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.

 

[mamba]

I don't consider this a legit history text book,

it is the closest you will get though

Ben has a right to publish his book, but if it picks fights with people, then he has to deal with that

he did not pick fights, he accurately mentioned some historical facts

It's the history and quite frankly reality deniers that are objecting to this

 

[Bedrockgames]

that in no way addresses the misogyny. So we have his daughter confirming his sexism and the Trolls saying they liked working with him and look forward to making money off him.

If these are your best character witnesses, the defense has a problem

Heidi Gygax rejected the idea that he was a misogynist. I wouldn't say she confirmed all claims about his sexism or his quotes that were labeled sexist (she specifically said she thought those were not accurate or out of context). She did address in what way she thought he was sexist, but it is pretty nuanced:

Regarding the post by Ben Riggs “D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax was Sexist” IMO much seems to be taken out of context and pieced together. I cannot verify the sources, although I truly believe they are incomplete and/or incorrect. I think Frank Mentzer states his insights on this eloquently. As for my perspective, I do not believe my father was racist or misogynistic. Was he sexist? He was born in 1938 to a father born in the 1880’s and a mother born in 1906. He was raised in a traditional Anglo-Saxon Protestant family with traditional biblical family values where the male was the head of the household. In my adult opinion, yes, this is sexist and doesn’t hold up to our more enlightened standards today. Yet, he was a loving father and husband who valued all of his children and his wife. All 3 of his daughters played D&D with him at some point, but I happen to be the only one who still plays. In short, he wasn’t perfect, but he was far from all of the negative accusations that are (re) surfacing, and I’m extremely proud - as a strong, independent female - to have E. Gary Gygax as my father and my family legacy.

 

[Parmandur]

it is the closest you will get though


he did not pick fights, he accurately mentioned some historical facts

It's the history and quite frankly reality deniers that are objecting to this

More importantly, Riggs was doing that on social media, not in the book: he was not involved with the book in any capacity

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I'm going to take a stab at this, actually.

I think that there are people that fall into two camps.

One camp will defend their "heroes" and try to fight any attempt to discuss, you know, the actual facts about them.
Then there are others, unfortunately, who do try to take people down- those who only look at the bad, and forget the good.

I'd like to think that at some point we can realize that people are complicated, and we can both accept that people have done things that we don't like, but they have also done things that we do like, And just because someone has produced something "good" for you- art, music, literature, politics, a winning season for you team, whatever ... you can still not reflexively deny that the person in question may have done other things.

Like a lot of things, there's a lot of gray, and people often only see black and white.

Most things require some nuance. Except bards. They require termination... with extreme prejudice.

120%. You left one overlap out of your Venn diagram (I guess truth table is a better analogy) though: you can't be someone who sees the immediately and obviously questionable things, then immediately disregards the 'something "good" for you'.

These discussions always fall down when:

a) sides are taken, which is inevitable

But jump the shark when:

b) a side sees only that their position is pure wisdom and the other side is pure evil and stupidity

Yes, people are complicated, and have complicated reasons for positions they take. Even if they're wrong, they might be just bad folks. Or they might just be misguided. Let's allow for both possibilities. Also allow that they might be partially wrong, but so are we. Tribalism... nothing good comes of it.

Not at all suggesting you aren't being fair-minded! Just pointing for others reading your post that all opinions deserve to be objectively considered.

 

[mamba]

I think the Trolls specifically posting in support of Musk's statement, citing their 8 years of experience working with Gygax for credibility, a clear endorsement of "he wasn't misogynistic", right?

I saw nothing there that was in support of or shows that it was in reaction to Musk's tweet. I saw nothing that even addressed sexism or misogyny one way or the other, so no, I do not see that as a clear endorsement of 'Gygax was not a misogynist'. Not sure what sentiment they were referring to

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Absolutely.


Also agree.

If the foreword wrote something to that effect I think there would be less of an issue. You know, like, "Despite Gygax championing women in the gaming industry, there were many insensitive missteps in his work that could be seen today as misogynistic, such as... ".

