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.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

not sure, do you find Musk’s post to be tolerant?

Is that a serious question?

when (general) you stops treating me like the enemy, then I stop perceiving (general) you as my enemy, it’s really simple

As to when is intolerance ok, also simple: when what you do not tolerate is intolerance

Who is treating you like an enemy? It kind of feels like an attitude that perpetuates conflict to me.

Your position seems a bit... militaristic. A bit black and white. Devoid of nuance. You're being a bit coy about what you're actually trying to communicate for some reason, but the whiff of what's coming across is unpleasant frankly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be against intolerance... unless you're presented with something you disagree with, then your intolerance is justified.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

This is very offensive. I know you didn’t mean it to be. But it is.

Not really sure what you're reading into that statement. Glad to see that you recognise that no offense was meant, because there absolutely wasn't any.

 

[FrogReaver]

Same way I knew A Modest Proposal was satire the first time I read it?


More like, "I don't think he was ever noninclusive since he made an effort to hire female staff members and seemed to really value their input, so having the opposite picture painted in the foreword is irksome."

I find the fact he went out of his way to hire female staff interesting. In his time I think it definitely wasn’t required. Nor does this fact mesh with the idea that he thought his game wasn’t for girls.

 

[FrogReaver]

Not really sure what you're reading into that statement. Glad to see that you recognise that no offense was meant, because there absolutely wasn't any.

Probably too close to crossing the no religion boundary to really explain.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Probably too close to crossing the no religion boundary to really explain.

Still don't see it, but I will take your word for it!

 

[mamba]

Is that a serious question?

yes

Who is treating you like an enemy? It kind of feels like an attitude that perpetuates conflict to me.

gets us too close to politics, so I’ll keep it short, one of the presidential candidates keeps referring to people who disagree with him as the enemy within.

Your position seems a bit... militaristic. A bit black and white. Devoid of nuance.

damn straight, there is no nuance when the other side calls you the enemy

You're being a bit coy about what you're actually trying to communicate for some reason

yes, not being allowed to discuss politics on this forum

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be against intolerance... unless you're presented with something you disagree with, then your intolerance is justified.

yep, you are wrong, as I said, intolerance is what cannot be tolerated

I refer you back to this post

The point of Musk commenting on this is not actually to defend Gygax or D&D, it's to defend sexism against being called out.

That's what this whole fight is actually about: protecting the institution of sexism from being torn down via discussion and analysis of it's historical permutations. Whether people incited through the invocation of a beloved figure or hobby know what they're being pushed to do or not.

because it captures what this is actually about very well

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah. As an American I've felt the same way for most of my life. We have the world champion Dodgers, when only North America participates in MLB. The world champion Lakers, when only the U.S. has the NBA. It has always seemed really pretentious to me that we claim world champion status on things when the rest of the world isn't even participating.

Don't even get me going on how Earth has won every Ms Universe pageant...

 

[mamba]

I find the fact he went out of his way to hire female staff interesting

I find the fact that it is being called going out of his way interesting, I see no reason for that

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

I have a similar reaction to the word

 

[Steampunkette]

So... few things.

1) His tirade about sexism was not "Sarcasm". At the very -least- there's no evidence it WAS sarcasm since his whole "Women don't belong in gaming" schtick continued on 'til 2004 at the earliest and may have made it through the last few years of his life. There's good evidence he was sexist the entire way through.

You can find that evidence ON THIS FORUM. His handle is Col. Playdoh.

The fact that after writing a rant about how he should have a chapter on harlots he created a table for prostitutes to act on the "Sarcasm" of his rant and canonize his sexism permanently in the material kinda goes against it being anything but literal, too.

2) Yup! He hired -two- women to work for TSR in the early days! Both of them hired on pretty much to be eye candy and sit around. One, in fact, he flew out from South Carolina, where she lived, had her stay in his home for a couple weeks until she could find a place to stay, promised he would teach her all the rules of how to write D&D material and get her started. Then plopped her at a desk near the front window of the office with no guidance and no expectations of work other than to call out "Hot Chick Alert" when some pretty girl walked down the street so Gygax and the rest of the guys in the back could run to the front to ogle the pretty girl walking down the street.

How do we know? Because she WROTE about it and talked about it at conventions.

3) It is entirely possible to be a sexist jerk while also being nice to kids young enough to be your grandchildren. I KNOW! So crazy, right? It's almost like people contain vast unknowable internal selves which allow them to choose some people as targets and other people as people they shouldn't target. Wild stuff. I hear it's even possible that being a rampaging jerk to children in public -tends- to have significant negative social repercussions, while being kind to children in public tends to gain a significant positive social reputation. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!

Anyway, yeah. I hate that we're still fighting this fight to get people to even acknowledge that the man was sexist.