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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, if you pay over forty billion dollars for something, you probably should actually start using it more.

Not even slightly true.

If you spend $40bn on something you should probably be looking to make sure that thing starts making more money (esp. given part of the reason he was able to buy it was Twitter's limited profitability), so you can recoup some of that $40bn and potentially start making a profit.

It's very unlikely that involves you, personally, "using it more". Quite the contrary. In fact by "using it more" he's helped to push the devaluation of Twitter from the $44bn he paid (and even then Twitter was worth maybe $30-something bn) to more like $10bn (as of last month - a drop from the $19bn it was estimated at a few months earlier), and the loans he used to buy it are now all deep underwater, in that they're on assets no longer worth anywhere near the amount of the loans. As he's good for the money and paying the interest in full, the banks haven't called them in but they are apparently attempting to get him to pay them off early because there's no prospect of Twitter returning to the $44bn value or above in the foreseeable future.

you are making my case

What's really funny with Musk was he was trying to gatekeep other people about Elden Ring, talking smack about builds and stuff. I think people genuinely assumed he had like at least a normal/average build, which maybe wasn't the best but wasn't actively awful. But not even that... this is what living surrounded by yes men does to you.

 

[Lidgar]

I thought this was an April Fools joke. Then I checked the calendar.

 

[Belen]

Classic troll? It’s not even a good one.

I used to love tech but social media has become a blight.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I know some of those words.

Asimov Line: the point where a person has heard so many bad things about people that have done things that they admire (kinda like a milkshake duck theory) that they are just resigned to the fact that every single person that has made anything cool that they like probably did something, at some time, that was terrible. I call it that because after I learned what Isaac Asimov had done, I was just like, I can't even anymore.

Piers Anthony: As I wrote, it's not good. And if you go back and re-visit what he wrote, you'll probably pick up on .... things.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: A very well respected writer (Mist of Avalon, Darkover) who ... I can't. If you want the abridged version, go to her wikipedia page.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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.

When I saw the article on Facebook, I literally had to doublecheck that it wasn't an Onion or Hard Times article.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Elon Musk: Recycling old memes and controversies for clout since 2006

 

[Obryn]

Asimov Line: the point where a person has heard so many bad things about people that have done things that they admire (kinda like a milkshake duck theory) that they are just resigned to the fact that every single person that has made anything cool that they like probably did something, at some time, that was terrible. I call it that because after I learned what Isaac Asimov had done, I was just like, I can't even anymore.

Piers Anthony: As I wrote, it's not good. And if you go back and re-visit what he wrote, you'll probably pick up on .... things.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: A very well respected writer (Mist of Avalon, Darkover) who ... I can't. If you want the abridged version, go to her wikipedia page.

Don't forget David and Leigh Eddings.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Am I the only one disappointed that Musk said Hell instead of the 9 Hells of Baator?

 

[Superchunk77]

Am I the only one disappointed that Musk said Hell instead of the 9 Hells of Baator?

Missed opportunity for sure.

 

[Superchunk77]

I used to love tech but social media has become a blight.

Agreed.