New tariffs have hit miniatures, paints, board games, and supplies hard—here’s how they’re already driving up tabletop gaming costs and making a mess of your hobby budget.
Updated on May 9th, 2025, by Rob Baer with delays from Asmodee’s Studios, the latest from CNBC, Hasbro issues, and The Pacific Legal Foundation
So, your minis and games are going to start costing more as early as this summer, according to the latest tariff news. Your paints? Up too. Dice, terrain, brushes—all creeping past what your wallet signed up for.
It’s not your friendly local gaming store (FLGS) raising prices just to mess with you. It’s tariffs. Big ones. As of April, new import taxes are slamming anything hobby-related that isn’t made stateside, and spoiler: most of it isn’t.
From miniatures and paints to 3D printing resin and specialty components, the entire tabletop gaming supply chain is catching shrapnel. If you thought $170 for a starter set was rough before, brace yourself—this could wreck budgets, stall projects, and put serious pressure on game stores trying to stay afloat.
Here are the latest updates on the situation and how it may apply to your particular segment of the hobby right now.
Tariffs, Table Fees, and Tiny Soldiers:
Well, it finally happened. The global economy decided to stick its nose right into our hobby room and start knocking over paint pots.
On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a sweeping new set of tariffs, starting at 10% for most imported goods, with certain countries like China getting hit with a combined 54%. He called it “Liberation Day.” For tabletop and board gaming, it feels more like a forced retreat.
Now, Tariffs hitting up to 145% have turned importing from China into a financial boss battle, and it’s not going great. We’re talking major publishers pausing production, small creators stalling crowdfunding campaigns, and beloved titles like Gloomhaven hitting the brakes so hard, their dice nearly flew off the table.
Suing the US Administration
So, Stonemaier Games (yes, that Stonemaier—makers of the games sitting smugly on your shelf) and some other companies are fed up with the tariffs slapped on imports from China. They’ve teamed up with the Pacific Legal Foundation to take the whole thing to court. It’s like Risk, but with real lawyers and no dice.
The big question? Whether the president can slap tariffs on things just because there’s a “national emergency.” The law they’re using—the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—gives the president power to act when there’s some weird, dangerous threat looming. But the twist? The law doesn’t even mention tariffs. That power is supposed to sit squarely with Congress. So the lawsuit is basically saying, “Hey, let’s not rewrite the Constitution on the fly.”
What’s in it for Stonemaier and the others? Well, refunds on those wallet-bruising tariffs they’ve already paid and a chance to set the record straight on who gets to make what rules. A cool $1.45 million for Stonemaier alone.
Now, the Pacific Legal Foundation isn’t just some scrappy new player—they’ve been arguing cases at the Supreme Court since bell-bottoms were a thing, and they’ve won 18 out of 20. Not bad, right? They tend to side with conservative causes, so the fact that they’re linking arms with board game publishers tells you this issue’s attracting a pretty mixed crowd.
See the complaint here.
Current Woes & Closures
The ripple effect of the Tariffs is fewer new games, fewer restocks, and a whole lot of scrambling behind the scenes to find new factories, reroute logistics, and avoid getting flattened by shipping costs that have ballooned overnight. Some companies are lawyering up.
Others are laying off staff. It’s like the industry got hit by a wild magic surge and nobody brought their saving throw modifier.
- Delays are officially here from Asmodee, and unofficially from Games Workshop. Atomic Mass Games has delayed the release of their June MCP and Star Wars Legion releases, with more updates coming later in May.
- Legal Moves Are in Motion: A group of tabletop publishers along with some states themselves, are suing the Trump administration, calling these tariffs not just bad for business, but flat-out unconstitutional.
- GAMA (the Game Makers Association) has posted a Tariff Impact survey, open to manufacturers, retailers, studios, and other industry stakeholders, to gather feedback on the issue.
- Studios Are Taking Hits: Greater Than Games has gone dark—laid off staff, stopped operations. CMON isn’t faring much better. They’ve frozen development and hit pause on crowdfunding, blaming the chaos around import costs and policy whiplash.
