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.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Who do you imagine we might venerate?

I guess we just don't do that. I can't picture anybody who might hold a venerational place in British culture. The idea of it just seems weird.

Well, you guys still have a monarchy right?
Probably not King Charles but some of the others.

 

[Libertad]

I can understand how my use of "father of RPGs" can be off-putting to non-Americans. But I still feel that it's in line with the pedestal many put Gary Gygax on, and you can see even in this thread and the wider hobby at large people having legitimate difficulty with acknowledging his flaws, hoping that it isn't so bad or that he rectified his bigoted views later in life, or even intentionally downplaying it because they actually agree with such takes as evidenced by Elon Musk's own bigoted views beyond the purview of this topic. Take in point the fact that Gygax made a comparison of Native Americans to Orcs once, even citing a phrase ("nits make lice") by someone who enacted a genocide of the former as evidence to make his point. At the time I saw hardly any criticism of his post while he was alive; in fact, I saw many people repost it as some wise advice about alignment, seeing nothing wrong with it.

Or take Gary Con's name: it's a tabletop convention named after him. While I understand that members of the Gygax family run that convention and it's meant to honor his legacy, it's not something I've really seen in other nerd conventions. It would be like having a Roddenberry Con for Trekkies.

 

[Morrus]

I wouldn't call this a relatively minor disagreement over US policy. My father was a conscientious objector. He was old enough to serve, had an early draft number but was given conscientious objector status (which was not an easy thing to be granted at that time). My grandfather fought in WWII, supported the Vietnam war and felt it was a patriotic duty to serve. It was a matter of life and death for the soldiers involved and for the people in Vietnam. Obviously you are discussing a serious issue as well (and like I said how other families handle these sorts of matters is up to them, not my business). And this was just one example of course. Nor am I saying there wasn't a line. If you are talking about one member of the family engaging in behavior that harms another member of the family, that would be a different matter. But the Vietnam war issue was no small issue in my household or the country. People would despise each other over differences of opinion on it.

Oookay, this is not about D&D, Gygax, Musk's comments, or the book in question. Your family history of the Vietnam war is not a topic for this forum.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Do I look like a cultural historian? I have no idea!

All I know is that Americans like to venerate 'fathers' and 'founders' and that's not language I ever hear from anybody but Americans. Who do you imagine we might venerate? Maybe we learned the hard way that those people were never anything special. That Henry VIII, right? What a cool dude! William the Conqueror?

I guess we just don't do that. I can't picture anybody who might hold a venerational place in British culture. The idea of it just seems weird.

I would say the founding father issue is different from how it is used with innovators. The former is related to American veneration of our government and history. That can get pretty passionate on all sides of the fence. But calling someone the father of x or the king of x is a bit more like showing respect or acknowledgement to someone's contribution in a field. It is like when we call Elvis the King of Rock. I was under the impression it wasn't just us though. Is Galileo being the father of modern astronomy strictly an American thing?

 

[Morrus]

Well, you guys still have a monarchy right?
Probably not King Charles but some of the others.

We don't venerate any of them as 'founding fathers' of our culture or anything. They're historocial facts, that's it. They existed, they did X and Y. Pedestals are very non-British. We can't even accept compliments!

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

It's never okay to be intolerant. So when someone says something bigoted, you correct them. That's it. That's literally all there is to it.

If someone KEEPS being bigoted, I disassociate from their company and let other people know what happened.

It happens enough, and that person runs out of people to hang out with except... you guessed it: Other bigots that people don't want to hang out with because they're bigots.

There's no overarching government program. There's no devious secret police searching through your financial records for evidence you ate at a Chik-fil-A one time and thus deserve the guillotine.

Dunno what you're imagining, Ulorian, but it ain't here.

I hope not! There's been a 'certainty of righteousness' to your recent posts that intimate otherwise.

I get certain topics setting one off though... been there myself. I have read your other posts in this thread, and am not ignoring what you've said.

We're good. * fist bump *

 

[Morrus]

Is Galileo being the father of modern astronomy strictly an American thing?

I've no idea. Maybe it's an Italian thing? You guys do also refer to places as like the "World Capital of Cheese Strings" and stuff, which we really do not do, and find really cringey. I think you just like pedestals and we really don't like them.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

It would be like having a Roddenberry Con for Trekkies.

Well, one of the big gate shows (I refuse to call carpetbagger joints cons) is associated with something calling itself the Roddenberry Foundation.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I've no idea. Maybe it's an Italian thing? You guys do also refer to places as like the "World Capital of Cheese Strings" and stuff, which we really do not do. I think you just like pedestals and we really don't like them.

Pedestals are dangerous things. They can easily make you lose your perspective, regardless of whether you're the one looking up or looking down.

 

[BookTenTiger]

We don't venerate any of them as 'founding fathers' of our culture or anything. They're historocial facts, that's it. They existed, they did X and Y. Pedestals are very non-British. We can't even accept compliments!

I suspect, unfortunately, it's also part of an effort to keep American history associated with a certain kind of person. The founding fathers, the father of rock and roll, the father of D&D... All these people tend to fit into a certain category of human being. And when you look at the true history, it's rarely one person, or one perspective, that's actually responsible for starting something.