Last campaign I ran, I developed my world map by starting up a game of Civ V, playing till about the middle ages, then taking screenshots of the known world, piecing them together, and drawing over it with photoshop, letting the game dictate basic topography and national borders, to be fleshed out by myself later.
Obviously this specific approach may not work for everyone (Although Steam sales are coming up and Civ, or games like it will likely be available on the cheap.
) but the basic principle will work with any type of game that generates random maps on its own.
The other option is to, well, cheat.
Pick an interesting-shaped bit of the real world, and use that. Somewhere like Indonesia or northern Canada, with lots of islands or lakes. Rotate it 90 degrees, reverse it, change the scale, add some axtra mountain ranges and alter the climatic zones accordingly.
Here's one:
If you were to focus your game world on a smaller region of that planet - say, the temperate Aleutian islands, western Siberia or equatorial Canada - it might not be so immeditately recogniseable.
Alternatively, try a non-glaciated Antarctica:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Antarctica
http://www.robswebstek.com/2012/03/antarctica-without-ice-sheet.html
https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=antarctica+with+no+ice+sheet
edited 6th Sep '12 1:05:38 AM by AndrewGPaul
Plus, that can turn into QUITE the plot twist.
make sure they find Lady Liberty's head on a beach.
I'm baaaaaaack

Morning guys. I am planning on reviving an old campaign setting for dungeons and dragons and give it a revamp, making what was good better and plugging holes in what was one of my greatest failings. So, is there a program that will let me create a world map that doesn't suck? You know, mountains, cities, bodies of water, all that jazz. Does one exist?