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  "description": "The most interesting and least useful thing TSR made for Ravenloft, hands down.",
  "path": "/forbidden-lore/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-10-13T13:40:56.000Z",
  "site": "https://keithsenkowski.com",
  "tags": [
    "Annalise",
    "Subscribe now"
  ],
  "textContent": "When I was a kid some of the first novels I read were from Poe, Melville, and Dickens. My great grandfather at some point had acquired this \"great works of literature\" set of books. Published in the early 1900's, they were sold in a sort of Columbia Records style service model.\n\nI am pretty sure it was some sort of scam.\n\nI got lucky that when my great grandmother died that the shitty relatives that raided her house left these behind. The books ended up with my mom and not that many years later, I discovered them.\n\nI was mesmerized. I read my way through what used to be called the \"canon\" of great literature. Before I discovered the Sad Texan, the Repressed Racist, the Professor, and Saint Le Guin, I was well versed in the works that influenced them.\n\nIt is probably why I have been continuously drawn to and disappointed by **_Ravenloft_**.\n\nThe very idea of it is wonderful. A gothic horror RPG using the most well known RPG on the planet. Unfortunately gothic horror and **_D &D_** work like **Malört** and...\n\nWell, pretty much everything...\n\nHonestly, the best version of a gothic horror RPG is Annalise. We should all just go play that instead of both with this nonsense...\n\nBut as I am glutton for literary punishment, I dug out yet another **_Ravenloft_** product to poke and prod at. This time I reached for the **_Forbidden Lore_** boxed set to see if my memories are as faulty as I think they are.\n\n* * *\n\n## What's in the Box?\n\nI personally don't have the box anymore, but I do still have the contents. It was a strange boxed set I remember getting from **Waldenbooks** way back when. If I am not mistaken, I bought it before I got the core **_Ravenloft_** boxed set.\n\nMy early exploration TSR setting material was haphazard at best. I often found myself with material that clearly required some other material to be of any use.\n\n**_Forbidden Lore_** was one of those purchases. I remember getting it and thinking, \"**_D &D_** has psionics? What the fuck are psionics?\"\n\nThe best part of all this mess. Five slim booklets. Some blank dice with stickers. Some beautiful cards. Not one piece inside the box of introductory information. Nothing that is a basic, \"Hey you, this is what this is for.\"\n\nMaybe it was on the back of the box and I missed it. Who knows?\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Forbidden Lore",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-11T13:24:59.593Z"
}