Bypassing steam on games I already own

[Joe Forster/STA]

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

I am trying to make backups of my favorite games, drm free backups because I don't trust steam or the cloud.

That's a wise decision.

Originally Posted by Sith Lord

And is there a universal tool I can use to bypass steam on all/most games?

I don't think so. You could try a Steam emulator - there are quite a few available - but I'm not sure how well they remove the copy protection, if they try at all. A cleaner solution is to get the cracks (can't call them no-CD/DVD patches ad there's no physical media) for those games. The cleanest solution is to buy their DRM-free version from GOG.com but that doubles your spendings.