UPDATE (12/14/19): WeoGeo (Trimble) have since stopped supporting public domain datasets, and the links below point to WeoGeo’s farewell message. Fortunately, you can grab Earth vector and raster data files for free from Natural Earth.
Good news for any GM who’s always wanted to create a campaign setting based on the Real World. From the WeoGeo December 2012 newsletter:
Natural Earth datasets are available as vectors in 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m versions, and all 49 Natural Earth rasters can be downloaded here.
These are GeoTiff files in 6 styles:
- Hypsometric Tints
- Natural Earth 1 & 2
- Gray
- Ocean Bottom
- Bathymetry
- Shaded Relief
The entire package contains nearly 60 files and weighs in at almost 17GB, but hey–this is 2012: Storage is cheap and no one downloads with “modems” any more, right?
Best of all, the package is free and the maps are public domain, so there is now absolutely no barrier to your creation and publication of your Post-Mayan Urth Apocalypse setting.