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.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

It’s always weird to see this puritan nonsense. You get 8 hours of sleep at a different time than I do, therefore you must be lazy and have no work ethic.

Not defending Musk, at all, rather the millions of people who don’t work 9-5 jobs.

I don't think that was a jab at non-standard work hours - the original point was that if Musk is sleeping 8 hours a day (at any point during the 24hr period) then he doesn't have anywhere near the work ethic he forces his workers to have, and pretends that he himself has

 

[Scribe]

Capitalists are. As long as it’s them in charge.

Anyone who knows about stocks and publicly traded companies know how many Hasbro stocks Musk needs to buy to get ownership? I’m assuming it’s 51% for control if not outright ownership.

If my links are correct and understanding is correct (questionable on both!) looks like it wouldnt take much. Just spin off some of his Tesla stock to finance it.

 

[toucanbuzz]

 

[I'm A Banana]

I am already so exhausted by the next 4 years or so.

Hey, as an antidote to centering utter lunatics, can someone recommend to me a D&D or TTRPG product with a strong feminist stance / message? Maybe we can talk about people doing good work in this space instead of the nefarious blowhards.

 

[Vaalingrade]

How can the most wealthy person in the world, capable of traveling anywhere they want including space, able to buy anything, able to bribe anyone they want and pretty much commit any crime in most of the world... HAVE THIS LITTLE TO DO?!

 

[Sacrosanct]

Wait what?

I read his Incarcerations of Immorality series a life time ago and probably got me into sci-fi fantasy books.

His writing....didn't age well at all. Too many creepy pedophilic and misogynistic themes that keep recurring (Spell of Chameleon literally says a woman can't be smart and beautiful at the same time.". Just go back and see how many times he sexualizes children, and reinforces the theme that a female's only value is her sexual appeal. There are at least 5 instances of him writing men having sex with 14 years old or younger girls and seems to do it with glee and in great detail (Xanth, Incarnations of Immortality, Bio of a Space Tyrant, Mode series, and Firefly,

Spoiler: awful stuff

where a man rapes a 5 year old girl in great detail and Anthony defends the man by saying the girl was damaged by her parents, and this man gave her what she wanted.

Yeah, gross.

Don't know about you, but that's a recurring theme that's disturbing. Even moreso when Anthony defends pedophilia in an interview he did, calling it harmless":

Spoiler

"I suspect our priorities are confused. We have problems enough with world hunger and injustice, without making more by punishing people for deviant but perhaps harmless behavior."

Or his comment when working with a convicted and imprisoned sex offender:

Spoiler

"But this is another bit of evidence of the problem in our society: as far as I know, Santiago Hernandez did not hurt anyone. [He was in prison for sexual molestation of a 13 year old] He just happens to be sexually attracted to small boys."

 

[Scribe]

His writing....didn't age well at all.

naughty word yikes. I would say thats the understatement of the day.

 

[DarkCrisis]

His writing....didn't age well at all. Too many creepy pedophilic and misogynistic themes that keep recurring (Spell of Chameleon literally says a woman can't be smart and beautiful at the same time.". Just go back and see how many times he sexualizes children, and reinforces the theme that a female's only value is her sexual appeal. There are at least 5 instances of him writing men having sex with 14 years old or younger girls and seems to do it with glee and in great detail (Xanth, Incarnations of Immortality, Bio of a Space Tyrant, Mode series, and Firefly,

Spoiler: awful stuff

where a man rapes a 5 year old girl in great detail and Anthony defends the man by saying the girl was damaged by her parents, and this man gave her what she wanted.

Yeah, gross.

Don't know about you, but that's a recurring theme that's disturbing. Even moreso when Anthony defends pedophilia in an interview he did, calling it harmless":

Spoiler

"I suspect our priorities are confused. We have problems enough with world hunger and injustice, without making more by punishing people for deviant but perhaps harmless behavior."

Or his comment when working with a convicted and imprisoned sex offender:

Spoiler

"But this is another bit of evidence of the problem in our society: as far as I know, Santiago Hernandez did not hurt anyone. [He was in prison for sexual molestation of a 13 year old] He just happens to be sexually attracted to small boys."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am already so exhausted by the next 4 years or so.

Hey, as an antidote to centering utter lunatics, can someone recommend to me a D&D or TTRPG product with a strong feminist stance / message? Maybe we can talk about people doing good work in this space instead of the nefarious blowhards.

We have a poster to created an OSR-style product with exactly that goal, although I am embarrassed to say I don't remember the name of the game.

@Snarf Zagyg, I believe, also started a thread this summer about LGBT-friendly RPGs that would probably also be worth looking at, since those are normally very feminist as well. (Thirsty Sword Lesbians, for instance, sits squarely in the overlap of that particular Venn diagram.)

 

[Parmandur]

His writing....didn't age well at all. Too many creepy pedophilic and misogynistic themes that keep recurring (Spell of Chameleon literally says a woman can't be smart and beautiful at the same time.". Just go back and see how many times he sexualizes children, and reinforces the theme that a female's only value is her sexual appeal. There are at least 5 instances of him writing men having sex with 14 years old or younger girls and seems to do it with glee and in great detail (Xanth, Incarnations of Immortality, Bio of a Space Tyrant, Mode series, and Firefly,

Spoiler: awful stuff

where a man rapes a 5 year old girl in great detail and Anthony defends the man by saying the girl was damaged by her parents, and this man gave her what she wanted.

Yeah, gross.

Don't know about you, but that's a recurring theme that's disturbing. Even moreso when Anthony defends pedophilia in an interview he did, calling it harmless":

Spoiler

"I suspect our priorities are confused. We have problems enough with world hunger and injustice, without making more by punishing people for deviant but perhaps harmless behavior."

Or his comment when working with a convicted and imprisoned sex offender:

Spoiler

"But this is another bit of evidence of the problem in our society: as far as I know, Santiago Hernandez did not hurt anyone. [He was in prison for sexual molestation of a 13 year old] He just happens to be sexually attracted to small boys."

I loved Xanth as a kid, but in retrospect...literally the creepiest stuff I have ever read.