Vassal (game engine)
Java-based online game engine
The Vassal Engine is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games, tabletop games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection, and also by email (PbeM). It runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software. For example, there is a Star Wars Miniatures module, where players can play with up to three others in a digital replica of the table-top game.
It is written in Java and the source code is available from GitHub under the LGPL open source license.
01History
Vassal began as an application for playing Advanced Squad Leader. This program was named VASL, an acronym for "Virtual Advanced Squad Leader." In 2002, this was expanded into a generic board game engine now called Vassal, with VASL being changed into just one out of many modules for Vassal.
02Available modules
Vassal modules exist for over 3400 games.
03Copyright and licensing
In September 2008, Games Workshop issued a cease-and-desist order regarding the Vassal module for Warhammer 40K to Tim Davis, its maintainer at that time. The module is still played.
Games Workshop has also issued a cease-and-desist order regarding Space Hulk.
04Similar projects
Similar engines for making board games include ZunTzu and Boardgame.io.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Vassal (game engine)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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