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.

 

[SlyFlourish]

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

It actually is a good history book. It shows the full texts of multiple versions of the original game right in the book and some of it is very clearly not the stuff you'd publish today. It's in full context, every page, nothing hidden. Same with the letters they shared. This whole "out of context" argument is BS – some people just don't like the answer.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Always funny when a bunch of randos think they know someone (like Gygax) better then his actual friends and family because they read a book or saw some old articles.

Or read the things he said... Or saw the work he published....

 

[Maxperson]

Speaking of saying awful stuff, can we please not with the attempt to diagnose people regardless of who they are?

If he's talking about Musk, he wasn't diagnosing. It's a fact, confirmed by Musk, that he is autistic. Being autistic puts you on the spectrum.

 

[SlyFlourish]

If only people would choose to reflect on their own behaviour with one tenth of the level of scrutiny they dedicate to making a holistic moral judgement (on the basis
of a couple of quotes) for someone who is not only absent, but also deceased (and therefore can't defend their record). But I get it. The former is so much easier. Plus it makes you feel good too, because we're not the ones being sexist, phew!
Just wait until our grandchildren get hold of a couple of our quotes from the enworld forums. Maybe there will be a couple of -isms* assigned to our dead corpses by the even-more-civilised-future generations. But they can fight over that, let's focus on the task at hand :>

*like some sort of Damocles Sword (a +3, as Gary might say). Peace and stay with the Force.

He did defend himself. His answer was "damn right I am a sexist".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And I'm just here pointing out evidence to the contrary. You know, to add to the conversation.

Kelsey's shared experience of feelings of camaraderie with Gygax and team (that led to her becoming a full-time game desinger) far outweigh his decisions to use "Fighting-Man" and gender the dragon of chaos female.

Pay attention to what real people are saying, not the company that's trying to gaslight us all into thinking they're the saviors of gaming and we were all horribly corrupt, knuckle dragging neanderthals before they came around.

That said, who do you know, in actual real life, that was HURT by Gygax's words? Not a challenge; I'm just curious and willing to listen.

Until she weighs in, I would avoid deciding we know too much about what she thinks of this issue.

Yes, she played with them repeatedly as a kid and she got a book signed.

That doesn't tell us much, in the end.

 

[Maxperson]

He did defend himself. His answer was "damn right I am a sexist".

Yeah. When his daughter said things were taken out of context, I had to really wonder what context could possibly explain that one away.

 

[overgeeked]

He did defend himself. His answer was "damn right I am a sexist".

Exactly. From the man himself. Character witnesses, even friends and family, don’t matter. Gygax flat out said he was.

Rando: “Gary Gygax wasn’t a sexist.”

Gary Gygax himself: “Yes, I was.”

Rando: “Shut up, Gary.”

 

[AnotherGuy]

Worth noting:

Studies in 2022 showed about 33% of all accounts on Twitter were bots. Some were follow-bots, some were propaganda bots, and some are sales bots. And then, of course, there were the "Silly Bots" that just posted meme BS like "The F word posted before every other word in the English language" or seek out accidental Haiku in other people's posts.

By January 2024, Internet 2.0 did a random survey of over 1 million Twitter accounts and found 65% of them were probably (above a 50% chance based on post history algorithm) bots.

Twitter actually has really stable numbers for US users...

View attachment 386964

Currently there's 586 million Twitter Users on the daily. Which means Twitter added 165 million users between 2023 and 2024. After adding 53 million between 2022 and 2023, 6 million in 2021 to 2022, 15 million in 2020-2021, and 35 million from 2019 to 2020 during the Covid Pandemic which saw most people trapped in their homes.


Either the X rebrand went over CRAZY WELL to the point of completely overshadowing the already massive gains during Covid 19's pandemic protocols...

Or it's pretty much just all bots being added at this point.

Bot farms are generally considered to be propaganda programs run by governments. Governments using social media is just par for the course and makes sense for governments to invest in given how MSM's ability to influence public opinion continues to decrease year on year.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Seems like another point for Gygax by people who actually knew him...

I think it's fair to say that Gygax's sexism would be less on display when dealing with a team of middle aged white guys.

I think every guy here likely knows a a fellow man who seems fine with them and then found out later that he was a much different person with women.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Yeah. When his daughter said things were taken out of context, I had to really wonder what context could possibly explain that one away.

This is the kind of quote I would be inclined to be more skeptical of than some of the others. I commented on this one the last time it came up but I see a number of obvious, equally valid possible interpretations:

1) one he was a proud sexist
2) he was frustrated and said it in a moment of outrage
3) he was engaging in some form of hyperbole
4) he said it to provoke a reaction rather than express a genuine belief

I think people reading it as 1 is fair. But I also think the alternative are also fair readings.