Do I have to use a ruleset?

[retrev]

I'm considering FG and I was wondering, do I have to use a ruleset? Can I just get a bunch of dice and a board with either hexes or squares and maybe a measuring tool? Rulesets seems to automate things too much for me, I'm just looking for a virtual whiteboard type of thing with dice and maybe card decks. I'm investigating quite a few tools and it's down to FG and roll20 right now. We plan on switching GMs/games every once in a while and one of the GMs likes the ruleset idea so he's leaning towards FG. If I can disable all that, I'll probably use that too as I'd like to avoid having too many tools in use.

[Trenloe]

You need to load a ruleset to be able to run a game, but you don't need to "use" it.

If all you're using FG for is dice, maps/images, story entries, various forms of chat, player notes, etc. then you can pretty much load any of the rulesets but don't use the character sheet, combat tracker, etc. That's one of the really good things about Fantasy Grounds - use as much or as little of it as you like.

Also, check out the foundation core ruleset - this is a stripped down ruleset meant to have core FG VTT functionality but allow people to build on it for their own requirements: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15866

[Griogre]

There is also a Generic Ruleset that just has a character sheet with text boxes. There is zero automation on ruleset. It works very well for simple RPGs.