- Small Publishers? On the Edge: The little guys are struggling hard. Runaway Parade Games, for example, has stopped shipping and delayed projects. With tariffs cutting deep into their margins, many just don’t have the buffer to absorb the blow.
- Price Tags Are Creeping Up: Expect sticker shock. What used to be a $25 game might now set you back $40. And it’s not just games—miniatures, paints, brushes, organizers, all of it is trending upward thanks to increased costs across the board.
- Hasbro’s Holding Steady (For Now): Thanks to global manufacturing and the money-printing machine that is Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro’s riding out the storm better than most. Wizards of the Coast is still their MVP, keeping them in the green—at least for now. More recently, hopping supply chains across the globe to dodge tariffs and keep your kid’s favorite toy closer to $20 than $50.
- Cephalofair’s Got 60,000 Boxes in Limbo: Gloomhaven: Second Edition is officially on pause. Cephalofair Games is staring down $4.14 million in import costs—way beyond what they budgeted. COO Price Johnson says the game just isn’t viable at U.S. retail anymore. That leaves tens of thousands of units stuck overseas and more than 600 small game stores hanging in the balance.
- Resins used for 3D printing have already increased in price by up to 33% from the larger printers we polled.
- CNBC reports a 44% drop in ships unloading from China in the first part of April, with some of the last ships from there scheduled by April 30th. This effectively renders some West Coast ports redundant.
- Op Games is thinking about shipping 15 full containers of games back to China because new tariffs would cost them an extra $920,000 just to bring them in. CEO Dane Chapin called out the unfairness, saying giants like Apple get tariff breaks while small companies like his get crushed by chaotic trade rules.
Everyone’s Scrambling for Plan B: Manufacturers are eyeing new production hubs—India, Vietnam, Eastern Europe—but switching gears isn’t cheap or simple. Some publishers are even pivoting away from the U.S. market altogether to avoid the mess.
Word is, the 145% tariff might be knocked down to somewhere in the 50–65% range. It’s being floated as a way to ease trade tensions, but don’t expect anything quick or guaranteed. It’s still all talk.
What does that mean for your game nights? Let’s not sugarcoat it: this is going to hurt. So get ready for price tags that sting more than a spilled bottle of Nuln Oil.
So, What’s Getting Hit?
Pretty much everything you love.
Miniatures? Many are made overseas, especially those slick PVC resin figures from Kickstarters galore. If they’re manufactured in China (which a lot are), the costs are about to shoot up like a poorly-aimed Ork rocket.
Even Games Workshop isn’t immune. While much of its core product line is made in the UK, some of its terrain and accessories are produced in China, which, if shipped directly to the States, would now carry a 145% markup or more.
U.S. tariffs on UK imports are jumping from 2.5% to 10%, and that spells one thing for Games Workshop: another price hike is almost certainly on the way for Warhammer.
GW already likes to “adjust” prices like clockwork, but this time they’ve got a shiny new reason. Importing your Warhammer goodies just got more expensive, and you can bet they’re not eating the tariff costs.
Don’t think you’re safe if your collection is already massive. Those paints and tools on your hobby desk have international roots, too. Vallejo (Spain), The Army Painter (Denmark, who also has already been in the crosshairs over Greenland recently), and Citadel (UK) are all looking at higher costs to get their products through customs. Brushes, paint pots, primers—they’re all going to feel the pressure.
It’s Not Just About Imports
Sure, some folks might say, “No problem, I’ll just support American companies.” And yeah, it’s great to go local when you can. But here’s the catch: the infrastructure for mass production of hobby goods in the U.S. is more fantasy than fact.
There’s no big dice factory churning out specialty polyhedrals in Kansas. Injection molding? Not at the scale needed. Even 3D printing—everyone’s favorite workaround—isn’t a total escape hatch. Most resin is imported. Most printers are imported. Heck, even the replacement nozzles for your machine probably got here on a cargo ship from Shenzhen.
Magnets… How Do They Work (Now That They’re Being Suspended)?
Well, folks, China just pulled the plug on exporting rare earth magnets, and that’s bad news for anyone in the tabletop community who loves a good magnetized loadout. Whether you’re customizing your Space Marines’ weapon options or keeping your minis locked in place during transport, magnets have been the unsung heroes of hobby life. And now? They’re about to get pricey.
