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]

Being civil with people is a requirement here. Not being is also a surefire way to end the conversation anywhere. So yea, one can keep up bad tones, but one shouldn't expect others to put up with them for long.

That's for the mods to decide, not us.

 

[mamba]

Agreed, but not sure the point here?

did he have the male applicants staying over as well? If not, why not / why her?

Why do you doubt this? It was a very different time. People even still hitchhiked...

any evidence to back this up? Hitchhiking certainly survived longer than having job applicants stay at your house, if that ever was a thing to begin with

Also, is him hiring one female the same as him going out of his way to hire females? I do not consider a rate of maybe 5% female workers to be a sign of someone going out of their way to hire them…

 

[FrogReaver]

That's for the mods to decide, not us.

Of course.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'll say this much of this brand of Civility:

There's a difference between being Civil and being Kind.

Growing up in Georgia I listened to a lot of people being Civil and not remotely Kind. Not just "Bless your heart" civility without kindness, but lots and lots of racism and sexism disguised as civility.

I've seen a lot of civility without kindness, here. And a request for kindness in a civil manner. But that's the trick.

It's the same request as "I'll respect you when you respect me". It -looks- like parity, but it isn't.

 

[cerberusn7]

If musk is against it then it means it is a good thing he really needs to stop[ being a tourist all because people have different views than the right-wing bigot and turbo fascist that is melon tusk

 

[Clint_L]

There are moderators who ensure that forum standards are maintained. You can send a PM if you have an issue to discuss privately. There is the ignore feature. Publicly telling someone to write more nicely to you seems inappropriate. And in the context of this conversation, has a lot of cultural baggage.

 

[Bedrockgames]

There are moderators who ensure that forum standards are maintained. You can send a PM if you have an issue to discuss privately. There is the ignore feature. Publicly telling someone to write more nicely to you seems inappropriate. And in the context of this conversation, has a lot of cultural baggage.

If this sort of of thing is disallowed, I would certainly drop it. But I think when people are posting in a way that feels aggressive and hostile, asking politically that they be nicer, is just a normal, human thing to do. As a rule I don't like reporting people (it feels more nasty than simply telling them directly I am finding their posting overly hostile). I feel like I have been very polite and kind to people. I was respectful of all the posts. While I certainly wouldn't want to call someone out if that is what it came off as, I also don't think I am the bad guy here (and I don't even understand the cultural baggage remark)

 

[FrogReaver]

I'll say this much of this brand of Civility:

There's a difference between being Civil and being Kind.

Growing up in Georgia I listened to a lot of people being Civil and not remotely Kind. Not just "Bless your heart" civility without kindness, but lots and lots of racism and sexism disguised as civility.

I've seen a lot of civility without kindness, here. And a request for kindness in a civil manner. But that's the trick.

It's the same request as "I'll respect you when you respect me". It -looks- like parity, but it isn't.

I have no idea what you mean here

 

[Sacrosanct]

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.

Sorry if this has already been answered, but this is not true. I’ve posted a few examples of people who know Gary who confirmed a lot of this behavior. The people Ben Riggs interviewed have also confirmed this. If you’ve been reading the thread, then you have seen several people like myself give these quotes from people he worked with. So it makes no sense why you would say you haven’t seen any negative examples. I mean, I’d think telling your female employee that women are only good for being secretaries or housewives or else they are whores is a negative behavior.

 

[DarkCrisis]

You mean this thread about Elon Musk trying to smokescreen the sexism in the early drafts of D&D?

And which has been discussed more? Elon or the Harlot table? I'm sure there must be other examples of Elon's sexism, but that doesn't get that fan base as riled up as what a dead man said 40 years ago.