With the current administration imposing tariffs on Chinese Imports, we’re starting to see a rise in board game costs to consumers. This is mostly because the types of components in many modern hobby games aren’t made at scale in the US. A 10% tariff has been imposed on goods from China (not 40% as was projected a bit prematurely). Regardless, most publishers are passing that full cost onto consumers and are starting to raise prices a full 10% in some cases.
Add to that the fact that most games are getting component heavy and come in huge boxes, and we have an antagonistic environment for hobbyists. Truly, since when did the majority of board game take up as much room on a shelf as Gloomhaven and sport a comparable price.
Enter Print n’ Play games. These are downright affordable ranging in price from $0 to $20 if you don’t mind a bit of DIY. As for boxes, most craft stores will have boxes for you, if not have a look at this link where you can buy mag lid boxes for cheap.
Sites carrying the PnP goodness you’re looking ofr are:
PnP Arcade
DicePen (euros only, so be careful on conversion)
Crab Fragment (check out the lecture hall on tips for making components
Drive Thru RPG
and many more…
Another reason to buy PnP games (besides the cost savings) is customizability some Print n’ Play games allow for modification or personalization of the rules and components. There’s also the availability aspect. not having to go to a store to find games or wait on shipping is a plus. Another aspect is that many of the designers publishing these benefit greatly from the direct sale of these games as opposed to a publishing company taking a huge ‘piece of the pie’ so to speak and driving up game costs. If quality is your concern, most components for PnP games can be professionally produced and even then, you would come to a cost dwarfing traditionally published games.
This just seems like a great alternative to paying the jumped up hobby game pricing. I’ll be on the lookout for a good multiplayer game and I’m starting to get good at making components myself, so feel free to hit me up.