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.

 

[Parmandur]

One of the things I keep realizing is that the vile elements of a lot of fantasy that was popular when I was coming up and a little before were not considered vile by all of the kids reading them (or the adults they have become).

Folks like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel do think about the stuff they read years ago, and remember what it felt like to be ostracized for reading and enjoying it, and have turned into toxic adults. Musk's desperation to be loved and adored is naked, and Thiel's more subtle machinations are in line with a guy who thinks of humanity as a hierarchy with himself at the top of it. But they're both undeniably Big Frickin' Nerds. They're just the kind of nerds that fall into the Geek Social Fallacies , never had to learn and grow out of them, and now wield enough power that we all have to put up with them, and all of their disfunctions.

The while Palintir...thing...makes one question how deep Peter Thiel's grasp of Tolkien's themes really is...

 

[Remathilis]

The while Palintir...thing...makes one question how deep Peter Thiel's grasp of Tolkien's themes really is...

Everything I know about him tells me that is not a mistake, that is an in-joke he thinks only the higher intelligence nerds will get and the clueless normies will miss.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Glad to hear it. Just purchased it myself and looking forward to reading through it.

I have it. It is awesome.

Except for one thing...

I have been meaning to write some, um, thread starters / essays on it and inspired by it. And I haven't. So the book angrily looks at me every time I pass it by, as if to say, "What, am I not as desirable and hot as The Elusive Shift? C'mon Snarf, I have a little Peterson in me waiting for you..."

 

[Sacrosanct]

So....in contrast to the well-known authors are/were crappy humans, here are some best-selling authors who are genuine good people:

Tad Williams
Terry Brooks
Weis & Hickman
Bob Salvatore
Stephen King
Ursula K. Le Guin

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So....in contrast to the well-known authors are/were crappy humans, here are some best-selling authors who are genuine good people:

Tad Williams
Terry Brooks
Weis & Hickman
Bob Salvatore
Stephen King
Ursula K. Le Guin

Sacrosanct ... I love the list (I am a HUGE Ursula K. Le Guin fan*) but you don't want to tempt the fates like that.

Remember the M.A.R. Barker thing? You just never know.


*(I remember being holed up in a cottage in Vermont in a blizzard, and I was looking for something to do, and I found a book on the shelf. That's how I first encountered The Left Hand of Darkness. Once I started, I couldn't stop reading until the end. It was magic. That's a memory that I will always cherish.)

 

[Shiroiken]

The number of people who seem to care what Musk says continues to astound me.

 

[Zardnaar]

The number of people who seem to care what Musk says continues to astound me.

Number of people who complain about social media and keep using it astounds me.

Never signed up for Twiiter won't be using Bluesky either.
War Games tic tac toe. The winning move is not to play.

I don't use block functions in my very limited usage. I just see cat stuff on Facebook along with local beer and food stuff.

YouTube lots of 80s music videos.

Easy to avoid.

 

[Parmandur]

So....in contrast to the well-known authors are/were crappy humans, here are some best-selling authors who are genuine good people:

Tad Williams
Terry Brooks
Weis & Hickman
Bob Salvatore
Stephen King
Ursula K. Le Guin

I would be shocked to find out that Brandon Sanderson was so much as slightly impatient with a waiter.

 

[billd91]

The number of people who seem to care what Musk says continues to astound me.

Unfortunately, his wealth has bought him a pretty massive soapbox from which to spew his deranged tweets as well as sycophants hoping to bask in his shadow. And sometimes, that means you gotta push back.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

You know what's funny? Some of WotC's biggest rivals have already left Titter for Bluesky

Tabletop creators leave X for Bluesky in droves

Bluesky has already grown to to 21.2 million users

www.polygon.com

In the Table Top RPG world WotC has no rivals only mice who feed on the crumbs from its plate.

Honestly the Forward was a huge mistake, it doesn't matter if Gygax had some backwards things, it picked a huge completely unneeded fight with a large part of the fan base that already believes rightly the current day WotC doesn't have enough respect enough for D&D creators of yore or the lore. There was no need to do it and it was a divisive mistake.

It'd be like Paramount putting out a statement that would he certain to be perceived by a large amount of the Trekkies as disrespecting Gene Roddberry, you just don't do it, period. Or Disney putting out an insulting screed about Walt Disney, George Lucas, or Stan Lee. You don't do those things, not if you don't enjoy the bad lash.

I wouldn't care that much if Tondo wasn't WotC employee, he's free to have his own opinions, but in an official capcity working for WotC it was just a bad idea that was needless. Why create all the drama?

it worries me that this is the same man who appears to be in charge of FR Setting Books, can we look forward to a Foreward attacking Ed Greenwood?

WotC needs to pick it's battles better.