Best of the Web - Railroads vs Sandboxes, Doomslakers!, and Amazing maps

Lance Duncan over at 42ductape has a post called Railroad vs Sandbox that talks about just that. He appears to take a far more serious view of the difference than I (just as with the Quantum Ogre, if the players don't know, does it matter?). Still he ends the post with one line that seems to be the best definition of the difference that I've ever seen.

The difference between a Sandbox and a Railroad campaign are who is setting the end goals of the campaign.

James V. West at Doomslakers! has been posting old drawings lately. The most recent (from when I type this, not from when it'll be posted) is called Tremorworm (old Art XII) and it is a beauty. Every time I see his stuff, especially his RPG rules, I think he should crate a Doomslaker's game. I would think such a game, created out of Swords & Wizardry or whatever game he uses with character classes and rules replaced by his own, with his whimsical Sword & Sorcery art would be amazing. Well Doomslaker's is not the name he's going with but apparently he's making a game. I'm looking forward to it, if nothing else it'll be beautiful.

Bearded Devil has a post called Map of the Quill Coast in which he posts some of the most beautiful maps I've ever seen. The lifework, the weight of the lines, everything is so clean and accurate. I wish Blogger had a function to click image to get larger versions because trying to zoom in just isn't sufficient. I want to see the details. I want more!