RPG books could be excluded from Trump’s tariffs, and you can thank Shadowrun for that

US President Donald Trump’s sweeping 145% tariffs on Chinese-made goods are creating chaos in the tabletop business, but there is one piece of the industry that’s seemingly exempt: role-playing game books. These are books that lay out the rules and world for different tabletop games — think the Dungeons & Dragons rulebook. The caveat here is that for the book to be exempt from tariffs, it must be imported and sold separately from “dices, maps, [and] figures” that are necessary in actually playing the game.

There has, indeed, been confusion on how these books are classified; a ruling from the Customs and Border Protection from 2024 clarified specifically that Shadowrun’s 6th edition rulebook would be classified under 4901.99.0070, which is for printed, hardbound books. This ruling is at odds with ones from 1989 and 1991, though, per a report from ICv2, which classified these as parts and accessories to tabletop games — not for “passive reading,” so not really books.

The caveat here, per the ruling itself from Aug. 9, is that the ruling “applies only to the specific factual situation and merchandise description as identified in the ruling request.” But it is a helpful note in determining how the government agency is thinking about the categorization of these sorts of goods.

The reason it’s important that role-playing game rulebooks are classified as books and not games or game materials is that books are exempt, generally, from tariffs. The Trump administration imposed these tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the president certain privileges in national emergencies. “Informational materials,” like books, are exempt from tariffs applied under this act, according to the American Booksellers Association. Tariffs applied before April 2 are still in effect.

Despite the possible exemption, tabletop companies remain in panic due to the uncertainty of the situation. Beyond the tariffs, there’s a lot of chaos created simply by the rapidly changing levies.