Elon Musk Calls for Wizards of the Coast to "Burn in Hell" Over Making of Original D&D Passages

Elon Musk, the owner of the app formerly known as Twitter, is calling on Wizards of the Coast and its parent company Hasbro to "burn in hell" for the publication of Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons. On November 21st, former gaming executive turned culture warrior Mark Hern posted several passages from Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter, criticizing the book for providing context about some of the misogyny and cultural insensitivity found in early rulebooks. These passages were pulled from the foreword written by Jason Tondro, a senior designer for the D&D team who also worked extensively on the book. Hern stated that these passages, along with the release of the new 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D's "40th anniversary" (it is actually D&D's 50th anniversary) both "erased and slandered" Gary Gygax and other creators of Dungeons & Dragons.

In response, Musk wrote "Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the [naughty word] is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell." Musk had played Dungeons & Dragons at some point in his youth, but it's unclear when the last time he ever played the game.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the [xxxx] is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell.

- Elon Musk​

Notably, Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons contains countless correspondences and letters written by both Gygax and Dave Arneson, including annotated copies of early D&D rulesets. Most early D&D rules supplements as well as early Dragon magazines are also found in the book. It seems odd to contain one of the most extensive compliations of Gygax's work an "erasure," but it's unclear whether Hern or Musk actually read the book given the incorrect information about the anniversary.

Additionally, Gygax and Arneson are both credited in the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. The exact credit reads: "Building on the original game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and then developed by many others over the past 50 years." Wizards of the Coast also regularly collaborates with Gygax's youngest son Luke and is a participant at Gary Con, a convention held in Gygax's honor. The opening paragraph of the 2024 Player's Handbook is written by Jeremy Crawford and specifically lauds both Gygax and Arneson for making Dungeons & Dragons and contains an anecdote about Crawford meeting Gygax.

Musk has increasingly leaned into culture war controversies in recent years, usually amplifying misinformation to suit his own political agenda.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I had been playing Cyberpunk 2020 for a few years before I saw a photo of Mike Pondsmith and learned he is Black. I just assumed Tracy Hickman was a woman for many years...though I can't remember why I thought that. It's amazing how easy it was back then not to know much of anything about the people who made the games we love.

I know, That's why I try to raise awareness every now and then.

Black History Month: Black RPG Game Designers

Inspired by the ongoing thread by @payn involving Black History Month and Musical Artists, I thought I'd start a separate thread with an appreciation of Black contributors to this hobby. Given that I'd like this to be a thread for people to contribute to, I'm only going to start with two people...

www.enworld.org

 

[Mannahnin]

Gygax "I'm a sexist"
WotC "He's a sexist"
Musk "How dare you!!!! call him names"

As Morrus already noted, the book doesn't even call anyone any names. It doesn't even name anyone to criticize them. It just talks about the text.

I honestly don't know what to say about Musk without risking delving into politics. This is the man who is supposed to be in charge of a whole new federal department dedicated to combating government waste and this is what he wastes his time on?

 

[Mark Craddock]

Each new day I wake up to something here in the U.S. that looks like its an Onion article or SNL skit and instead its real behavior by billionaires and newly re-elected politicians. Wow.

 

[J.Quondam]

If he wasn't in a position to influence the creation of a literal Woke Police or some such nonsense, it'd be just kind of stupid funny and pathetic.
As it is, though, this sort of thing leaves me feeling vaguely nauseous. And I say that as a middle-aged cishet white guy. I can't imagine how their woman- and minority- targets must feel when someone so obscenely wealthy and powerful constantly crows from his soapbox like this.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Each new day I wake up to something here in the U.S. that looks like its an Onion article or SNL skit and instead its real behavior by billionaires and newly re-elected politicians. Wow.

And it's only going to get worse from here on

 

[Sacrosanct]

Quite true!

But I think the hyperbole helps clarify things. As Gary took anti-women positions regularly. Pointing out his history, even starkly is not wrong.

It would be like denying that Piers Anthony was a staunch misogynist who wrote creepy pedophilia fan fiction. I mean, the guy literally admitted it in interviews...

I don't get devout fans sometimes.

 

[Velderan]

Look, I think we need to be sympathetic to Elon Musk. This is just him trying to make friends!

After all, he knows where he's going, and he doesn't want to be lonely there.

Ronny Chieng’s bit about him being a loser with no friends is hilarious, mostly because it doesn’t really seem to be a joke.

ETA: Starts at about the 8:20 mark.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The whole twitter thread is like a playground fight of toddlers throwing "DEI" and "Woke" at anyone who gets involved.

So since Thanksgiving is coming, I can reliably tell you that I will be with stupid people that I will be forced to interact with that will be slinging those terms with a higher frequency than Canadians saying sorry, with no choice but to sit and eat with them for hours.

It is possible that I will survive, either through noise-cancelling earbuds, copious amounts of alcohol, or (checks notes) ... both.

However, I will also entertain myself by asking them two questions-
1. What does DEI stand for?
2. What does "woke" mean?

Then I will sit back and watch the sputtering and very slow churning of the gears. After all, it's not really the holidays until the brawl starts.


Finally, a Holiday song for you! I'll put it in spoilers... with apologies to The Cranberries.

Another head hangs lowly
Turkey slowly taken
And your Uncle's n-word caused such silence
Who are we, mistaken?

But you see, it's not me
It's my stupid family
At Thanksgiving, every Christmas, we are fighting
With their "jokes," and their quotes
And their QAnon, and their long racist rants
Now they're talking about Sandy Hook, and your cousin- she is crying

In their heads, in their heads
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What's in your family's heads, in their heads
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie, oh

Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Why does this guy invade everything? Now he's all up in my TTRPG hobby!?!?

Ironically he's exactly the kind of nerd "tourist" he no doubt sneers at. He's not actually very much involved in anything in nerd-dom, but he has really strong opinions about all of it. I'm not trying to "gatekeep" Elon Musk here (LOL) but like, come on man, maybe stick to stuff you actually know about? I still remember when he was boasting on Twitter about what an amazing and clever Elden Ring player he was, and he got talked into posting his build, and it was like, impressively dumb, like you'd have to not only not understand the basic mechanics of the game (of any Souls game even), but also not notice how poorly you were doing, and not take obvious actions to improve on that.

Ronny Chieng’s bit about him being a loser with no friends is hilarious, mostly because it doesn’t really seem to be a joke.

100%. The way he acts, the things he says, everything he shows from his life (man his bedside was so bleak I actually briefly felt sorry for a guy with $200bn), is just so much like what the worst "It's everyone's fault but mine!" loser you kicked out of your D&D group for cheating when you were 17 were like, if said loser had infinite money but was otherwise unchanged.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Ronny Chieng’s bit about him being a loser with no friends is hilarious, mostly because it doesn’t really seem to be a joke.

Norm MacDonald said that the perfect joke is one where the punchline is the setup.

Like this-

This week it was revealed that in his first interview with the police, OJ Simpson had refused to take a lie detector test. His reason? It detects lies.

It's the same with that bit.