Chinese New Year 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart. Many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian
Creature Catalogue of the player characters, originally printed in the Master Set, is reproduced in the introduction. Each creature is listed with appropriate "D&D" statistics and a short description of the creature, its abilities and tactics. A variety of authors and artists combined to the listings including Zeb Cook and Gary Gygax. AC9 "Creature Catalogue" was compiled by Graeme Morris, Phil Gallagher, and Jim Bambra, and was published by TSR in 1986. The "Creature Catalogue" is in the format of a 96-page perfect-bound book, which TSR had been adopting more frequently at the time. Cover art is by Keith Parkinson. An updated