Stendhal is a free, open-source multiplayer online adventure game (MORPG) written in Java, playable by anyone with a web browser, an Android device, or a desktop with Java installed.

What it is

Stendhal is a fully fledged multiplayer online adventures game (MORPG) in which players explore a rich and expanding world of towns, buildings, plains, caves and dungeons, meet NPCs, take on tasks and quests for experience, develop their character through levels, and spend acquired money on items, armor and weapons. Both the client and the server are open source, and the project is platform independent. It lives in the Java ecosystem and covers the game, its server, and its clients.

The concrete problem it solves is the cost and closed nature of subscription or proprietary MMO worlds: Stendhal offers a persistent world you can play without paying, and — because everything from the server to the Java client, Android client and web client is published under free licences — a world you can inspect, modify, redistribute and host yourself rather than renting access to someone else's. It replaces the need for a paid online adventure game subscription with a self-hostable, redistributable codebase.

Key capabilities

• Play through a web browser on desktop or mobile with JavaScript support, by creating or logging in to an account at stendhalgame.org.
• Install the progressive web app on a mobile device by visiting stendhalgame.org in the mobile browser and clicking "install" when prompted.
• Run the dedicated Android app obtained from the F-Droid App Store or downloaded from stendhalgame.org/download.html.
• Launch the classic desktop client by double clicking stendhal-starter.jar, or from the command line with java -jar stendhal-starter.jar, using Oracle Java or OpenJDK.
• Explore towns, buildings, plains, caves and dungeons, taking tasks and quests from NPCs for valuable experience.
• Grow a character through level-ups, then buy items and improve armor and weapons with money acquired in the world.
• Run your own server, build the project, and set up a development environment, with wiki guides for hosting a Stendhal Server, building Stendhal, and working on it in Eclipse.

Who uses it and how

• Players who want to play without installing anything, using the browser client on desktop or mobile through the "play now" button on stendhalgame.org.
• Android players who either install the progressive web app from their browser or use the dedicated app distributed through F-Droid.
• Desktop players on Windows or Linux who download stendhal.zip, ensure Java is present (Java ships with most Linux distributions), and start stendhal-starter.jar.
• Operators and contributors who host their own Stendhal server, build the code, and work on the Android WebView client, following the project's wiki guides.
• Contributors reading the in-client manual and the Help entries behind the upper right hand icons of the game screen while playing.

Getting started

Download stendhal.zip from stendhalgame.org/download.html, then double click stendhal-starter.jar (or run java -jar stendhal-starter.jar from the stendhal folder) with Oracle Java or OpenJDK installed; alternatively just open stendhalgame.org and click "play now".

How it compares

No paid products this project replaces are listed in the available facts, and no similar tools are named alongside it, so Stendhal stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not to

It suits someone who wants a free, redistributable MORPG they can play in a browser, on Android or on the desktop, and who is willing to run a Java-based game server of their own if they host rather than play on the public world. It is a poorer fit for players seeking a maintained commercial title with guaranteed support, and the project carries 143 open issues alongside a licence situation that differs by component (the server, Java client and Android client are GPL-2 or later, the web and native clients are AGPL-3 or later, and the nativehelper extensions are LGPL-3 or later), so redistribution obligations need checking before you bundle any part of it.