AAJ Inverview Series 4: xtinak

25 Jun, 2026

Today's interview is with xtinak, (who also uses the handle msquixotic). She blogs at Ms. Quixotic Talks About Games and has an itch page at xtinak.itch.io/

Her WIP region, the White Wastes, has (I think, so far) the most "vertical" depth of any in Antarctica, with settlements detailed down to the level of individual NPCs in the manner of the Judge's Guild's City State of The Invincible Overlord. It's a really extraordinary effort, one that I'm extremely glad to have in the jam.

Idraluna: What is your ttrpg background? How did you get started, and what games are you playing today?

Xtinak: I wrote about my rpg background on my blog (https://msquixotic.bearblog.dev/how-x-runs-games/) but in summary, I've played practically forever, off and on. Introduced to ad&d 2e through my dad and Baldur's Gate. I ran 3e for my best friend and I in high school, played a much more diverse amount of games in college, fell off, and recovered my obsession by diving into OSR games, and now I'm here.

Right now I'm running Classic Traveller, for my family and some close friends. It's been such a blast. I've been pretty burnt out of fantasy and gold and leveling and such so it's been a great change.

I play in Vivanter's mini-campaigns and I ran a 3 session mini-mini-traveller campaign for them recently, got to try out ship rules which I am making my regular campaign struggle for.

I'm also playing in a one-shot with new internet pals and we'll see how it goes!

**

Idraluna: Awesome -- Classic Traveller is one I definitely want to spend more time with.

I've been leading these interview by asking about what tools and random tables were used to write each entry, and I'm particularly interested in that in your case, because Guamatra goes into an incredible level of detail with fully-statted NPCs in many locations. How did you structure such a detailed effort, and what tools did you find most helpful?

Xtinak: To preface everything I'm about to write, in the middle of making the region, I played a trick on myself and said "What if I made it as dense as City State as the Invincible Overlord?" Well-

Like my first region, Guamatra was originally based off a WUTC hex-fill. I then lightly sketched some ideas out. Later in the process I I later freely deleted uninspiring hexes and reorganized them on the map at my whim.

One goal for this region was to be human focused, and light on the weird. I wanted tangled webs of power and a place where one could go and easily tilt the balance of power. It's supposed to be a warn-torn realm, so when I reorganized hexes, I changed the settlements and forts to fit the guidelines from Sam Sorenson's blog for making a region for catapracts.

The actual region was one big document on Obsidian, with notes and dice-roller tables at the top and the entries underneath. I used obsidian-leaflet later in the process to add icons of everything onto a screenshot of the region so I could actually see where everything was in relation to each other. This was important for the process cause a list of hexes doesn't do much for me.

The main resource I used to flesh everything out was Wilderness Hexplore Revised, aka tons of Judge's Guild resources. Most used was the Villages & Towns section, which was used for every settlement. Castles & Citadels was used quite a bit as well, I generated a few temples using Temples & Shrines, and a used a smattering of other sections as well.

Every settlement got a random government type which meant the buildings themselves were pretty varied. Practically every shop and government building was rolled using it. Then most shops or government offices got between 1-5ish NPCs.

NPCs were based off the tables from CSOTIO. Here's an example:

Names were all from this Edo era name generator. Class was from a table. Peasants had a class like 20% of the time, everyone else rolled. The table is biased to fighter, with a 20 being 'special', which often rolling on the Random Leader Chart in Castles & Citadels. Anyone with a class was level 1d8. All level 0 NPCs had an HP of 1, or 2 if their con was high. Everyone else just had HD = level. Stats were rolled 3d6 down the line. Very important NPCs had two stats swapped but otherwise everyone was as rolled.

Oh! Very important note. Anytime I assumed someone was a man, I made them a woman instead. I think the NPCs are at least 75% women.

I gave up on rolling up literally every bandits greater than level 2, for instance, but some lairs have 10+ statted NPCs, for your pleasure. I hope the incongruency of the stat lines and their professions is fun for the hordes who will eventually run Guamatra. There's a lot of interesting contradictions to be found.

Everyone rolled on a table for alignment. I think neutral was highest chance, followed by law, followed by chaotic.

Many NPCs have magic items. I honestly forgot where I found the numbers but somewhere in FMC listed a chance for a leveled character to receive a magic item.

For actually giving the NPCs life, at the start I just had CSOTIO open and randomly scrolled to a page and used that as inspiration. Later I used a lot more Mind Pictures and just wrote what was fun. I tried to connect as many institutions and people as I could. The details of many people were just what seemed fun or interesting as well.

