Pyramid Review
Burning Shaolin (for d20/Feng Shui)
Published by Atlas Games
Written by Robin D. Laws
Illustrated by Mike Dutton
$8.95
For the d20 system and the Open Gaming License, Robin D. Laws' Burning Shaolin marks the beginning of something different. Under the all-encompassing d20 label, the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition player has been exposed to a horde of new settings and even a new genre or two, but never before to a new setting, a new genre and a completely different game system in one go! Burning Shaolin does all that because it is the first of Atlas Games' titles under their Coriolis imprint, which crosses one of their games with the d20 System. As the title suggests, Burning Shaolin is a crossover between the swords and sorcery of d20 and the furious-fists-and-all-guns-blazing game of Hong Kong action, Feng Shui.
It should be made clear from the start what Burning Shaolin is not. It is not meant to be a conversion guide between the two game systems. Instead the intention is to introduce new players to Atlas Games' RPGs, to inject back into the d20 system some of the rules and gaming innovations seen in Feng Shui -- and also Unknown Armies and Ars Magica, both of which will get their own Coriolis titles, also expose books for those games to the potential sales of popular d20 titles.
Thus in Burning Shaolin we have an adventure that can be run under either d20 or Feng Shui. For the latter game, it is suitable for beginning characters and players, while for d20 it needs a . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 16, 2001
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