Not to discredit your idea, but there are already several mass-market Lord of the Rings games with fully developed worlds that are at least *somewhat* accurate. I think they all focus on the better known parts of Middle-earth and could be improved, but unless you're making this simply for your own enjoyment, it's going to be a massive and difficult undertaking that will require a lot of knowledge and several people.   Still, I like to draw maps of my own of Middle-earth sometimes for fun so I understand.

I'm not sure what to recommend you as a map - the accuracy of maps we have is already hotly debated. The only maps that I know of with actual real-world distances are the maps in Karen Wynn Fonstad's "The Atlas of Middle Earth". All other maps I've seen are either from Tolkien himself, or vaguries. The book is available on Amazon. Also, the Encyclopedia of Arda has some decent maps.

-- Edited by The Secret Fire at 23:49, 2007-08-28

Those games that are out right now do not focus on the lesser known lands. My map will be a second age arda where even the lesser known lands will be available. I'll check out that atlas of middle earth as I want this to have dead on accuracy. The reason I was a bit leery about the maps in the maps of arda section was because they seemed kinda sketchy.

This is no light endevor, this will be a public release. I will stort it out and see how it goes and decide whether or not to realese it as an online game.
The first thing I create will most likely be numenor.