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.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I never thought about the whole 'father of' thing being an American thing. I guess that might be because I recall a lot of non-Americans being described in my history classes being described as the Father of X, but then I realize that all those descriptions were from books written from an American viewpoint.

Learn something new every day.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Is this the first time you've heard of him?

Ofc not, but I'm not on X/Twitter, so I'm not actively following what he says. My opinion of him is that he is a mixed bag.
He has said things I agree with and some I do not. He has taken positions on things I support and others I detest.
I do not believe he is all that powerful (as at least 1 poster in this thread has implied), in the sense that without government contracts he would likely buckle and like most people of that level of wealth he has a lot to lose and therefore he can likely be controlled and is so when needed.

EDIT: I know nothing about him being sexist though. I know he named his one child something strange I think and that he had something with Amber Heard.

 

[Steampunkette]

I don't know the nature of your grandfather's issue he had with your father and it isn't my business to weigh in on your family's concerns. Most of us had grandparents in WWII if you are our age. My mom's father was at the battle of the bulge, my dad's father was in the pacific theater (I doubt either knew who Karl Popper was, but they were both pretty forward thinking in terms of race). Generally my approach to family is to never cut them off or reject them. If someone had ideas I didn't like, I would try to persuade them but still always love them.

Yeeeah... That's a big difference.

My family took the lessons to heart. A -lot- of families did. And now a lot of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles are going to have a -damned- lonely Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If it works for you to hang out with people who do not love and respect the people around them then you go right on ahead. But I was raised to value myself, and my neighbors, more than I value a quirk of birth.

(That said, I also don't spend time with my bigoted neighbors, because screw tolerating their intolerance!)

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

My grandfather fought Nazis. And taught my father about the Paradox of Tolerance.

And when he was intolerant my father took the lessons he was taught to heart and told his father he wouldn't accept that.

"Kindness and Understanding" does not apply to bigotry.

The paradox of the Paradox of Tolerance is that is a manifesto/excuse for intolerance when preached as a mantra or simple dictate, where kindness or consideration are ignored in favour of tribalism. For example, when you use capital letters to invoke it.

Us and Them. Me good, you bad. Nothing wholesome ever emerges from that pattern of thought, despite the best of intentions.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I mean, he might have been or at least appeared to have been a mixed bag years ago before someone told him his cave rescue sub was terribly designed and would kill people and it rocked his world so hard that apparently his mask flew off, but he's been very and increasingly consistent for at least the past half decade and his Twitter habits neatly chronicle this.

 

[SlyFlourish]

View attachment 386999

View attachment 387000

The relevant parts in text:

From Tondro

Note that the "Rules for Fantastic Medieval War-games Campaigns that make up original D&D were created by and sold to a wargaming community that was almost exclusively white, middle-class men. The rules compiled here offer little by way of roles for other players, nor indeed for anyone who wouldn't easily identify with a pulp sword-and-sorcery hero.
Especially before 1974, the rules made light of slavery, in addition to including other harmful content. To reiterate the disclaimer Wizards of the Coast includes on legacy D&D content, "these depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. The content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."

From Peterson

Some language in the first iteration of D&D presents a moral quandary. The documents reproduced in this book include many pages of charts and tables alongside lists of monsters, spells, and magic items.

But that game content also includes a virtual catalog of insensitive and derogatory language, words that are casually hurtful to anyone with a physical or mental disability, or who happens to be old, fat, not conventionally attractive, indigenous, Black, or a woman.

Some people have charitably ascribed this language to authors working from bad assumptions. In the 1970s, historical wargamers in America were predominately white, middle-class men; it isn't surprising that they would dub a class of soldiers the "fighting-man." But when, in the pages of Greyhawk, the description of the Queen of Chaotic Dragons includes a dig at "Women's Lib," the misogyny is revealed as a conscious choice. It's an unfortunate fact that women seldom appear in original D&D, and when they do, they're usually portrayed disrespectfully. Slavery appears in original D&D not as a human tragedy that devastated generations over centuries, but as a simple commercial transaction. The cultural appropriation of original D&D ranges from the bewildering (like naming every 6th-level cleric a "lama") to the staggering; Gods, Demi-gods, and Heroes (not reprinted in this book) includes game statistics for sacred figures revered by more than a billion people around the world. Were players expected to fight Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism, kill him, and loot his "plus 3 sword of demon slaying"?

Despite these shortcomings, D&D has always been a game about people choosing to be someone unlike themselves and collaborating with strangers who become friends. It has slowly become more inclusive, and as the player base has become more diverse, the pool of creators who make the game has expanded to include people with a broader range of identities and backgrounds. As these new creators make the game more welcoming, the game has attracted new fans who, in turn, continue to make the game more inclusive. The future of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, here at its fiftieth anniversary, is bright.

 

[Steampunkette]

The paradox of the Paradox of Tolerance is that is a manifesto/excuse for intolerance when preached as a mantra or simple dictate, where kindness or consideration are ignored in favour of tribalism. For example, when you use capital letters to invoke it.

Us and Them. Me good, you bad. Nothing wholesome ever emerges from that pattern of thought, despite the best of intentions.

Nah. There's no "Paradox of the Paradox". The Paradox of Tolerance isn't a manifesto or a moral ideology it's a social contract.

Intolerant people break that social contract. So you make it uncomfortable for them to be intolerant in society.

That's all there is to it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Yeeeah... That's a big difference.

My family took the lessons to heart. A -lot- of families did. And now a lot of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles are going to have a -damned- lonely Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You can take the lessons to heart and still be kind to family who don't. And I think in the end love is more powerful in changing people than rejection. Something like the holocaust was a serious matter in my family as my father's mother's family came to the US fleeing Russian pogroms. So it isn't like this wasn't an important concern. All I am saying is you sometimes had older relatives whose views were out of step with the times, but you still loved and cared for them

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Nah. There's no "Paradox of the Paradox". The Paradox of Tolerance isn't a manifesto or a moral ideology it's a social contract.

Intolerant people break that social contract. So you make it uncomfortable for them to be intolerant in society.

That's all there is to it.

I don't think you're appreciating the irony of your response here.

 

[dbolack]

My line in the sand is Terry Pratchett. If anyone comes up with anything significantly bad about Sir Terry, I'm giving up on humanity.

I'm like that with Busiek.