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.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Part of what musk is pushing back on I think is displayed here.

You don’t like someone’s opinion about something so you devalue them and their contributions on all fronts.

Did Gygax say things many of us would deem sexist? Of course.

Is it a big deal that someone documents that—-in a history? Doesn’t bother me. Facts hurt sometimes.

But saying musk did not accomplish anything? That does not square. Gygax was just a bad man? The game would have happened anyway without him?

Upthread there is a statement about nuance. Come on. Let’s enter the paradox together. People (even “you” I wager) do good and bad things.

I don’t think a foreword to a history is character assassination. Take a breath. But there are folks that don’t distinguish baby and bath water and that gets old. So does defense of bad behavior.

Enter the paradox. Acknowledge reality but take the puritanical stick from rectum. There is almost nothing good that humans have touched that doesn’t have history.

 

[billd91]

WotC & Tondo should apologize to the Fandom of Gygax and make better choices in the future. Try to make peace.

No, they shouldn’t. There wouldn’t be a problem if their response wasn’t wildly out of proportion. Sexism was blatant in elements of the game. The foreword puts it in context.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

No, they shouldn’t. There wouldn’t be a problem if their response wasn’t wildly out of proportion. Sexism was blatant in elements of the game. The foreword puts it in context.

Seed the wind, reap the whirlwind as they say. I'm not convincing anyone so I'm out of this thread, because this isn't really my problem,WotC did this to themselves, it's their problem as are the consequences.

Just Tondo PLEASE DON'T SCREW UP ON DOING THE FR BOOKS, I care more that he learns from his mistakes. I'm an FR fan first, D&D fan second, so for me these are more important then the Core Books or this "history" book.

 

[Morrus]

Forward

Foreword.

WotC & Tondo should apologize to the Fandom of Gygax and make better choices in the future.

Don't be ridiculous.

Seed the wind, reap the whirlwind as they say.

There's no 'whirlwind'. Just a stupid tweet from a billionaire whose platform is falling off a cliff and giving us somebody to laugh at for a day.

 

[Morrus]

Some points can be read between the lines without the writer outright saying it,

That's called "making stuff up".

the foreward,

Foreword. Why is this so hard?

 

[Morrus]

forward

Foreword.

 

[Leatherhead]

Fourword.

 

[Parmandur]

Fourword.

Wardfour

 

[Bedrockgames]

Ugh, not this again.

As a reminder, it's not just one quote. It's not just the random harlot table (or the good wife table, where you will get gossip, or accused falsely of ... sexual assault). And it's not just in the past.

Just as an FYI-

I have never personally succeeded in converting a female to the hobby, including all three of my daughters. They played and enjoyed it for some weeks or months, but lost interest thereafter.
Gygax, 2005.

As I have often said, I am a biological determinist, and there is no question that male and female brains are different. It is apparent to me that by and large females do not derrive the same inner satisfaction from playing games as a hobby that males do. It isn't that females can't play games well, it is just that it isn't a compelling activity to them as is the case for males.
Gygax, 2004.

That was here, on this website. And it's not out of context- check the links.

People are complicated. And most of us have a lot of good, and some bad. We should cherish the hobby he created, and joy he gave so many.

But that doesn't mean that because he made things that we like, that we reflexively pretend that facts aren't facts. He was complicated, and there are some things that cannot just be excuse as "of his time" since it went through the 2000s.

I just think people can reach different conclusion about this stuff and not hate each other over it. And there is a range of opinion as well. Some people might reject the foreword entirely. Some people might agree with what it says about sexist language, but reject other aspects of the criticism. Some people might agree with what it says about sexism and other things, but disagree with calling it conscious misogyny. It goes on and on. I think we can all have these different views, without accusing each other of being completely wrong or bad. And I think when it comes to judging Gygax himself, people are going to have wildly different opinions. These are charged terms that require individual judgment to decide how well grounded we think the criticisms are. You have reached some different conclusions than I have (and I don't disagree with everything you have said). But it doesn't affect my overall positive impression of you. People see the same text, the same concepts and have different responses. But I also don't find your criticisms reductive

I love Gygax for what he gave me. But I'm not going to stick my head in the sand. It's always the case that great art is created by imperfect people.

I agree with this sentiment. I am not particularly invested in creators as people. And I think people with flaws tend to make more interesting art in general (I think there are a wide range of reasons for that but in my experience creative people often have demons, mental illness, etc that makes their art a necessary catharsis but also gives it a flame that makes it compelling: I love Kubrick movies for example but not sure I would want to have spent an afternoon with him).

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Foreword.

Don't be ridiculous.


There's no 'whirlwind'. Just a stupid tweet from a billionaire whose platform is falling off a cliff and giving us somebody to laugh at for a day.

His platform still has hundreds of millions of people on it and the folks with actual power are still there or like Disney and others major decision makers and advertisers have came back. It doesn't matter if Twitter is losing money or even a a few million users, because it achieved it's purpose for Musk, RAW POWER. And that doesn't even include the fact that Musk could simply buy Hasbro easily, and put say Kuntz in charge or anyone he wanted too. 8 billion is chump change for Musk. And he's well positioned for the next 4 years to become richer and even more powerful, with advertisers flocking to Twitter not so much to benifit from the ads as to kiss the scepter of the new scary vengenful regime. Musk has too much power, he will be able to end the FTC lawsuits against his company now for example. I find it very concerning honestly. But I'm drifting to much into the political realm, I apologize, it's just hard to discuss what Musk does without contending with his increased power and it's consequences on whatever he does now. It lands differently now then it did back in October, the whole game changed.