Tag: Gundam RPG

MechaStellar – Monthly Roster Update April 2026 – Nu Gundam and Sazabi

For this month’s update we have the long awaited public release of Nu Gundam and Sazabi.  As well as two other fan favorite mobile suits.  Nu and Sazabi were first used by the Devs all the way back in VER4 and hit closed playtesting in VER6. 

Since then Nu and Sazabi became a favorite pair from one of our all-star playtesters who proceeded to dominate his FLGS all the way back in 2021, if you’ve ever wondered why there were so many updates to Funnels despite very few funnel units (back then), now you know. Nu and Sazabi across many version had their profiles revised a total of 67 times.

Nu and Sazabi are very iconic mobile suits so we’ve put a lot of care into building them and rebuilding them for each version of MechaStellar for our playtesters, and now for the open public.  Of the holy trinity of Super Robot Wars there is Mazinger, Getter Robo and Gundam.  Typically with their final forms being Mazinkaiser, Shin Getter Robo and Nu or Hi-Nu Gundam.

We also included an optional ability for Nu to represent how in crossover games like SRW or Dynasty Warriors, Amuro and the Psycoframe have been able to do incredible things like turning off the Moonlight Butterfly of the Turn-A Gundam. Hope you all enjoy.

While SRW tends to treat Hi-Nu Gundam as a straight upgrade to Nu (and likewise the Nightingale as an upgrade to Sazabi) we prefer to treat them as a side-grade unit which is very similar in armaments but with a slightly different playstyle and unit stats.  After all, Nu and Hi-Nu are meant to be the same unit but different incarnations.

Here’s a synopsis on the origin of Hi-Nu from legendary Gundam expert Mark Simmons

In Beltorchika’s Children, the Nu Gundam is still called the Nu Gundam, even though it does use a mega bazooka launcher at one point. That’s why the cover shows the standard anime Nu Gundam – it’s supposed to be the same thing.

Aside from the Newtype magazine illo that balofo posted, the original source of images for these guys is in the mecha profile section at the beginning of the Beltorchika’s Children novel. The Psyco Doga isn’t pictured in this section, and aside from the Nightingale, all the mecha are listed with the same names and specs and model numbers as the movie versions. (At this point, the movie specs had smaller head heights. That’s why everyone says the Hi-Nu is 20 meters; the book just listed the standard specs for the Nu Gundam, and at that point they were saying the Nu was 20 meters tall.)

So if the Nu Gundam is just called the Nu Gundam in Beltorchika’s Children, and they listed the standard Nu specs and description, where the heck does the “Hi-Nu” come from?

Well, in the book’s mecha section, designer Yutaka Izubuchi took some liberties with his designs and drew them all a bit differently. What we now call the Hi-Nu started out as, simply, “that cool version of the Nu Gundam that Izubuchi drew in the mecha section of Beltorchika’s Children.” It was only later that this cool doodle got its own name and back story and was recognized as a distinct mobile suit. The “Hi” prefix, confusingly, seems to be an homage to the original Hi-Streamer novels. 🙂

Of all these guys, the only one that was reasonably fully depicted and clearly identified as a unique machine was the Nightingale. It’s named that way in the Beltorchika’s Children novel (unlike the Hi-Nu), it’s depicted in the mecha profile section (unlike the Psyco Doga), and Izubuchi drew nice pictures of it for Newtype and B-CLUB magazines. The one thing it didn’t have in the mecha section, unlike the other features machines, was a model number.

Whew! That’s pretty long and detailed, but I’ve seen people getting this mixed up for decades, and I keep hoping that if I explain it one more time it’ll stick.

— Mark

For this April we are releasing Nu Gundam, Sazabi, Hi-Nu Gundam and the Nightingale.  We hope you enjoy these Tier 3 Juggernauts and look forward to more in the future. Pictured above is the Nightingale from the “Gundam Artifact” collection which is slightly larger than 1/400 scale minis but still fits in nicely.

One last note, there have been some minor tweaks to a few of the weapons on the GBF rules.

MechaStellar Monthly Roster Update – FEB 2026 – Char’s Counterattack

Happy New Year everyone! For this year we’re switching from end of month updates to beginning of the month updates. So from now look forward to updates on the first of each month! For this month’s update we have the long awaited Char’s Counterattack! Although, Char won’t be seen until next month. Instead debuting we have the Geara Doga and the Jegan as well as two related machines!

You can find the update Mech Profiles and Rules on the MechaStellar game downloads page.

In addition to these four new units we also have a huge balance update affecting Hit Points, Victory Points, and all weapons with the biggest effects are high rate of fire weapons like vulcans and machine guns. Additionally, we have some major updates to the Core Rules and Wargame rules.

