The Pursuit of Happiness

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection” —Thomas Paine

As many know, tariffs were placed on many countries where board games, tabletop role-playing games, and other forms of entertainment are primarily made, either by raw material or otherwise. Games will become significantly more expensive; this is just a business fact. It will take a generation or more to rebuild the infrastructure needed to make games like we do now. The sheer weight of cold, complex numbers has threatened our community's games renaissance, which we have seen grow over the last decade. 

I’d like to take you, dear reader, back to a time. SUNSET deals with settings of known, densely remembered memories. If something happened and is remembered by a populace in the living realm, it may echo on repeat until it is forgotten and broken from the Loom. 

The night was cold, clear, and complete with whoops and hollers which echoed across the quiet seafront. Torches burned as drunken men poorly disguised as Mohawk Native Americans and others openly marched towards the dock where the three ships were held. First, it was the paper; they had to have their precious stamp on every piece of blasted paper we had. Then the taxes, the endless taxes when we had no parliamentarian to represent the Colonies. Finally, we could not even afford the tea we wished to drink. Enough was enough. The ship was quickly boarded as crates of tea were bashed open by hatchet and axe. As you walk aboard with a hatchet, what do you do? 

Just as a bunch of rebels and ne'er-do-wells destroyed three ships worth of tea that night, an immutable call for revolution was thrown down. In this historical case, the people had had enough and took matters into their own hands. This act of destruction, based on what was seen as unfair tariffs, drove forward the birth of the nation I call home. 

According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, “on March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the 'Stamp Act' to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years’ War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards.” Sound familiar? Flash forward to today, as of writing this paper, the majority of raw staples in our craft have an approximate 60% markup before shipping, now adding international retaliation and home-grown tariffs.

Printing United Alliance states, “The potential tariffs pose a dual challenge for printing companies: absorbing the additional tax, reducing their profits, or passing the cost to consumers. Some businesses claim a 25 percent tariff would eliminate their profit margins entirely. Both options threaten the stability of the printing industry.”   

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has warned “that a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico could add an estimated $144 billion annually to U.S. manufacturing costs, with small and medium-sized enterprises bearing the brunt.”

I write games because they make me happy. I love hearing about Players' adventures in worlds that I built. Joy is a gift that should be protected and multiplied. It is a celebration of life to play with friends and family, neighbors and friends, and strangers. It is inherently human to want to play. These tariffs are inhuman; they go against our very nature of community and gathering. It destroys business and strikes fear into the hearts of those willing to take up the mantle of creativity and steals the very joy we find from our hobby. Though in this case, Ol’ Thomas states that “Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.”

We are joining the voices in the community, like Meredith Placko at Steve Jackson Games, who are calling the alarm on what this act against free commerce will do. Feel free to read their thoughts here: https://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2025-04-03.

You are not powerless in this; you have rights. Just as those in the past have found their moment, you too are in a moment where you can act. If you do not like the fact that this is happening, please contact your congresspeople. You can find more information on that at https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. If you are an international friend, call them up anyway and tell them about your frustration with the current economic situation, and express concern for your American friends or family. Any threat to the inalienable right of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness must be recognized and neutralized post haste. As Thomas Paine said, “We have the power to begin the world over again”. Being Hope Punk isn’t just words but action. Go out there and make the world a better place. Make your little square of the mosaic of life the best you can make it.

May your kindness be the envy of others.

What happened this week

• The book increased to 307 pages, as more lore was fleshed out in areas of worldbuilding and intrinsic elements
• Initial drafts have been finished by several of our guest writers and initial redlining is underway
• We are reviewing the viability of crowdfunding goals given the market change and the tariffs that will be imposed on our campaign

THE WORD OF THE WEEK

inalienable

[ in-eyl-yuh-nuh-buhl, -ey-lee-uh- ]

adjective

• Not transferable to another or not capable of being taken away or denied; not alienable:
  
  Inalienable rights, freedoms, and liberties; an inalienable territory; inalienable principles and values
  

THE SONG OF THE WEEK

“The Wizard” by Black Sabbath on the SUNSET Soundtrack.

SUNSET FACT OF THE WEEK

Gamble made freewill just to see what it would do.

What's the plan?

Sharing SUNSET with anyone, anywhere, in any corner of the internet will help and it's an entirely free way to help support us! Unfortunately, in the crowdfunding business model, we need to have a certain number of project followers before flipping the switch.

We have almost a complete book ready to go, where post campaign - we're doing editor passes and heading to manufacturing for a fast fulfillment turnaround for the backers.

Tell your friends, play the quickstart, and follow the Kickstarter page.