Stendhal is a multiplayer adventure game with lovely old school graphics. It features hundreds of NPCs with quests and interesting achievements The quest history makes it easy to keep track on open quests. Players can actually chat with NPCs and they are amazingly good at understanding English sentences. 
When I started to play, I got lost a couple of times in the huge world. But nowadays Stendhal as a Google maps based Atlas, so new players can easily lookup their position. The game starts just outside the small city of Semos. The small city is more or less defenseless because all solders had been sent to a fight war in the far south. So it falls upon the player to protect Semos against attacks by animals and other creatures. But before the player can become a hero, he has to convince the old guard, that he is not a weakling. The old city guard will give valuable tips on fighting and finally sends the player into Semos City where he will meet other NPCs with interesting quests. 
The dungeon located within the City walls is quite difficult for new players. It may be a good idea to stay outside to kill some wild animals and do the quests in the city to get some experience. After you have gained confidence it is time to seek out and explore the world, visit other cities, mountains and dungeons. 
Stendhal has a friendly community which often organizes events. It is completely open source, so anyone can contribute based on the extensive guides on the Stendhal Wiki.
