If you miss playing pen and paper games but haven't been able to find a group to play in-person, there is a growing number of applications to help you. Starting today, there is one more – RPG Table Online. This java application is free to download and free to use though new tilesets, tokens, and backgrounds can be purchased in order to keep games feeling fresh and new.
RPG Table Online is part of the Game Table Online virtual board game hosting group. For over 9 years, GTO has hosted over 29 different board games so they hope that their experience has allowed them to create a good product that can be used or useful for any pen and paper system that has been created.
GTO adds that they will be launching an initiative for the RPG production companies to create tiles, backgrounds, character sheets, and themes for their product. Players can see open campaigns at the RPG Table Online website: here
While the product is free, there are premium subscriptions available. The major differences between the free and premium subscription packages are common. For example, free users must purchase GTO Gold in order to purchase new tiles or to upload files to the GTO servers for others to see while premium subscribers recieve a standard amount of gold each month. The slots available for tiles is limited in the free edition while premium users have double that amount.
Tools like these that allow multiple users to interact with pen and paper games through the internet are slowly revitalizing an industry recovering from over-production of d20 content.