HTMC said:

Actually only the non Cannon books talk about things like that.   When you get into the Cannon books (those would be the Codexs and the rules for the miniature game,) there is no mention of variable settings.   None of the Novels, art books and the like are considered cannon.   Only the Actual rule books are considered such.  Else we would have 5 gods of Chaos today and Cypher would reign supreme. 

HOWEVER that does not mean two different forge worlds wouldn't produce two different pattern lasguns.  It is just none of those lasguns can have variable settings.

Just my take on this subject.

Pappystein said:

"Let's put it another way: anything with a 40K logo on it is as official as any Codex… and at least as crammed full of rumours, distorted legends and half-truths."

-Marc Gascoigne, former publisher and editor for the Black Library in an official GW interview.

Checkmate.

Throwing another voice in for variable setting lasguns and adding at least Pen 1 to the poor things.

Darklordofbunnies said:

Definitely need both of those.

A firefight between two Guardsman can take six, seven rounds with how pathetic lasguns are versus flak armour. Grenades are also rather ineffective.

Who would've thought the infamous "T-shirt armour" would be so sturdy?

Throwing my coin in for a few more low level options for Psyker powers as a number of the groupings only have one power purchasable at creation. A few more options in the 200xp range would help with letting a psyker keep themselves inside one discipline for a flavor of psyker.

Looking over the books options there are 7 powers in each discipline which seems good options till you actually look at the costs and requirements for those powers in a number of them.

Biomancy has 4 of the 7 possible to purchase at creation with the 400xp worth of powers. Divination gits the same 4 out of 7. Then all the others get less;

Pyromancy and Telepethy get 2 out of 7 options and telekinesis gets a whopping 1 power to choose at start.

Now I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to make some lower cost powers in some of those trees as any telekinetic is going to have to cross discipline at creation even if they use their extra 300xp for other powers. They just are not going to be able to use as many powers.

Yes i understand that a Biomancer is not capable of having all 4 options at creation thats fine and seems balanced but if your looking at the costs of the powers and the requirements when building a Psyker what other then concept is going to stop someone from taking the tree that gives them the most options to start with? I already have 2 players having made Psykers for test runs and they both took a look at the costs at start and went with Biomancy.

Maybe an extra utility power or such for the other disciplines so that at creation you have more options?

Also…what the heck happened to telekinetic armour powers??? I would have thought that those would have been Guard psy must haves? As it stands now there is Fire Shield that only attacks back when attacked, Telekinetic Dome which is a PSY 4 power, the evade series from Divination that only helps avoiding the hits, and the Iron Arm in Biomancy that gives Unnatural Toughness. Are we going with making the Psyker use his comrade as a wall? or just hope the squishy's armour saves him every time??

Plushy said:

Lasguns fail to penetrate flak armor on the tabletop too, actually.  Lasguns don't need a damage or penetration buff outside of Variable Setting, IMHO; doing so goes a bit too far against their long-established fluff for my tastes.

Frag grenades, on the other hand, could totally use a penetration buff.

Pappystein said:

Check out the Armoury on page 56 here:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2350169a_m1320029_Inq_Rulebook_part_1.pdf

Even the old 3rd edition rulebook already mentioned a "charge slider" existing for at least one model of lasgun: http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9195/3eweapons2.jpg

Finally, I fear I have to point out once more that there actually is no such thing as a canon in 40k. Took me a while to accept this, but in case you want to investigate further, I've compiled a few quotes about that issue: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/462296/4527011.page
Basically, fan-fiction is just as "valid" as a BL novel or an FFG book, which in turn are just as "valid" as a GW Codex. It comes down to what you as an individual prefer and adopt for your very own perception of the setting. Sucks for establishing a common ground for people to discuss or play in, as consistency between sources gets lost, but them's the breaks.