Hello all, I have a question about the rules that my co-gm and I can't agree on. We reached an issue with armor and bionic limbs. Do they stack bonus wise? A lot of the pictures of Iron Hands as well as other Space Marines show their bionics generally exposed, so my co-gm feels armor shouldn't stack onto it, leaving the limb exposed as shown by most pics. I however feel it should, since Iron hands generally lop off perfectly good limbs to get the benefits of cybernetic ones, plus there's no rule there explictly preventing armor usage. Opinions? Thanks in advance for reading/replying.

plus there's no rule there explictly preventing armor usage

And that's the gist of it, as far as Rules-as-Written are concerned.

But ultimately, of course it comes down to a matter of opinions:

Yes, illustrations may show exposed bionics. If so, that particular limb should of course not benefit from any bonuses conferred by the armour, as it is obviously missing what makes it stronger. This could be represented either by a flat reduction of all bonuses (example: 2 + 2 = 3 instead of 4), or alternatively with a more focused penalty that lowers only specific bonuses such as SB in melee combat (if arm w/ melee weapon) or movement speed (if leg).

On the other hand, Black Crusade is not a 100% replica of the setting laid out by Games Workshop's own material. It deviates from studio material and other official sources on a number of occasions, and the lack of rules concerning this subject could easily be just another example of this RPG being its own world with its own rules -- such as bionics and power armour being perfectly compatible.

Lastly, a third option could be that it should simply depend on the Quality of the bionics as well as the wearer's personal preferences as influenced by their culture. Perhaps some bionics are so bulky that they cannot be worn with armour, whereas more high-tech components could easily make the metal limb as small (or even smaller) than the original organic body part, thus allowing combination with armour? Who is to say whether an illustration or a miniature of a fully-armoured Space Marine (or another human warrior) actually portrays an entirely uncyberised example, or someone who wears bionics that are simply concealed beneath the ceramite?

And then, some Marines might simply opt to leave the cyberised body part deliberately uncovered to parade their metal limb for all to see -- proof of their sacrifice in service to their Chapter and the Imperium, as well as (in case of the Iron Hands) showing how they grew closer to the Machine God by shedding their weak human flesh.

Because Space Marine Chapter culture (or the Imperium in general) is not about numbercrunching and efficiency, but rather tradition and arrogant pride. Just look at how many of 'em do not wear a helmet either!

In the end, however, it comes down to what your GM thinks. It's always good and fine to discuss these things and perhaps find a common ground, but at the end of the day, it's his/her game, and his/her rules, regardless of what it says in the books.

Appreciate the swift reply! We were both able to compromise with the third option you described. Poor-common = unarmored, Good-best=armored as normal due to its custom build. Thanks for being the third view that helped break the deadlock Lynata, the only issue we've ran into co-gming is our differences of opinion.

Excellent! I'm glad I was able to help.

Best of luck with your campaign!