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.

 

[overgeeked]

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.

There are a bunch of games. There’s two threads on that other site filled with suggestions.

Plus Thread! - Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism games for these trying times | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

➕ Plus Thread! - Anti-Fascist TTRPGS for Getting Through The Next Few Years | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

As the flip side to our very fertile thread on Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism games, I'm interested in hearing about games that have strong anti-fascist themes. I'm really thinking of starting to run a series of stuff like this for the next year or so, or at least see what's out...

forum.rpg.net

 

[Kannik]

Sigh. Beyond the eyeroll-y ness of how just factually inaccurate his false outrage is (0.18% of the book that lavishly reproduces the original works of Gygax et al gently mentions that some of it may be discriminatory), it's also late. Passé. This book (and the brouhaha that happened on twiter, no less!) came out months ago. At least get with recent falsehoods!

View attachment 386907

As a martial artist, I feel compelled to note that is terrible sword-handling form. (Which, TBF, is not unexpected for an untrained person.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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

That would require both a deeper understanding of the stuff he says he's a fan of, and a sense of humor. Neither of which he has shown himself to have.

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."

Xanth is so creepy. On a lark I tried re-reading some of the Xanth stuff, and it is both badly written and deeply problematic. All the moreso considering that these were books marketed to children.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Neither of which he has shown himself to have.

Odd how so many rocketbros idolize the works of Iain M. Banks, when anyone with the most cursory knowledge of him or his works groks that he would have utterly loathed the rocketbros.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's also Spoutible!

Hey, you must be the other person using Spoutible!

(Great tech, but it feels like Spirit Halloween should be taking over the site any day now.)

 

[BrockBallingdark]

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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 Jon Peterson, one of the foremost historians about Dungeons & Dragons and who also collaborated with Wizards of the Coast 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.

He is a God!

 

[Steampunkette]

Steampunkette (She/Her) (@steampunkette.bsky.social)

TTRPG Designer, Nerd, Feminist, SJW, Anti-Fascist, Neurospicy (DAVE/Autism spectrum), Research Monkey. It goes without saying but then again these days maybe it doesn't: naughty word Nazis. naughty word White Supremacy. naughty word Trump.

bsky.app

 

[MGibster]

Xanth is so creepy. On a lark I tried re-reading some of the Xanth stuff, and it is both badly written and deeply problematic. All the moreso considering that these were books marketed to children.

I read five or six of them and remember almost nothing about them. Though I remember enjoying them when I was a teenager. I think the first book was about a kid who was a late bloomer magic wise and he was in danger of being kicked out of the kingdom because of it. I'm pretty sure I read Nightmare, but remember absolutely nothing about it. It's been a while, but I can't remember anything objectionable from those first few books, but I see there have been 47. Wow. That's a lot of books.

 

[Hathorym]

Elon Musk seems like the type of person I would kick from my games, tbh

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I read five or six of them and remember almost nothing about them. Though I remember enjoying them when I was a teenager. I think the first book was about a kid who was a late bloomer magic wise and he was in danger of being kicked out of the kingdom because of it. I'm pretty sure I read Nightmare, but remember absolutely nothing about it. It's been a while, but I can't remember anything objectionable from those first few books, but I see there have been 47. Wow. That's a lot of books.

They're essentially "Florida, puns, stock hero's journey character, puns, Xanth, puns, weird sexism, puns, Florida, puns, the end, puns."