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.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think that the idea that inventing something is metaphorically equivalent to giving birth is pretty common, hence "father/mother of". Or are terms like "brainchild" also more used in the US than in the UK?

Figures of speech like "father of the nation" go back to at least Roman times. Socrates was considered the founder of philosophy already in ancient times, etc.

So I'd guess this kind of language to be common at least in cultures whose traditions somewhat trace back to the ancient Europe/Mediterranean.

What are peoples feelings on 'Bruh'?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's very much an American thing. For much of our history, to criticize the Founding Fathers was to criticize America itself. I took a graduate course on the Civil Rights Movement, and the professor asked us what we thought of Martin Luther King, Junior's decision to allow children to march in one of their protests even knowing violence was likely to follow. At first nobody was willing to even offer the mildest of criticisms and then a few students moved on to halfhearted criticisms. "Oh, it was really important." To many Americans, MLK was the Civil Rights Movement and you couldn't criticize one without criticizing the other.

So it is with Gygax. To some people, criticism of Gygax or even older products is a criticism of D&D itself.

This attitude is so confusing to me. We literally fought a war to get rid of a king. Everyone needs to stop finding king substitutes to bow down to.

 

[Autumnal]

. Because it happens. I mean... have you seen any John Hughes '80s movies? Sixteen Candles is a tough watch,

I don’t have a cite handy, but Molly Ringwald wrote a fascinating column a few years ago about watching Pretty in Pink with her teenage daughter and realizing how much of its message was really not what she’d choose to teach.

Do I look like a cultural historian?

You have dogs. I’ve met cultural historians who have dogs. QED.

That Henry VIII, right? What a cool dude! William the Conqueror?

Having read 1066 And All That, I know of the status Good King But Bad Thing.

 

[Dire Bare]

What are peoples feelings on 'Bruh'?

As a middle-school teacher . . . and official old person . . . my gods, I hate the term "bruh" with a burning passion.

I mean, I use it all the time in the classroom, because the kids hate it when the olds use their language, and that's too much fun to pass up. But I hate myself for it a little bit.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The foreword stating he was a misogynist is what I'm pushing back on

We've had the foreword passages posted here. No such thing is being said int he foreword.

The person who said he was a sexist not a misogynist was... hold on let me check my notes... ah, here it is: E. Gary Gygax in Europa magazine. Someone should really push back against this Gygax fellow for going after our beloved game creator.

 

[Garthanos]

Gygax "I'm a sexist"
WotC "He's a sexist"
Musk "How dare you!!!! call him names"

LOL... evolving terms though if they were using explicit language instead of hinting.
They called that Male Chauvinist Pig in Gygaxes prime ... and Misogynist today

 

[Jahydin]

I certainly don't think it is weird, inappropriate, or extreme to interpret Gygax's EUROPA submission as demonstrating at least some degree of misogyny. Saying, effectively, "stay the hell away from my gaming table, women ruin wargames and wargamers" isn't exactly a neutral-gyny position, no?

Again, that statement was made sarcastically and in no way reflects how he treated women in real life.

I've seen countless positive examples of Gygax's actual behavior towards women, so far zero negative ones.

 

[Jahydin]

We've had the foreword passages posted here. No such thing is being said int he foreword.

The person who said he was a sexist not a misogynist was... hold on let me check my notes... ah, here it is: E. Gary Gygax in Europa magazine. Someone should really push back against this Gygax fellow for going after our beloved game creator.

@Hussar
Yes, I'm the one who posted it...

“Some people have charitably ascribed this language to authors working from bad assumptions,” he continues. “In the 1970s, historical wargamers in America were predominantly 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 [the expansion module] Greyhawk, the description of the Queen of Chaotic Dragons includes a dig at ‘Women’s Lib’, the misogyny is revealed as a conscious choice.”

Personally, I don't think anything written in the foreword accurately reflects Gygax or his intentions accurately at all. Further, I haven't seen anyone who had worked for him or gamed with him back any of these statements up.

 

[Jahydin]

Has anyone who knew Gary personally come forward and supported this foreword?

So far, I've only seen violent opposition. Any proof to the contrary would go a long way in swaying my opinion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This attitude is so confusing to me. We literally fought a war to get rid of a king. Everyone needs to stop finding king substitutes to bow down to.

It struck me that right from the start, the US president was given powers that had historically belonged to the British Monarch, at exactly the same time as in Britain the monarchy was being stripped of those self-same powers.