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There are, in fact, dozens of them, some of the many years old. There are so many, there are guides to choosing the right one.

Some, like Battlegrounds, are extremely good at handling any flavor of d20 systems, and are very, very easy to learn to use. Some, like Roll20, are less versatile, but have free versions, and run in a browser and are thus truly (as) cross-platform (as anything can be). And some, like MapTool, are completely free, with an active support community that is very user friendly, and a macro language that can do virtually anything if you work at it.

This is yet another attempt by Hasbro to turn tabletop gaming into computer gaming, which demonstrates, yet again, that they have absolutely no clue what tabletop gaming is, or what the appeal is, but they know that there are people with money they aren't giving to Hasbro, and dammit! that's not acceptable!

The simple fact that all RPG games are run by a HUMAN give RPG the edge it needs for survival. No computer run game will ever match the endless possibilities that a human DM can come up with. There are great tools out there which a HUMAN DM can use as an aide to his abilities and to allow for gaming between geographically separated players. One of the best out there is Battlegrounds: RPG Edition, an excellent tool from http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/.

I've got 5 more virtual tabletops listed at http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html

As the developer of Battlegrounds (http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/), I'm a bit biased, but I suggest you give the free downloadable demo a try. It works on Windows and Mac OS X, is easy to learn and use, well-documented, and supports game play in any genre, with any RPG rules system.

One of the many nice features is the dynamic Fog of War, which automatically reveals the map to the players based on the light sources present (candles, torches, spells, etc.) and takes into account special vision types (like Dark Vision and Low Light Vision).

Battlegrounds isn't just for online games, either. You can use it with a projector or TV to replace the traditional plastic battlemat in a face-to-face game session, or even use it to illustrate battles in a play-by-post or play-by-email game.

Note, however, that Battlegrounds doesn't currently offer videocam support (although I suppose you could have a video chat app running simultaneously), and that audio chat is left to third-party programs like Skype or Ventrillo. This has the advantage that, should the virtual tabletop crash, it's easier to get the game going again because you've still got a means to communicate to your players. Inversely, if something interferes with the voice chat, you can use Battlegrounds' built-in text chat to troubleshoot the issue.

Lastly, even if Battlegrounds isn't for you, the "Links & Resources" page on my site (http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html) lists all the online virtual tabletop applications, both commercial and free. It should prove invaluable for anyone that wants to compare the various programs available.

As the developer of Battlegrounds (http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/), I'm a bit biased, but I suggest you give the free downloadable demo a try. It works on Windows and Mac OS X, is easy to learn and use, well-documented, and supports game play in any genre, with any RPG rules system.

One of the many nice features is the dynamic Fog of War, which automatically reveals the map to the players based on the light sources present (candles, torches, spells, etc.) and takes into account special vision types (like Dark Vision and Low Light Vision).

Battlegrounds isn't just for online games, either. You can use it with a projector or TV to replace the traditional plastic battlemat in a face-to-face game session, or even use it to illustrate battles in a play-by-post or play-by-email game.

Note, however, that Battlegrounds doesn't currently offer videocam support (although I suppose you could have a video chat app running simultaneously), and that audio chat is left to third-party programs like Skype or Ventrillo. This has the advantage that, should the virtual tabletop crash, it's easier to get the game going again because you've still got a means to communicate to your players. Inversely, if something interferes with the voice chat, you can use Battlegrounds' built-in text chat to troubleshoot the issue.

Lastly, even if Battlegrounds isn't for you, the "Links & Resources" page on my site (http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html) lists all the online virtual tabletop applications, both commercial and free. It should prove invaluable for anyone that wants to compare the various programs available.

Here's a list of all the virtual tabletops I know of
http://gametable.galactanet.com/
http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=maptool:intro
http://trisrpg.bronzeforge.com/index.htm
http://users3.ev1.net/~mem5000/
http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/index.html
http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com/index.php?modu le=htmlpages&func=display&pid=21
http://www.enworld.org/RolePlayingMaster/
http://www.fantasygrounds.com/
http://www.geocities.com/trainz_ca/ID/
http://www.ghostorb.com/
http://www.kloogeinc.com/
http://www.nbos.com/products/screenmonkey/screenmo nkey.htm
http://www.openrpg.com/
http://www.opnpw.com/
http://www.tabletopmapper.hpg.ig.com.br/
http://www.travellerrpg.com/Catalog/software.html
http://www.triaxe.co.uk/dnd/index.php?page=Online% 20Chat
http://www.viewing.ltd.uk/viewingdale/index.htm
http://www.webrpg.com/gamesystem/

Hi everyone, I am in the same situation, left my old group to make my life with the wife and baby to be near to her workplace and distance is now a problem for gaming session. I am planing to start joining them by teleconference.. so it will only be me being the online ressource so i think we will stick to skype and webcam to reduce the workload on the DM since I am the only one who will be with a computer. Someting nice i found while browsing is http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/index.html This is still in beta but sound real nice. it just miss the webcam/voice chat feature.. so this with skype or teamspeak seem to be the perfect solution for a full online session.