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]

Yeah Piers Anthony. I read his stuff as a kid and missed all the problematic things. Then I re-read it as an adult and ... wow. I did not like what I was reading.

I feel ya.

I really liked some of his books when I was young.

And when I went back ... I was like .... What in the actual fudge? How did I miss this?

But... when you're young and dumb and full of rum*, you can miss what is obvious when you're older.



*Mama Snarf was a big believer in "The passed out child doesn't cause problems" parenting approach.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Ah, Piers Anthony; fantasy literature's own Florida Man

Oh, by the way- the Florida Man series on HBO? There're not all great, but the ones that are?

THEY ARE SPECTACULAR!


ETA- The short Snarf Review? As fun entertainment, I give it 4 out of 5 alligators on meth.

 

[Hussar]

I feel ya.

I really liked some of his books when I was young.

And when I went back ... I was like .... What in the actual fudge? How did I miss this?

But... when you're young and dumb and full of rum*, you can miss what is obvious when you're older.



*Mama Snarf was a big believer in "The passed out child doesn't cause problems" parenting approach.

Heh. Just to be serious for a moment, I wonder how much of the reactions that people seem to have when we talk about stuff not aging well has to do with people reading stuff years ago, liking it, and then not rereading with fresh eyes.

 

[GreyLord]

Okay, so I read some Piers Anthony when I was younger. I think Xanth 1-9. I don't recall anything absolutely terrible in that series...per se...but if the comments are correct in this thread...maybe I shouldn't revisit it...ever?

Is there anything bad in those first 9 or 10 Xanth Books (those would be the ones I'd revisit to read if I read anything by Anthony).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Heh. Just to be serious for a moment, I wonder how much of the reactions that people seem to have when we talk about stuff not aging well has to do with people reading stuff years ago, liking it, and then not rereading with fresh eyes.

A lot. Especially if they read it before, oh, 20 (to pick an arbitrary, yet correct enough for Malcolm Gladwell's next book and TED talk, number).

We do have to be careful, though. Because we have to remember that we have changed too. I mean, there was a time when I couldn't wait to have my own job and money, because then I could just eat all the cookie dough I wanted, instead of having to steal it from the store because Mama Snarf used all the money for likker and drugs being told that we had to make cookies.

 

[Jahydin]

In case anyone was interested what was actually written in the book, like me, I found this:

“Note that the ‘Rules for Fantastic Medieval War-Games Campaigns’ that make up original D&D were created by and sold to a wargaming community that was almost exclusively white, middle-class men.”

“The rules compiled here offer little by way of roles for other players, nor indeed for anyone who wouldn’t easily identify with a pulp sword-and-sorcery hero,” said the designer. “Especially before 1974, the rules made light of slavery, in addition to including other harmful content.”

Later on in the preface, Tondro likewise warns readers, “Some language in the first iteration of D&D presents a moral quandary. The documents reproduced in this book include many pages of charts and tables alongside lists of monsters, spells, and magic items. But that game content also includes a virtual catalog of insensitive and derogatory language, words that are casually hurtful to anyone with a physical or mental disability, or who happen to be old, fat, not conventionally attractive, indigenous, Black, or a woman.”

“Some people have charitably ascribed this language to authors working from bad assumptions,” he continues. “In the 1970s, historical wargamers in America were predominantly white, middle-class men; it isn’t surprising that they would dub a class of soldiers the ‘fighting-man’. But when, in the pages of [the expansion module] Greyhawk, the description of the Queen of Chatoci Dragons includes a dig at ‘Women’s Lib’, the misogyny is revealed as a conscious choice.”

Further, Tondro asserts, “It’s an unfortunate fact that women seldom appear in original D&D, and when they do, they’re usually portrayed disrespectfully. Slavery appears in original D&D not as a human tragedy that devastated generations over centuries, but as a simple commercial transaction.”

“The cultural appropriation of original D&D ranges from the bewildering (like naming every 6th-level cleric a ‘lama’) to the staggering; [the reference book] Gods, Demigods, and Heroes (not reprinted in this book) includes game statistics for sacred figures revered by more than a billion people around the world,” he then recalls. “Were players expected to fight Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism, kill him, and loot his ‘Plus 3 sword of demon slaying’?”

Closing out the preface, Tondro ultimately opines, “Despite these shortcomings, D&D has always been a game about people choosing to be someone unlike themselves and collaborating with strangers who become friends. It has slowly become more inclusive, and as the player base has become more diverse, the pool of creators who make the game expanded to include people with a broader range of identities and backgrounds. As these new creators make the game more welcoming, the game has attracted new fans who, in turn, continue to make the game more inclusive. The future of Dungeons & Dragons, here at its fiftieth anniversary, is bright.”

 

[GMMichael]

Are we surprised that Musk has come to the side of someone holding misogynist views?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Okay, so I read some Piers Anthony when I was younger. I think Xanth 1-9. I don't recall anything absolutely terrible in that series...per se...but if the comments are correct in this thread...maybe I shouldn't revisit it...ever?

Is there anything bad in those first 9 or 10 Xanth Books (those would be the ones I'd revisit to read if I read anything by Anthony).

Well, as someone who once read a lot of Piers Anthony way back when...

His writing isn't as charming as you remember, because you (and your tastes) have changed.

But yeah, I don't know if it's every book, but it's pretty pervasive.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Are we surprised that Musk has come to the side of someone holding misogynist views?

What? Elon Musk loves women!

Without women, how could he have 5,934 children?

 

[Parmandur]

Heh. Just to be serious for a moment, I wonder how much of the reactions that people seem to have when we talk about stuff not aging well has to do with people reading stuff years ago, liking it, and then not rereading with fresh eyes.

There is "not aging well" like some backwards views on gender or something that have to do with someone'stime and culture, and then there is "sly yet active advocacy for pedophilia" which was...always bad, but he got away with it.