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.

 

[Maxperson]

Never thought I'd see the day when the upper echlons on political power would care this much about D&D it's freaking weird time to be alive.

It's only a matter of time before someone runs for office on the D&D platform.

 

[Scribe]

Never thought I'd see the day when the upper echlons on political power would care this much about D&D it's freaking weird time to be alive.

Upper echlons of political power? The guy is a meme who has the ear of the next President.

As far as 'caring about D&D' he doesnt do that either, I'm quite sure, just as most on either side dont really care about what they claim to care about.

Its all about whipping up the culture war, keeping both camps as polarized, distrustful, or outright hateful of each other, and making sure that people remain in their on safe bubbles and celebrate moving themselves or cementing themselves in their echochambers.

I dont believe for a second Musk cares about a foreword.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It's only a matter of time before someone runs for office on the D&D platform.

Does D&D Beyond have ads?

 

[Maxperson]

He doesn't. But you do. And he wants to use your anger to his purpose.

I'm not convinced that he doesn't. The latter for sure, but he's the sort of person that I can see having played D&D and still maybe playing once in a while.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Upper echlons of political power? The guy is a meme who has the ear of the next President.

As far as 'caring about D&D' he doesnt do that either, I'm quite sure, just as most on either side dont really care about what they claim to care about.

Its all about whipping up the culture war, keeping both camps as polarized, distrustful, or outright hateful of each other, and making sure that people remain in their on safe bubbles and celebrate moving themselves or cementing themselves in their echochambers.

I dont believe for a second Musk cares about a foreword.

The ear, and alot more, of the most powerful, least restrained, gives no ***** President since Johnson, while controlling one of the most influential social media companies in the world with global reach, and power over the government agencies that govern his business dealings with the US government (he's a major contractor with the US and other governments like the provincial Ontario government already). Don't understate his worrying level of power right now.

I think Musk is an actual D&D fan, so it might be legit anger, it might not be, it doesn't really matter, when he buy Hasbro without anything anyone can do to stop him just to make a point and a extra buck and if you think Chris Cox gutted WotC, wait till Musk gets it and pulls a Twitter on it and reducing Hasbros work force to like a third of its size. This is a very real risk, I don't want that, too many innocent people hurt.

 

[Parmandur]

I updated my earlier post with Heidi Gygax's response.

Ben Riggs did, to be fair, take things a step too far and got a bit dramatic.

 

[Arilyn]

No, some of it was stripped of context so I wouldn't say it's true, but I do say either way it was better to let sleeping dogs lie, none of the things that they don't like are relevant to today and the stuff that is relevant to D&D today is stuff they didn't object to so focus on that.

So

1. Don't take things out of context or even lie about things in some cases.

2. Let sleeping dogs lie, folks wanted a celebration not a smug attack on their heroes.

The book is a celebration of the history. The foreword clarifies the attitudes that were wrong then, as now, and reminds the readers of the game's current, more inclusive environment. As a society, we can get better. A nice reminder these days when the world can seem bleak.

History always remains relevant. We can't learn and move forward without those past experiences shaping (hopefully) better decisions.

 

[Scribe]

The ear, and alot more, of the most powerful, least restrained, gives no ***** President since Johnson, while controlling one of the most influential social media companies in the world with global reach, and power over the government agencies that govern his business dealings with the US government (he's a major contractor with the US and other governments like the provincial Ontario government already). Don't understate his worrying level of power right now.

I think Musk is an actual D&D fan, so it might be legit anger, it might not be, it doesn't really matter, when he buy Hasbro without anything anyone can do to stop him just to make a point and a extra buck and if you think Chris Cox gutted WotC, wait till Musk gets it and pulls a Twitter on it and reducing Hasbros work force to like a third of its size. This is a very real risk, I don't want that, too many innocent people hurt.

Nah bro. We all survived the first time, and some of us are not even American. Will there be disruption? Yeah, but is it going to materially impact my life up here on the Canadian West Coast? Beyond some stock price shifts? No. It will be less impactful than the idiotic 'lets just decriminalize all the hard drugs and see the healing happen' lunacy that I get to drive/walk through now in my home town.

If Musk was an actual fan, with only God knows how much actual wealth? He would have bought Hasbro/Wizards around the time Tashas came out, and saved us from the slow decline.

The reality of the situation is, this is just another play in the culture war. 100%

The fact this garbage is infecting the whole world because 'everyone' is plugged into the News Entertainment/Social media sphere, or if they are not in comes to us anyway like this thread has, is the real problem.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:

Folks, this is not a thread to discuss politics of the next White House Administration.

 

[Morrus]

No, some of it was stripped of context so I wouldn't say it's true, but I do say either way it was better to let sleeping dogs lie, none of the things that they don't like are relevant to today and the stuff that is relevant to D&D today is stuff they didn't object to so focus on that.

So

1. Don't take things out of context or even lie about things in some cases.

2. Let sleeping dogs lie, folks wanted a celebration not a smug attack on their heroes.

So…. you’re against history books in general? What about history classes at school? Should they avoid mentioning any … err… history, too? Or just history you don’t like? Should the history books not exist at all, or should they doctor the history to make it more palatable? Is that all history, or just history that scary billionaires take an interest in? We need to know!