Troll Lord Games Bucks Industry Trend And Says Tariffs Won't Impact Them: "We Make Our Products Here In The United States"
In a world where the entire board gaming and tabletop RPG industry seems to be trying to exert their small influence to attack Donald Trump and tariffs, one company has released a statement counter to the narrative, saying they won’t be hurt because they make their books in the USA—Troll Lord Games.
Troll Lord Games is famous for making their Dungeons & Dragons alternative, Castles & Crusades, a haven for those who like the classic rules and settings of D&D which have been corrupted in recent years by the main line making changes to the game that are baffling to tabletop RPG fans.
Meanwhile, mainstream board game companies like Steve Jackson Games, CMON, and more have been out in force trying to get media attention by criticizing tariffs and Donald Trump because they know they’ve been caught in a situation where many of their components are made with slave wages in China and have never even looked into developing alternatives.
Troll Lord Games has quite the opposite message in a blog posted on the subject called State Of The Troll. They posted:
We make our products here in the United States and have for decades. The current uncertainty, much like the Covid Pandemic, will have very little impact on our pricing. I do not anticipate any price increases. I do not anticipate a delay in output. We will not have any difficulty fulfilling any crowdfunding campaigns, direct to consumer orders, distributor orders, Amazon, or other orders. The only negative impact I can see is a delay in print time from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. This last will be the result of publishers shifting their printing from overseas to U.S. based printers, causing a log jam.
They also offered to help other publishers who don’t know how to start working in the USA, showing their magnanimous way of thinking even to competitors:
A Note to my Fellow Publishers: If you have any questions or would like some assistance in contacting U.S. based printers, please give me a shout, I’ll steer you as best I can. I have many contacts and an occasional solution.
The company continued, elaborating on their USA-based publishing:
Early on in our company’s history, not long after I took over the helm, we shifted to U.S. based printers. Before that we used several printers in Canada. There were several reasons we shifted south of the border, and they ranged from the technical to the patriotic. Nafta was all the rage in those days and there were constant discussions about cross border trade. Borrowing from history and wanting to support local communities, we shifted our printing south and it has remained there ever since. I watched over the years as U.S. based game companies and publishers shifted their printing to far flung shores. We never did. The uncertainty bred by such relationships can be problematic. Once our production shifted to the U.S. it remained there. It remains there still.
Our books, game boxes, game screens, slip cases and cards are manufactured here in the U.S. The paper is sourced locally; the board and chip and headbands are all sourced locally. We frequently inquire with our suppliers and printers to find out where the materials are sourced, just to make sure that they are made in the U.S. This removes a whole level of uncertainty from the equation.
We’ve managed to keep a very high quality in our books as well. They are all Smythe Sewn, with tight back binding where the block signatures are sewn to the headband and the headband blued to the spine board. The end sheets are glued in giving the book even more support. All this is manageable with U.S. based printers.
It’s refreshing to see a company not only say there’s a way other than what the mainstream industry is perpetuating but that they are already producing as much as they can locally to ensure their community thrives.
We hope others follow their example and if they need help, seek it out from Troll Lord Games who seems willing to assist anyone in transitioning their business to become America-first.
What do you think of Troll Lord Games making their books in the USA? Leave a comment and let us know.
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See, things can be made in the USA.
This is the correct approach.