I don't really think that that is necessary--and it risks doing the thing I mentioned before. Taking great pains to constantly emphasize that comes across like: "But X did so many good things! They helped Y and Z, who belong to the demographic X supposedly disliked! See how ultimately great they were? Just forget about all the bad stuff, it was just a tiny tiny portion of their life we can just completely ignore!"

Most people who did great things were also questionable to at least some extent. Gygax was, unfortunately, pretty vocal about some of his questionable beliefs, specifically sexist ones. Yes, he also did and said other things--mostly in private--that were good or productive for women in the industry. That's a good thing to remember. But even if he did good overall, even his own daughter, who also took great pains to talk about things frankly irrelevant to the topic in order to blunt the statement...even she admitted that her father's beliefs were ones she would adamantly oppose today. In effect, she admitted that if some other man of Gygax's age (say, early to mid 80s), whom she didn't have years of connection with, said the kinds of things her father said, she would oppose that person. She said, "In my adult opinion, yes, this is sexist and doesn’t hold up to our more enlightened standards today." She questions the sources used...while admitting she knows nothing about them.

So. Does Gygax need this defense? Is it reasonable to respond to "Gygax's work contain sexist themes, which he intentionally put there, and Gygax himself laid claim to sexist beliefs in an interview" with "But he helped women get jobs in the industry! He was a force for good!"? Is it reasonable to respond to "Gygax mocked 'Women's Lib' in his work, and in an interview, responded to requests for more female inclusion by saying he'd put them in the 'Raping and Pillaging' section" with "But he was a good father to his daughters, a good husband to his wife, and played D&D with all of those daughters"?

Because that very much sounds to me like an attempt to either erase or forgive the demonstrably not-great things Gygax wrote/believed, by pretending that only the positive things he did/wrote/believed matter. It is centering the discussion on Gygax's goodness, in order to relegate the parts of him we wish weren't there to the furthest corners, to be neglected in favor of the heroic image.

Gygax did many good things. Raising Heidi Gygax, amongst others, was one of those good things. Being one of the co-creators of D&D is another of those good things.

Gygax also did some bad things. Intentionally putting sexist themes in his work, and expressing open support for sexist beliefs or ideas, is one of those bad things.

We need to be able to talk about the latter without every single response being "But he did good things too!"

Yes. He did. We aren't talking about them right now.

 

[mamba]

Heidi Gygax rejected the idea that he was a misogynist

she did call him a sexist, and I am not sure the daughter of someone is the sole source or arbiter of the truth

 

[mamba]

More importantly, Riggs was doing that on social media, not in the book: he was not involved with the book in any capacity

yeah, it was in support of the book / authors, but he was not involved with the book itself

 

[Mallus]

The guy who started the Sad Puppies? LOL.

Hey, Larry suffered the great indignity of never being nominated for a Hugo for his books about shooting monsters with guns. Think of the suffering he endured.

As for Elon... I'm kinda missing the days when he just missed the point of Culture novels.

 

[Jahydin]

It's not actually contrary, though. It's shifting the goalposts.

"Gygax was a sexist" isn't about his moral character, it's about his actions and statements - his actual history. The actions he did, the things he wrote, and the impact they had on his game.

To be clear, I'm specifically calling out the part in the foreword that states Gygax was a misogynist. If it was worded anything like you have here there would be less issue, for sure.

"Gygax was a good dad to his daughter!" isn't contradicting any of that. It's making a completely unrelated claim.

Were are you getting this? I've brought up Kelsey's positive experiences of gaming with TSR alumni, Gygax hiring and encouraging women to be part of TSR, Kask's attack on WotC's foreword, and the Trolls support for Musk's statement.

You've been shown examples of the damage it's done, but you've also been shown concrete evidence of his behavior.

I have yet to be shown the damage it's done.

I've also been shown examples of his behavior, but either it was relevent to the disscussion of misoginy or it was him being sarcastic and being taken out of context.

Why be so invested in absolving him of accountability? What does him being a good father have to do with you and how you live your life? There's so many people out there worthy of a passionate defense, in desperate situations, where they really are victims of a kind of mob justice. This is not one of those situations.

Although I love Gygax and his work, I would do the same for any internet stranger too.