With exports suspended, companies like Magnet Baron, which rely on these rare earth materials, are going to feel the crunch, and guess who’s next in line? Yup, us. The humble hobbyists. Expect magnet prices to climb and availability to dip, which means magnetizing your army might go from “cool and convenient” to “budget-breaking luxury.”
So if you’ve been meaning to stock up, now might be the time before everything gets hit. In the meantime, start hoarding your magnets like they’re gold coins—or find a buddy who bulk ordered in 2023 and is now sitting on a dragon’s hoard of neodymium.
Local Game Stores Are in the Crosshairs
Now would be a really good time to show some love to your Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS). These shops are about to take the squeeze from all sides—higher distributor costs, delayed restocks, thinner margins.
They’re not just retail spaces, either. They’re often the only place you can roll dice with other people in a chair that’s not your cat’s favorite napping spot.
If your local store runs a table fee, consider it your hobby subscription. If they offer monthly memberships, sign up. And when you buy stuff, grab something other than snacks or the occasional pot of paint. A new kit, a rulebook, that terrain piece you’ve been eyeing—these are what keep the lights on and our hobby alive.
The Board Game Industry Is Sweating Tariffs Too
Steve Jackson Games laid it out plain: the costs are brutal. A game that used to cost $3 to make in China now costs $4.62 before it even leaves the port. By the time it lands on a shelf, that $25 game has morphed into a $40 one. That’s not greed. That’s math.
And it’s not just about higher prices—it’s about projects that won’t happen at all. Smaller publishers may cancel games mid-production. Others might simplify their designs just to stay afloat. Some might shut down entirely. It’s a chain reaction, and the links are looking wobbly.
Hasbro Plays Supply Chain Whack-a-Mole to Stay Ahead of Tariffs
Hasbro is on the move—literally. In response to President Trump’s latest tariff spike on Chinese imports (hello, 145%), CEO Chris Cocks says the company is fast-tracking its plans to shift 40% of global sourcing out of China way ahead of its 2026 goal. Manufacturing is now spreading across the U.S., India, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, and Indonesia, with several hundred SKUs already making the jump.
That said, China’s not getting ghosted. Cocks admits the country still plays a big role, especially for complex products like high-end action figures and cheap electronics (foam swords included). Still, he’s betting other countries will level up enough to share the load.
If the tariffs stick, Hasbro could see a $300 million hit, but the company’s surprisingly upbeat. Flexible sourcing, plus the fact that half of its U.S. revenue comes from local or digital products, gives it some breathing room.
Yes, prices may rise, but Cocks thinks Hasbro can keep the damage minimal—and the price tags closer to that sweet $10–$20 range parents love. So while trade policy zigzags, Hasbro’s trying to stay nimble and keep the shelves stocked without shocking your wallet.
What Can You Actually Do?
Glad you asked.
- Support your local game store – Table fees, memberships, and actual purchases. They need you now more than ever.
- Buy ahead when you can – Prices will go up. Stocking up now (within reason, let’s not hoard like it’s toilet paper in 2020) might save you some cash.
- Keep an eye on crowdfunding updates – Projects with overseas manufacturing are likely going to announce delays or price hikes.
- Talk to your representatives – No, seriously. If this affects your hobby and local businesses, say something. Silence helps nobody.
Final Word on Miniatures, Games, Hobby Supplies, & Tariffs
Tariffs may have noble intentions, but without a solid plan to build up domestic alternatives, they’re just adding extra weight to an already fragile industry. The tabletop gaming scene has weathered a lot—COVID, shipping crises, supply shortages. This is just another challenge. A rough one, sure, but not insurmountable.
Keep painting. Keep playing. Keep showing up. And maybe bring a snack to share.
Beat The Tariffs For Your Favorite Games
Will the tariffs make you take a step back from buying miniatures or new board games products for a while?
OR! Here me out… don’t buy anything. Yep, you read this correctly. Find another way to support your hobby shop. Don’t buy Warhammer. Go run track, learn guitar, go get laid. Be FREE!…