Starting the Fire to Fight Trump's TTRPG Tariffs

One game designer has decided to use a new “rebellious” anthology of TTRPG adventures to light a fire and take an “anti-tariff” stand in hope of remediating the overhead costs his company faced.

The Trump Administration’s tariffs have been on the minds of Americans and businesses across the country since the start of the Trump Administration, and they’re already taking a toll. Nearly every industry is expected to take losses unless they expediently adapt. The TTRPG and board gaming industry are no different, and face their own unique challenges.

That’s why  Start the Fire, an “anti-tariff” anthology by QuasiReal Publishing caught my eye, as it was the most forward facing effort by a TTRPG creator to present the middle finger to tariffs and cover the impending costs.

One publisher took a different approach, channeling their frustration into a unique project.

QuasiReal is the company behind the 5e alternative Mythcraft and owned by author Grant Mielke. The anthology came to exist after the company faced some financial struggles in the wake of the Trump administration’s import policies, according to Mielke. The company successefully funded and finished two new projects in the last two years; the pet-focused Bria’s Mythical Menagerie and the vampire-focused campaign Veil of the Eternal Night.  Both books were in the final stages of completion when Trump’s tariffs were announced That meant that importing the physical books and various addons were going to be pretty expensive and even harder to budget for considering how often the numbers changed based on President Trump’s whimps. 

“[The tariffs felt] like the worst possible situation we could be in,” Mielke told TTRPG Insider. So he began to consider his options.  While others either paused production or tried to eat up the cost in some way, Mielke decided to work with his team to produce a project that would help to cover Quasireal’s tariff bills through a new project. 

This project would be digital-only, allowing QuasiReal to provide the products to customers within weeks of  success and avoid adding new tariffs to the bill.

Start the Fire, Fight the Power

“Take on the role of heroes, refugees, lawyers, and common folk struggling to survive under a brutal new regime!” The anthology's campaign stated.The anthology tells the story of Samorael the Conqueror and his effort to take over the world, with a particular focus on the adventurers who wage guerrilla war against Samorael and his forces.

A core theme of the book centers on “Fight the power, F_ck the man” vibe, Mielke noted. Many of the entries draw on modern trends that are sources of frustration, such as the Portal-inspired “KillGPT”, a puzzle dungeon run. There’s also Cinderedge, a solo TTRPG that draws heavy inspiration from California’s fight with wildfires. 

The campaign’s timing is fortuitous, arriving about a month after Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. The game’s advertising appears at times like it is taking advantage of modern events to get a surge in sale. Monte Cook Games, the people behind Cypher, hosted an anti-tariff sale in late February in response to the first round of tariffs by Trump. Other publishers followed suit, wanting to sell their products before they would be forced to raise prices to account for tariffs. While the company did so to save customers money before the price of games went up, it did also appear as though MCG was capitalizing on current events to sell more products.

Mielke denies that Start the Fire is trying to use the topic of tariffs to push a new product or make money for himself.

“If people aren't in the community or don't know us, then I would understand if they believed we were capitalizing. on the news,” Mielke admitted. “All I can say is I'm not, and I haven't thought through the way to communicate that this project was started by the question, ‘what the hell do we do about finishing these things we've started?’”

Mielke claims that he will send every dollar he earns through Start the Fire to paying writers their due, then using the remainder to cover the tariff costs for Eternal Night, Menagerie and other upcoming Mythcraft products. 

“There's no way that I think I will profit from this,” Mielke affirmed.

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How Trump’s Tariffs Work

President Donald Trump’s tariffs have been on the public’s mind for a long time, as he’s been fond of the policy and believes it will solve several financial issues facing the United States. While he initially introduced tariffs on neighboring countries in February, he also introduced reciprocal tariffs for nearly every country in the United States in early April. These tariffs placed immense cost upon anyone who was buying products from China in hopes of incentivizing American companies to build factories in the United States that could handle the needs of the world.

Unfortunately, most economic analysts believe tariffs to be bad for the economy. The numbers, industries and affected countries has shifted week by week, making it difficult for large and small businesses to adapt or accommodate the needs.

Board games are expected to be heavily affected by these tariffs since they often require multiple parts produced from China, which would significantly increase the cost of importing products at scale.

TTRPGs, a subset of the board gaming industry, are in a peculiar place since most publishers expect them to be exempt due to their existence in book form. The tariff cost for the books (most of which are made in China) is enough to potentially kill a company. Mythworks, the publisher of The Wildsea and Slugblasters illustrated this cost with an Apr. 24 post noting how it cost them $30,000 to manufacture 6,000 physical copies of Slugblaster, but would have to pay more than $43,000 to get them into the States; an enormous cost to attach to a niche product like Slugblasters.

As books arrive in the United States, designers are growing more worried about whether the exemption actually applies. Mielke said in a May update that he was "unable to find anyone who received a shipment of books that were actually exempted, that were not already on the water when tariffs hit.” Other designers that TTRPG Insider chatted with also affirmed that they were uncertain if the book exemption applied in every case.

While the state of tariffs changes day by day, it seems extremely likely that they will be in place until the economy enters a recession or until the end of the current administration’s end. Projects like Mielke’s are very good at making a lot of heat and hopefully helping him and his fans to work through the short-term costs of tariffs. But there is a long dark economic winter ahead of us, and we can only hope that projects like Start the Fire will light the kindling and help keep companies like QuasiReal alive.

Thanks to Grant Mielke for talking to us! If you want to learn more about this project, you can check it out on BackerKit.

Are you being affected by tariffs? What’s your company doing to prepare for the incoming economic implications? We’re keeping a close eye on this beat and want your input. Feel free to send us tips or emails at [email protected].