Simple shared tabletop?

[Ry]

Hello; my regular group is all scattered to different cities, so we've been trying to find decent vehicles for online gaming.

We're mostly happy with Roger Wilco, and everyone is cool about rolling their own dice. The only thing is that we feel the need for some visuals, because it's so hard to describe combat without it. I know there are a few kinds of online whiteboards out there, but are there any specifically designed for D&D? I'm really looking for 3 layers: Map (bottom), Minis/Counters (middle) and Marks (top). This seems like such an obvious idea that I'm wondering why the closest I can find is (the seemingly abandoned, or at least horribly documented) OpenRPG. Is there a better application out there?

 

[Judas]

There used to be a netmeeting option to use a "whiteboard" to draw something in and everyone would see it.

It's been a long time since I've used netmeeting.. I think it's now progressed to LiveMeeting. Hell, I think MSN messenger had a whiteboard option at one point.

 

[Cador]

I can warmly recommend kLoOge.Werks. If all you need is shared maps and the ability to move counters and other items around on the maps, then kLoOge.Werks does that quite well. It can also do a lot more, if you need...

 

[Ry]

Yeah, I looked at that program; it looks like I'd be paying for a _lot_ of extra functionality that I don't need. Also, 40 bucks, plus 15 per player I want online... that's a little steep, given how little I'm looking for. I'm really surprised there's no decent free software for just the tabletop, actually.

Oh, and (at least as useable through MSN) Whiteboard only will accept 2 interlocutors.

 

[Max]

There is also:

http://www.webrpg.com/

http://www.nbos.com/products/screenmonkey/screenmonkey.htm

Never used either one, so I can't give an opinion. However, Webrpg is free I believe, and Screenmonkey has a "light" version that is free to use, with less capabilities.

Max

 

[Ry]

Thanks, Max - looks like ScreenMonkey Lite is almost exactly what I'm looking for. I'm still fiddling with it, to see if it has some larger tokens or customizeable NPCs, but it will _definitely_ suit my needs, even if it doesn't have that functionality. Thanks for pointing it out.