Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 4/5/2025

1. Fabula Ultima Atlas: Natural Fantasy
2. Trinity Continuum: With Great Power
3. Shadowrun: Deadly Arts
4. Tome of Worldbuilding
5. Kinks and Cantrips

Top News Stories

Tariffs have conflicting impacts on printed RPGs: From Rascal News comes a discussion on tariffs with Maz Hamilton from Rowan, Rook, and Decard, which as a UK-based company has had to deal with US customs for some time now. In short, the codes in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS, HTC is not a typical acronym for this) which align with RPGs, namely 4901 and some subsections of 4911, are in ‘Annex II’ of the trade announcement which exempts them from tariffs. This means that books coming into the US that fall under these HTS headings will not have to pay tariffs. This is better than it could be, however the exemption of an end-product rarely spares said product from price increases. First, considering that the items in Annex II are mostly drugs, minerals, energy products, and things already subject to tariff under other orders, prices are going to be going up pretty damn broadly in the US, and that means US-based designers will likely raise prices so they can eat regardless of whether the cost of printing itself goes up. Second, paper is not exempted. The United States is the second largest paper producer in the world, and given the deteriorating trade situation many countries will shift their supply chains (likely to the largest paper manufacturer, China). The combination of retaliatory tariffs and simple supply chain chaos means that the cost of printing is going to go up, tariff or no. Third, when it comes to printing in China specifically, all goods are still subject to a 20% tariff implemented under IEEPA (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act), which has no exempting annex. Fourth, although this is not specifically tariff-related, the massive uptick in volume of goods now subject to tariffs will likely increase time and price for shipping.

In short: Yes, it appears RPGs and other books may be exempt from tariffs. That is cold comfort in light of the economic realities of the regime we’re now under.

From the Archives

Simple look back this week: From the archives we have an article from this day in 2017: Level One Wonk: Player Motivations.

Discussion of the Week

How prevalent is the “DnD or Bust” mindset?: Reading top-level comments makes it clear that the reason so many people “lock in” to D&D is because they get their information about other RPGs from Wizards of the Coast. Although this is a nerdy hobby, the reality is that a lot of people play RPGs. The hobby is, broadly, average in intelligence when compared to the population as a whole, and therefore gamers are as susceptible to misinformation and propaganda as the population as a whole.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, through Mastodon via @CannibalHalflingGaming@dice.camp, and through BlueSky via @cannibalhalfling.bsky.social.