These updates include a Squad system, to allow your grunts to punch above their weight class, and also a nice bonus for elite squads like the Black Tri-Stars. Several other systems were revised to accomodate this mechanic, like Tear through the Ranks, AOE, the “Tandem Fighter” upgrade. The Support ATK / DEF system was entirely retooled, based on a lot of player feedback that the measuring and pre-measuring was getting cumbersome and slowed the game down. The new Support mechanic instead gives your own unit a Support bonus to enable Armored Core style gameplay where you use missiles to apply pressure before firing your primary weapon. Support weapons can still be used to improve your allies while in a squad.

On the downside, this is a huge rebalance update and we have not finished Warships yet. We were also hoping to include a Combiner in the Super Robots update for GoLion / Voltron but we need some more time to finalize it. We’ll add a bonus Super Robot series as penance for being delayed.

Below you’ll find a summary of rules updates.

Core Rules Updates

  • QoL updates for Warships. Fixed loopholes on Reinforce and other mechanics.
  • Added a Squad System
  • Retooled the Support weapon system
  • Updated the Iron Wall pilot skill
  • Made it so Boost lasts the whole Turn instead of a single attack
  • Returned Counter to be an Elite option only
  • Armor Saves back to 5 dice
  • Finisher Saves at more than 10 dice reworked to no longer give easy access to 1000s of DMG
  • Updated targeting, only Skilled and Ace ignore targeting rules, Battle-Tested still have to target closest / return fire
  • Added in Elite levels to represent units that are heavily upgraded which now affects your starting Momentum
  • Added a Barrier system

War Game Rules Updates

  • Rearranged upgrades, many upgrades no longer increase VP.
  • Elite Upgrades (i.e. Improved Barrage / Dodge etc.) that increase VP also increase Elite Level which affects starting Momentum
  • Raised cap on Elite Upgrades
  • Updated Events and Hazards
  • Updated VP earned on game modes and secondary objectives
  • Updated several pilots traits, i.e. Killer Instinct,
  • Added Speed upgrade
  • Added a weapon upgrade

Mecha Balance Patch

  • Renamed MS Bonus to Mech P. (Performance)
  • Remove the global -1 Hit on all units
  • Massive rebalance to VP.  Elite units and higher Frame units are worth significantly more VP.
  • Massive rebalance to HP.  Most units received a significant HP boost.
  • Fixed errors and rebalanced Gurren Lagann and GaoGaiGar
  • Made SEED Zaku and Gouf’s cheaper. Made Hizacks cheaper.
  • Upgraded all Frame 5 units with +2 EQ slots
  • Updated Luna Titanium, Gundanium, Phase Shift
  • Made Hizacks cheaper for the forthcoming Geara Doga / Jegan update.
  • Removed Support ATK / DEF from most non-E[X]plosives.  Kept Support ATK / DEF for non-handheld weapons (i..e shoulder mounted minigun)
  • Rebalanced Missile Pod / Salvo / Fire Support
  • Allow for high rate of fire weapons like machine guns and vulcans to be above 10d10 ATK on the design side, the excess dice are converted into Hits ref. core rules.
  • Rebalanced Shotguns to be DMG 100 high damage weapons
  • Sniper weapons ability changed to Target any Unit | Ignore Cover / Support DEF
  • Nerfed all weapons with a RF penalty (Snipers, Railguns, etc.)
  • Updated Blinding Flash to be a weapon rather than a trait to make it more fair

MechaStellar Unit Roster Update – November 2023 – Gundam X

For this month’s update we have the long awaited After War Gundam X, an Alternate Universe (AU) Gundam show with a post-apocalyptic setting.  This AU is unique in that is essentially a “What if” story set in the Universal Century with all the technology and terminology mirroring the Universal Century.  In this What if scenario it looks at what would happen to the Earth and the colonies had our Amuro-esque hero fail to stop the colony drop operation and Earth was turned into a wasteland.  Our protagonists are Vultures who scavenge the wasteland while dealing with rival Vultures in a Mad Max style conflict.

Continue reading “MechaStellar Unit Roster Update – November 2023 – Gundam X” →

[MS] September Update – MechaStellar VER 8.4 Released

For Septembers roster update we have 24 new mecha unit profiles including the foundational Super Robot series, Mazinger Z.  We are also releasing MechaStellar VER 8.4 Core Rules which streamlines some items in the Stellar Warfare section and provides another option for [Focus] as well as changes to Disengage.  Lastly, there’s a large balance update that will address some points cost issues, movement and evade as well as improving the durability of some units. 

Continue reading “[MS] September Update – MechaStellar VER 8.4 Released” →

MechaStellar VER 8.3 Released – Stellar Warship Update

For August’s update we putting the Stellar back into MechaStellar. Our Stellar Warship rules for VER 8 have been in testing for a close to a year now, and we are now satisfied with where they are at to start releasing them this month. This month we release the Musai and Salamis from Mobile Suit Gundam. In the future we’ll release additional Stellar Warships from Gundam as well as other Mecha series such as the J-Ark from GaoGaiGar. Below we’ll talk about our Design Goals and the mecha tactics to employ.

Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.3 Released – Stellar Warship Update” →