I wanted to play the Steam-version of Dwarf Fortress without the Steam client installed, because the store page and other games in my library are distractions I sometimes want to go without.

Dwarf Fortress starts without Steam, but a black box covers the main menu. In the console, it complains about missing Steam:

[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): SteamAPI_IsSteamRunning() did not locate a running instance of Steam.
[S_API FAIL] SteamAPI_Init() failed; create pipe failed.New window size: 1920x1200
[S_API FAIL] Tried to access Steam interface STEAMUGC_INTERFACE_VERSION016 before SteamAPI_Init succeeded.

To install and run the game without the Steam client, I:

• installed Dwarf Fortress with SteamCMD:

     force_install_dir /home/<user>/Games/dwarffortress [set to where you want DF installed]
     login <user> <password>
     app_update 975370 validate
  

• downloaded Goldberg Steam emulator.
  • replaced libsteam_api.so in the game's directory with Goldberg's version, linux/x86_64/libsteam_api.so in the release zip file.

I start the game by running ./dwarffort in the game's directory.