I am author of a Browser Online RPG, and now that the project starts to get more professional, i would like to do a better design for its pages, because i think, this way it can attract more players. I want it to create a intense athmosphere, and it should be just nice to look at. I would like to try to do the design on my own, because i have plenty of time at the moment. I wanted to use a tool like GIMP for the design. So can someone give me tipps how to start? Or maybe someone is even interested in this project, maybe? At the moment the project is german only, and it is currently offline, due to some problems we had. But i am planning to translate it to english when it's mature enough.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for help with. A web site or the actaul RPG?

...or are they the same?

Sorry if i did not make myself clear enough.
I am talking about a game that is played with a browser, the website is the game.

A good web design can challenging to make and there are a lot of tools out there to try and create them. I sugguest you just go out and look at big name companies websites (as they usualy have talented designers) and see what you like about them and incorporate that into your own ideas (I'm not saying use thier template or anything like that). Also look into a website making tool like dreamweaver or something to that sort. Programs like those have templates you can start on and then you can mod it however you with little work.

Programs like Dreamweaver create shitty html code so am doing the html code by hand. My problem is not the creation of the website but that of the visual arts on there. Such as nice frames, buttons and headlines

I'm not gonna get into an arugment over dreamweaver is good or not but I don't think it creates bad code anymore (it use to be notorius for it however). The reason I suguested it tho is for design not code, you can make something fast in dreamweaver then code the layout yourself. I also have used photoshop to draw up a base layout then slice up the pictures and create a site that way.

That sounds reasonable...

I'm gonna give it a try.

At my school they have Dreamweaver MX, and so I've used it. I can say that I believe it is a fantastic tool. The code it generates is just as clean as I would have written it, and all the integrated tools sped up design of the site (especially since it was a collaborative effort between myself and another person). If you're eligable for an educational version (the professional one is quite expensive), it's highly recommended.