MechaStellar: A Tabletop Game for your Mecha Figures

[redhobbit]

Hello everyone,

I think this is the right forum for this as a custom creation, let me know if it would be better served elsewhere.

I wanted to share a giant robot wargame ruleset I work on. It's called MechaStellar and the purpose is to provide some free and easy rules to duke it out with your favorite Mecha and Space Warships.

The rules are setting neutral but for several years were primarily geared towards recreating the mobility and lethality present in Mobile Suit Gundam. Around two years ago we added other classic mecha series for players who wanted to do Super Robot Wars style game. We continue to expand the roster to include giant robots (and Kaiju) from the 70s all the way to present day.

Currently the roster includes the following:

Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080 War in the Pocket, 0083 Stardust Memory, Zeta Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam X and Turn A Gundam.
Mazinger, Getter Robo, Combattler V & Voltes V, GaoGaiGar and Exkaiser, Gurren Lagann, The Big O, Escaflowne, Evangelion and Captain Harlock

We've got a poll on the downloads page so the community can vote for which series we work on next. 

A brief synopsis of the game.

-d10 system with alternating activations

-Each turn a unit can move, shoot and melee in any order

-Fast combat resolution with shooting vs evade or melee vs melee dice pools.
-A Momentum system that ebbs and flows during battle and lets you protect your units or tear through the ranks
-Gameplay is overall very lethal to match the shows we draw from so many grunt units can be destroyed in one turn such as from a barrage of missiles or being cleaved in half with a beam saber, so you'll need to be very prudent with how you spend your Momentum to save your units.
-Optional rules for battle damage in small games if you want to focus on blowing off legs and slicing through limbs

Units
-The system can be scaled for small style games (2vs2 or 5vs5) or larger games (20vs20 or 5vs20 for horde games)

-Real Robots (MS Class) tend to have higher movement and evade with lower HP

-Super Heavy / Kaiju tend to be have low movement and evade but much higher HP and stronger attacks

-Super Robots are in the middle with all around good HP, Move and Evade and powerful weapons.

-Warships have the most weapons and actions but tend to have lower accuracy and evade and the ones from a show like Gundam tend to explode quickly

-Over the years we've done a lot of QoL adjustments to make most of the unit types play the same to make it easier to mix and match units if you're setting up a Super Robot Wars style game.

-Units are defined by 3 key stats, Frame, Performance and Pilot level then differentiated by their equipment loadout.
-200+ Mecha Units Profiles for Mobile Suit Gundam, 70+ Unit profiles for other series

Gametypes

-Standard versus mode with a few different game types

--The most common is a simple death match style battle

--Secure the Objective being most similar to 40k 'Take and Hold' style gameplay

--Defend the City / Rampage is an alternate game mode that has one player incentivized to demolish the terrain you setup in addition to the enemy

-Small Versus games typically take 30-60min, larger games take 1 - 2 hours.
-A cooperative / solo mode if you want more of a Zeonic Front style game where you take your small squad through premade missions with a behavior table for enemies.
-For the mission packs the early games typically take 20-30minutes to play, while the later more dangerous mission take around 30-90 minutes.

Models & Miniatures.

The game rules are written that you do all your measurements from the center of your model to the center of the enemy model this way you can use whatever size figure you want.

For large battles (think 10 vs 10 or 20 vs 20) we usually play the game using small scale minis 1.5-3" tall such as the 1/400 Gundam collection or SRW Gashapon. They are inexpensive, fully painted, easy to transport and you can reuse existing 28mm terrain from other games like 40k or Bolt Action.

For smaller battles like a 2v2 or 5v5 we like to use larger figures like Mobile Suits in Action (MSIA), Revoltech, various kinds of Gokin, Robot Spirits, or model kits like Gunpla, Moderoid and Super Minipla.  The only downside to using larger figures is you'll want to play on a bigger table and you'll want bigger terrain. 

Game Rules

The game rules and mecha unit profiles can be found on the downloads page here: mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Gameplay Examples

Here's a gameplay example using units from 3 of the Gundams from the 08th MS Team vs 10 Zeon mobile suits using small 1/400 scale minis:

mechastellar.com/2022/11/19/mechastellar-ver-8-tabletop-gundam-gameplay-example-setup-and-round-1/

Here's a gameplay example for a small 2v2 game using 1/144 scale models:

mechastellar.com/2024/02/27/mechastellar-ver9-5-gameplay-example-setup-round-1/

Here's a gameplay example for Defend the City using 5" Mazinger figures (roughly 1/144):

mechastellar.com/2024/02/22/mechastellar-gameplay-example-defend-the-city-setup/

There's also a small facebook group here: www.facebook.com/groups/mechastellar

It's a really fun hobby project to work on and I wanted to share it with all the robot collectors here, and especially those who enjoy other wargames and tabletop games.  It's not as simple as something like MS Era but I'd say it's a degree less complicated than the average 40k game.  If you've got kids and want to play I recommend turning the entire living room into a battlefield hahaha.

We are always looking for more feedback on the rules, units and overall feel of gameplay. If you have any questions please let me know.