This is Forbidden Lore (1992). What a strange box set.

This is a follow-up box for the original Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (1990) box set. I never owned this back in the day and only recently got a copy. I always assumed it bridged the gap between Realm of Terror and the Ravenloft Campaign Setting (1994) and addressed the Grand Conjunction metaplot that played out in the modules, but no, I was totally wrong. Forbidden Lore is actually a sort of catch-all of expansions and revisions, which made finally cracking it open a bit underwhelming.

The meat is spread out over five small booklets. Cryptic Allegiances introduces some secret societies that never get developed further. Oaths of Evil is basically a player-requested revision of the curse rules in the original box – folks really wanted more detail and guidance on how to use them and I can’t think of another instance in which TSR addressed player concerns like this in a retail product and not in Dragon Magazine. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Dark Recesses is about psionics, which were re-introduced into D&D in 1991 (in the Psionics Handbook as well as Dark Sun) and this booklet serves to explain how those new rules work in Ravenloft (and brings along a Dark Sun Darklord). Nova Arcanum does the same for the new magic rules from Tome of Magic (1991).

Finally, the Waking Dream provides fortune telling rules for the included Tarokka cards (basically Ravenloft-themed Tarot cards gorgeously illustrated by Stephen Fabian) and Dikesha dice (which were blank and require stickers and were quickly forgotten). Ravenloft’s interest in fortune telling cards goes back to the original I6 module and I think these cards, which were also included in the 1994 box, are the coolest thing to come out of the setting.

Clyde Caldwell’s cover art is a favorite of mine – I love it when demons leap out of books.