I've got a gig (my first) making maps for an RPG and was surprised to find out the area map is the entire surface of the planet. While I don't necesarily plan on including a Winkel Tripel projection (or something similar) it would be cool if I could offer the Game developer one. It might also help me visualize this as a planetary map.

Any cool technique for doing this in Gimp? Other easy to use freeware?

Of course a way to project my 2d "mercator" onto a virtual globe would be awesome.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ryan