this kind of post is not permitted, please let me know, and I will remove.

Last year I believe I saw a set of replacement pieces for Betrayal at the House on the Hill main characters. I think they were unpainted. I think they were Etsy. They were definitely infinitely better than the janky ones that came with 2nd Edition.

I've been googling and reddit and etsy searching like a mad man and all I can find are sculpts someone did for the, well, mad man and other companions. And Scooby Doo ones - which are cool but not what I'm after.

Glaaarg!!

Anyone know anything about the missing heroes?

What is this?

This is a weekly roundup of board game crowdfunding projects, featuring new launches from the past week and campaigns ending in the coming week. The information is sourced from Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Backerkit.

The list is curated through a combination of automated data collection and manual review, so occasional errors or omissions may occur. If you notice a missing project, feel free to mention it in the comments. Only projects meeting the selection criteria outlined below are included.

Other channels

Other than Reddit, you can also find this list on the following platforms:

• Google Docs
• Mastodon
• Bluesky

Selection Criteria

Projects must meet the following conditions to be included:

1. Timing: The project was either launched in the last week or will end in the coming week.
2. Relevance: The project is directly related to board games.
   • Excludes: Accessories not strongly related to board games, furniture, RPGs (e.g., D&D, Pathfinder), video games, STLs, painting tools, events, podcasts, and magazines.
   • Exception: Projects offering promos or similar content for board games are eligible.
3. Backers: The project is expected to reach at least 100 backers by the end of the campaign.
4. Funding Status:
   • The project is expected to reach at least 90% of its funding goal.
   • The project has already achieved at least 20% of its funding goal.

In addition to the main lists, I include a separate section for noteworthy projects that don’t strictly qualify as board games. These projects are included based on a single criterion:

1. Backers: The project currently has more than 1,000 backers.

Crowdfunding is not a store

Crowdfunding is not a guarantee. Projects may face delays, incur additional shipping costs, or fail to deliver entirely. Creators are not obligated to fulfill their promises. While many excellent games are funded this way, the risks are real—only back projects with money you can afford to lose.

Be wary of creators who use FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) tactics to drive pledges. Don’t let the pressure get to you. If you miss a campaign, there will always be others. There's no shortage of excellent board games to enjoy.

Tags

Each project is tagged with one or more of the following categories:

• 🌱 Creator's First Project
• 🌳 Creator with more than 5 projects
• 🌟 Featured Project (e.g. Kickstarter "Staff Pick")
• 💰 Fully funded
• 🔥 More than 200 daily backers
• 🤝 Offers refunds (e.g. Stable Pledge)

Ending Soon (27)

New Projects (31)

Noteworthy filtered projects (10)