I didn't see a way to set it up on Java without running a local server. Is there? I prefer Java, but it seemed like a lot of hours of work to get a server set up.
Yeah you play single player, pause, and hit "open to lan"
Then someone else can connect to lan by typing in the IP. I think it autodetects a lan connection that's already open, too, but it's been a bit since I've used it.
Escape, open to lan. autodetected by other Minecraft clients on the network and works modded without issues. You can enable cheats (or not) by default every time you open it again.