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[FearfulJesuit]

(This may belong better in Creative Projects).

So, I've been worldbuilding in some form or another since about the age of eight; at that time (being a budding history buff) I mostly liked to narrate my own stories about cities and countries that would never be, and that continued on and off well into my teenage years.

I'm looking at entering back into it again. This time, I want to do it right, which means dragging what's salvageable out of an inconsistent and spotty pile of a childhood's worth of stories, piecing it together with a lot of geology, climatology, and using a good knowledge of history to fill in the gaps. I'm a fan of low fantasy more than high fantasy- in essence, I want an alt-Earth to play with. If I want arcane fortresses defended by the enchantments of immortal wizards, I'll give that its own world; there probably won't be any magic here, or if there is, it won't be much more than a time-saving way of doing mundane or more technologically advanced processes (like starting fires or recording a voice).

At this point, I've hit a bit of a snag. I have no map, and I'm so far shit with what attempts I've made playing with GIMP. I do have a few ideas for the planet, though, which still has no name (one of the major languages I've worked out calls it Fíngeya, "under the ring system", so that's what we'll call it- actually ɸíŋeya, but that's not as easy on an English tongue):

-It's Earth-scale but a bit bigger, with a radius about 1.2 times that of Earth. However, it is not quite as dense (still more than enough metal for a magnetic field, though, I think), and gravity increases as the cube root of mass (which is pretty small), so gravity is only about 7-8% higher. This leads me to guess that an Earthling walking around on Fíngeya's surface wouldn't really feel very much, other than maybe an earlier than usual death from heart attack, and I don't think this would have any major effects on what sort of life could develop (birds and tall trees could still evolve). We still have tectonic plates, oceans, mountains, more or less the same climates, and all that jazz.

-Fíngeya has a couple of thin rings. They're pretty small and not quite as shiny as Saturn's, since the ice that makes Saturn's rings so spectacular won't survive in the habitable zone of a star (it will all sublimate). They'll still be shiny, though (the moon is made of relatively dark rock, and it glows like a diamond). Preferably I'd like them to be made of iron-bearing rocks- there's something cool about streaking the night sky with two brilliant copper-colored arcs. These aren't big enough to be much of a light source at night, but they'll have several cultural effects; for example, nobody needs to invent a compass, since finding due north or south is as simple as figuring out what hemisphere you're in and facing the ring. You can also find your latitude, since the closer you are to the equator, the higher the rings will be in the sky. There's probably some other neat tricks ancient astronomers would be able to do with rings. Oh yeah, and there's a moon. It's not quite as big as Earth's, but it's close.

-I'm planning on trying to write a few novels or short stories based in Fíngeya, at different times and in various places, so there isn't a "present day", although the one I'm most looking forward to is technologically something like America or Europe in the 1920s, so you can pretend that is.

-I still don't have a map. A few ideas for cultures, but no map.

[Arx]

This probably should be in CP, yes.

As for a map, if GIMP isn't working for you just get a plain piece of A4 paper and a pencil or fineliner or both. If you don't have a drawing tablet, then digital art is extremely difficult.

Otherwise, this looks interesting!

[nenjin]

Took me a while to learn to use GIMP as more than a blunt, paint-covered tool. But the more comfortable I become with it, the better my work gets.

The very first thing I'd do.....is learn how to use layers. Because that will come in very handy with your map needs. If Layer #1 the map, Layers 2, 3, 4, and on can serve as overlays. Climate maps, population densities, cultural influence by culture, basically any transparency you can imagine.

Here's a map I'm working on for a Rogue Trader game, where I made a layer for solar regions of the system. The sun, stars, nebula and 40k skull emblem are all imported, but the rest I did with GIMP and some free fonts.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://imgur.com/83EtoUC.png

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I suggest exporting a few DF maps, stitching them together, using another layer in your art program to cover areas with solid blocks of color for oceans, forests, etc. Don't get too worried about the details for each region tile, but try not to smooth the coastlines too much.

As for your worldbuilding, I suggest making it a little weirder. Right now you've got this "it's almost exactly like Earth" vibe going on. And I suggest that you don't worry so much about the science of things - the ice in your rings sublimating blah blah unless your readers are hard SF buffs they'll be bored by that description.

However you decide to do it, good luck! And have fun!

[T-Mick]

It's usually better to just grab a pencil and paper and draw your maps there. Don't do it in pen, because editing will be impossible, and don't set so high standards, because the map you draw tomorrow likely won't be the map you you use in a year. 

If you insist on GIMP, there are good tutorials on the Cartographer's Guild. I recommend either this one or this one.