Tariffs could make you pay more for Kickstarter games you already backed

As Polygon reported earlier this month, President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on international sellers could significantly impact game designers — but they could also make you spend more on games you’ve already bought.

If you’re an active member of the tabletop hobby, it’s likely that at some point you’ve purchased a game during its crowdfunding campaign through a platform like Kickstarter, BackerKit, or Gamefound. With a compelling pitch, a game that hasn’t been made yet piqued your interest and got you to spend some money on the promise that when all is said and done, this cool project will find its way to your front door. An extra $20 could get you another book, or accessories like dice or a deck of cards, all of which add weight (and costs) to the final shipment. 

The bottom of most crowdfunding campaigns includes a small shipping disclosure that shows a rough estimate of how much backers will have to pay — in addition to their initial pledge — to receive the final product. These statements often come with the caveat that shipping costs are constantly fluctuating even in what we might call precedented times, which we’ve seen very little of in the last decade. But games that were funded earlier this year could have drastically increased shipping costs if Trump’s proposed new tariffs go into effect after Jan. 20, 2025. 

Obviously, publishers of any stripe are reluctant to shunt additional expenses onto their supporters, but board games in particular are known as a cottage industry that relies on razor-thin margins. Most of these small businesses simply can’t afford to eat the additional costs.

Among the first companies to make their backers aware of the situation is Cephalofair Games, whose Gloomhaven Grand Festival campaign raised more than $5 million last year.

“We will have to figure out the best way to move forward as events unfold over the next few months,” said designer Isaac Childres in an email this week to the nearly 35,000 backers. “It has never been our intention to go back to backers asking for additional money, and we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen here either. We can absorb some costs, but there are a lot of unknowns at play here, and a lot of things out of our control, so we can’t make a definitive statement at this time.” 

The Gamefound crowdfunding platform has found a unique resolution to shipping-cost fluctuations with its Stable Pledge program. If shipping costs rise by more than 10% from the original estimated price, Stable Pledge campaigns allow backers to receive a full refund from the creator during a limited period of time. It’s not a perfect solution, especially for designers who have already spent the money producing their game, but it is more protection for consumers than forcing them to pay unexpected costs or lose the money they already spent.

With a situation as unpredictable as the current American political climate, it’s unclear what, if anything, designers can do to help mitigate costs for their supporters.