If someone is using a hostage as cover and their oponents decide 'to heck with saving that important person' and just shoot without a called shot, how much cover do they get? I'm thinking the 'cover's' Toughnes Bonus (+ any armour the hostage happens to be wearing on the location hit.)

What do you guys think? I thought about double armour since you have to pass through both sides, but figured that's what the TB does and to keep it reasonable.

example: CSM trying to flee with your unconsious/probably dead battle brother slung across his back. better you get the gene seed than let the chaos spawn run off with him and his gear. (assuming you aren't the assault marine with a jump pack or faster than him or perhaps it IS the assault marine who charged too far ahead of the group and you have to stop him at extreme range before you lose him completely.)

Sounds reasonable.

Carrying an unconsious marine, on top of your own armour and gear, well I bet thats getting quite close to an NPC's carrying capacity. Active Power Armour you wear doesn't count for space marines, but the armour the guy your carrying does.

Normally you don't worry about weight, cause it takes a lot for an Astartes to max out. But, a marine weighs quite a bit, you may want to add it up just to be sure.

Also, two rigid plated ceramite suits with large shoulder pads and those jutting power packs... That can't be just as easy as "slung accross the back" and trotting off to safety. Power armour doesn't bend (except the joints, yes) and the different parts of the two suits are bound to get in the way of each other. I'd figure there'd have to be some kind of penalty or difficulty at trying this.

As a fast and simple rule, that seems pretty good ( I wouldn't double tougness either).

Though if you're feeling particularly mean towards the shield, you could say that until a shots breach the wound capacity none of them pass completely through, or at least through enough to hurt the person behind the shield.

herichimo said:

If the person doing the carrying also has Unnatural Strength and Toughness, their carry loads just get obscene. And if Unnaturals are not taken into consideration for lifting, then most Devastators are permanently encumbered with just their standard-issue gear.

The numbers speak pretty clearly: a 'weak' Marine with a 40 Strength and 40 Toughness in Power Armor (SB of 10 + TB of 8) can carry up to 1,350kg (2,970lbs) before being slowed down. A standard PA suit weighs in at 180kg per RAW (396lbs), and figure a full grown Astartes weighs in at say 227kg (~500lbs), meaning he's 623kg fully dressed. Add 50kg for gear and you're still "only" at 673kg, which leaves a low end Space Marine with 677kg of spare weight capacity. Even if you raise the weight of the astartes or his gear you'll still have plenty left over. It is, as Kshatriya says, ridiculous.

This of course doesn't account for the load being awkward as herichimo mentions- you could certainly carry a marine over your shoulder or in your arms, though dragging one in front of you as you walk backwards or trying to give an unwilling/incapacitated marine (or anyone else for that matter) a piggy back ride to provide yourself with cover might prove problematic.

If the character holding the shield wan't actively making a shield out of them and was just carrying them, personally I'd not use them as cover and instead use the optional rule for full auto into crowds and simply split the shots between the two characters. If it were single un-aimed shots I'd give it a 50/50 chance to hit one or the other.

I'd be inclined to rule it thusly:

Using a human shield requires a successful grapple attack-action in the case of a conscious unwilling target or a simple half-action in the case of unconscious or conscious willing targets. The effect is that the shield wielder gains coverage of the human shield to the arm(s) holding it and the torso. Any damage that does not penetrate the shield (including wounds), does not harm the shield wielder. Pen values for weapons affect the shield as if its AP and TB were combined to make a single AP value. (this is to stop a player using a guardsman as a lascannon deflector and to partially account for the round needing to pass through the shield and still be dangerous to the wielder). The shield wielder must maintain the grapple as a half-action every round and may only move a half-action per round if the shield is unwilling, regardless of Squad-mode/Solo-mode powers. If the shield is willing or unconscious, the wielder may use a full-action move, but still may not benefit from extra movements granted by Squad-mode/Solo-mode powers.

Shields that are killed are assumed to be destroyed to a point where they no longer provide protection.

Called Shots to areas not covered by the shield behave normally as per the Shooting rules.

Note:

A shield may become 'willing' by ceasing to struggle against the Space Marine.

The exact area covered by the shield is relative to the creature being used and it is at the discretion of the GM as to what can be used as a shield and how large an area it covers.

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A little wordy but I think it sums up the desire with a little bit of what I consider balance. I of course, could be talking rubbish.

-Durandal