Top Down RPG World Design, Part III: How To Create Random World Maps With GIMP in 36 Easy Steps

This may not be as vital a post as others, if you aren't interested in visually creating your own world map of landmasses,so I recommend those people look into more interesting avenues of text concerns, such as random name generators, for their continents and settlements, etc.

For those that are interested in a way to create your own overland campaign world maps quickly, easily and for free, the 36 items below are presented in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format that requires no artistic ability (with the exception of one step) or even more than basic familiarity with the GIMP application, which is a free image editing software, similar to Adobe Photoshop, but open source and free - my favorite price.

After you have created your continents or landmasses (and you may wind up doing this multiple times to generate various suitable continents, choosing the best one or two from each instance, to put together in one final world map), the next step will be deciding how and where to arrange your landmasses, and you will find a section addressing this point, directly after the steps given for creating random world maps.

SPECIAL BONUS!
For those that find this tutorial too long or unwieldly to read online, I've turned it into a simple, single PDF document you can download and read on your PC at your leisure. {DOWNLOAD}

ANOTHER BUT NO LESS SPECIAL BONUS!
I've also uploaded a shorter, simplified version (though it has a few errors) of this tutorial, with the steps reduced to 25, as a Youtube video. {WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO}

Click "Read More" below to get into the full tutorial!

Top-Down RPG World Design Part II: Maps and Continents

Before we begin placing continents, we need to refamiliarize ourselves with the nature and features of maps.

Latitude or meridians are lines or bands that run east-west around the globe. There are generally 12 to 24 segments or squares of latitude on most maps, with the easternmost area of Asia sharing a square with the westernmost part of Alaska, in a wrap-around. The primary line of latitude is the Equator, which is located halfway between the north and south poles, at 0 degrees latitude, dividing the world up into the north and south hemispheres, extending from 0 degrees latitude at the Equator to 90 degrees north latitude at the top of the north pole, and 90 degrees south latitude at the part of the south pole nearest the bottom of the map. The Equator is an abstraction representing the halfway point of the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

Longitude or parallels, are north-south lines or bands from the north to south poles. There are generally 6-12 squares of longitude on most maps, with the "top squares" containing most of the north pole, and the "bottom squares" containing most of the south pole/Antarctica. The primary line of longitude is the Prime Meridian at 0 degrees longitude, dividing the world into west and east hemispheres, extending from 0 degrees longitude to 180 degrees south longitude in the southernmost part of the south pole, and 180 degrees north longitude in the northernmost section of the north pole.