Treasure was often rolled from FMC and then I replaced a lot of the coins with rolls from &&&treasure.

I used Eldritch Field's tables for Humanoid Lairs to flesh out the details for many lairs.

SO ANYWAY. Hexplore is amazing. I probably wont write something with this much detail again but having a bunch of statted npcs is great. There's so much texture present that I wouldn't have gotten without Hexplore. I couldn't have done it without the Dice Roller plugin for obsidian.

BTW I just counted and Guamatra as 137 fully statted NPCs.

**

Art for clan Long Rat, drawn by Forlorn Skulk

**

Idraluna: That is a tremendous amount of work -- It's really cool seeing how you pulled together so many different tools.

There is a certain frisson to reading something with that level of detail -- being less personally familiar with CSOTIO, reading it reminds me a bit of the feeling of awe I got reading the Morrowind wiki, with its dozens of named NPCs and shops and locations.

So, aside from the tools that gave Guamatra form, what inspirations were you working with when writing the content? And how did you land on tulous as the standard structure?

Xtinak: Originally Lady Snowblood and by extension Seven Samurai since this region originally existed as a distant connection to my first region Lake Lulutika which just steals the plot from Seven Samurai. Then some Revolutionary Girl Utena influences with duels and being able to pull magic swords from your lovers. A little Dandelion Dynasty always cause that was my favorite series for a long time. Later Arabian Nights influences (mostly in the Harem. the big tentpole dungeon I haven't finished yet). because I was reading a recent translation.

And for tulous -- genuinely because someone posted about them in the AAJ discord and I went 'rad'.

**

Idraluna: Of the hexes you have written, do you have any favorites? Or favorite features/NPCs within a hex?

Xtinak: Some of the simpler ones are my favorites. Master Nakakazu in 187.309 with his missing cats is one. Both the cats and the plainly stated connections between him and the world around him.

Also 190.313, the Giant Crab Spirit who seeks some specific delicacies in exchange for some specific companions and I love them all. The gift for a gallbladder of an elf is maybe my favorite and genuinely a huge but underused source of advantage for OSR-style games.

In terms of whole hexes, I think Clan Woolly Bee Tulou (185.309) is maybe my favorite. I think I landed the right level of lightly sketched depth of many characters along with a lot of fun hidden away treasure and strange quests. I think one could run a lot of adventures just from that one hex

**

Idraluna: Any sneak peeks you want to share from upcoming material for the White Wastes or your new claim in the mountains?

Xtinak:

Glitter Barbarians

FREQUENCY: Uncommon
NO. APPEARING: 10-100
ARMOUR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 12"
HIT DICE: 2-7 Hit Points
% IN LAIR: 10%
TREASURE TYPE: Individuals K, B in lair
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 (or 2)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Leader types
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Leader types
MAGICAL RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Mean: average to very
ALIGNMENT: Any chaotic
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. Value:

Glitter Barbarians are hordes of women who wander the continent, fighting, fucking, and murdering each other. They scorn armor (but will always be found in glitter or leather or fishnets, of course). If they are fighting against woman, they fight with a battle lust. This lust enables them to strike twice, or once with a +2 to hit.

For every 10 glitter barbarians one encounters, there will be a 1st level fighter in addition. For every 20 there will be a 2nd level, for every 30 there will be a 3rd, for every 40 there will be a 4th, and for every 50 there will be a 5th -- all in addition to the number indication by the dice.

Warbands of Glitter Barbarians are followed by 1-10 women slaves. There's a 50% chance for any slave to not yet be affected by the glitter.

Glitter barbarians will be led by a war queen of 9th or 10th level and two subcheiftains of 6th or 7th level. If 60 or less glitter barbarians, the lower levels, if more than 60, the higher levels.

There is a 10% chance per 10 Glitter Barbarians that a Devil Dog will be present (so a 100% chance with 100 barbarians). 50% chance he already has made a deal with the leader. Regardless, make a secret reaction check against every woman pc when encountered, as normal. If positive, he will connive to make a deal with anyone he had a positive check with and will betray his master to do so.

Glitter Barbarians never check morale. If they detect any women warriors, they will attack and attempt to subdue and enslave, and will attempt to kill any men.

**

Idraluna: Fuck yeah. Final question: other than your itch and blog, any projects or links you want to plug?

Xtinak: My pal Vivanter just released the zine of the domain level game they whipped up for one of our mini-campaigns.

Also just go read some classic literature. The newish Arabian Nights translation was great and the hardback is stupid beautiful. Also watch She is Conann. I'm not sure it's good but I haven't stopped thinking about it for a year

#AAJ #interview