Every month, the Geek Native Patreon community votes for an independent tabletop publisher to step into the spotlight. For our latest feature, you chose Slithy Tove Games, a boutique UK publisher operating out of the North West of England.
Typically, this feature centres around a deep-dive interview. We reached out to Slithy Tove Games, but as is often the case with passionate independent creators spinning many plates, we haven’t heard back yet. However, a closer look at the studio reveals a fascinating intersection: Slithy Tove Games is not just a digital publisher, but an extension of physical maker culture and grassroots community crafting.
The Maker of Lancaster
The publisher’s driving force is Bil Bas, a creator deeply embedded in Lancaster’s creative community. While his digital storefront handles tabletop roleplaying games, his physical enterprise, Slithy Tove Design, focuses on sustainability, 3D printing, woodworking, and frame looms.
Bil serves as a Makers Club Facilitator for the local youth charity Escape2Make, and writes for the Lancaster Makerspace (LAMM). It is rare to find a tabletop publisher so actively engaged in the physical fabrication of goods. This hands-on, sustainable, community-first ethos seems to bleed into his publishing strategy, where quality and tactile utility, such as printable item cards and physical game aids, take precedence over rapid-fire digital releases.
What exactly is a Slithy Tove?
The tabletop hobby is full of obscure literary references, but few are as evocative as this one. The name is pulled directly from the opening lines of Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem, Jabberwocky:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”
In Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice exactly what these creatures are. A “tove” is a curious beast that resembles a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew, and makes its nest under sundials. “Slithy” is a portmanteau of lithe and slimy. Naming a publishing house after a creature that is fundamentally absurd, highly specific, and entirely reliant on imagination is a perfect fit for a tabletop roleplaying studio.
Wonderland No More
It is no surprise that a publisher named after Jabberwocky has a deep affinity for Lewis Carroll’s work. The flagship line for Slithy Tove Games is Wonderland No More, a campaign setting updated for the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) rules.
The setting asks a simple, chilling question: what if Wonderland didn’t vanish when Alice woke up? Players take on the roles of wooden Chessmen, talking Animals, mobile Plants, and two-dimensional Cards navigating a world that bounces erratically between whimsical humour and genuine horror.
While Bil Bas runs the publishing engine, a talented roster of creators does the creative heavy lifting for the setting. The core book and its supplements list Kevin L. Anderson, Lansing D. Tryon, and Jordan Peacock as authors, with artwork by Jordan Peacock, Kelli Corey, Conrad Wong, and public domain pieces by the legendary original Alice illustrator, Sir John Tenniel.
By curating these voices and pairing the setting with tactile Game Master aids, like the Item Cards of Wonder and in-universe handouts like The Queen’s Times, Slithy Tove Games demonstrates the careful, deliberate touch of a true maker.
Latest Slithy Tove Games Products
You can find the digital editions of Slithy Tove Games’ releases over on DriveThruRPG.
- Wonderland No More – Second Edition: The core 228-page setting book, updated for the current Savage Worlds ruleset.
- Wonderland No More – Item Cards of Wonder: A 33-page printable GM aid featuring tactile visual cards to hand out as treasure.
- Wonderland No More – Queen’s Times Volume 1 Issue 6: A thematic, in-universe newspaper supplement to drop players directly into the madness.
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