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.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

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.

The latter, however, is in the purview of this forum, whilst the former really isn't and would soon veer fully into banned topics.

 

[mamba]

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.

the discussion is about Gygax, not Musk, so not sure why we would be discussing Elon here…

For what it’s worth, Elon is much worse than Gary ever was, can we go back to the actual topic now?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

the discussion is about Gygax, not Musk, so not sure why we would be discussing Elon here…

For what it’s worth, Elon is much worse than Gary ever was, can we go back to the actual topic now?

To be fair, Elon’s name is in the title of this thread, though it drifted to rejection of evidence for Gygax’s own words.

 

[Jahydin]

"Here's the text. Point to the lie."

To be fair, I thought you were quoting something else. That was my bad. But, sheesh, talk about taking things out of context. Wow. For all the complaininng you've done about context, sheesh.

To be fair, it was one complaint. The other 5000 posts were responding to others' questions that have asked me directly.

 

[Remathilis]

People question it all the time in these threads. They question D&D as well and there are pages of threads on content people find problematic. There is always debates though. Not everyone is going to be on the same page. But there are a substantial number of posters who are on the critical side of the aisle. And there are different responses to these critiques. That is just normal conversation when people don't see eye to eye on something

There it is.

"If Gygax was sexist and included sexist ideas in D&D and I enjoyed that version of D&D which included those sexist elements, that means people might think I'm also sexist. So if I defend Gygax and make it clear he wasn't sexist, then his work cannot be sexist and I am okay for liking it and those who are criticizing him/it/me are wrong."

I get it. We tie our personalities to things we like. Brands. Sport teams. Places. We take offense when they are criticized, even if the criticism is justified. We feel we need to pick sides and defend ourselves against all other opinions, from as important as politics to as trivial as cola preference. We learn the people we look up to (living and dead) aren't who we thought they were.

 

[mamba]

To be fair, Elon’s name is in the title of this thread, though it drifted to rejection of evidence for Gygax’s own words.

that doesn’t make Elon the topic, also, it started with rejection / ignorance of Gary’s own words.

Musk is an idiot with an unfathomable amount of money, and that is the charitable reading

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

If they won't say it, I will:

You realize that for approximately 35% of humanity currently recognizes the Bible (in one form or another) as their holy text. That's not a question, it's a presumption, because I genuinely do not believe you couldn't be aware that Christianity is one of the most widely-held religions on Earth.

You further realize--again, I presume--that that 35% of humanity considers the Bible (in one form or another) an extraordinarily important, necessary, and indeed sacred document, which contains both a diverse array of profound wisdom, and extremely important guidance for life, in both moral judgment and pragmatic judgment. They of course vary on exactly how important it is, but the vast majority of them consider it one of the most important documents ever written.

So, to claim that there could not, even in theory, be something applicable about a section of the Bible, to anyone ever in the present day, is pretty blatantly dismissing fundamental religious beliefs of approximately 35% of humanity. (Arguably more, if you consider that the Qur'an recognizes many of the Judeo-Christian prophets, including Jesus albeit not as Messiah, they just see the Qur'an as the superseding enlightenment, if you'll pardon the incredibly lame law pun.) "I don't see how your holy text could be even remotely applicable to modern-day people" is not exactly a positive or friendly stance to take.

I think you are reading things into my comment that were never there to begin with. No need to go full pedant on me! I have heard of Christianity!

Maybe you didn't read my original comment or why it was there? The conversation was about the Curse of Ham. Not a comment on Christianity, or its followers, or religion in general, or whatever else you are getting spun up about.

You're tilting at a windmill of your own devising here.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Also, and I apologize if this comes across as more harsh than I intend, but I really don’t put much weight into the anecdotal experiences men had with Gary. I say this as a man myself. We arent part of the group Gary would have had issue with, so of course most of us will have a good experience with him. That hardly discounts the people who aren’t part of our group that say they had a negative experience. Also, one or two women saying he was super kind and fair doesn’t discount those who had a bad experience. That’s not how it works. But I admit it’s getting tiring seeing men say he was nice so he couldn’t have treated women the way women are saying he did. It’s rude actually.

 

[Jahydin]

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.

I've tried to keep up, but there are a lot of posts!

No, I haven't seen your posts or examples, but will certainly dig around for them, thanks.

 

[Bedrockgames]

There it is.

"If Gygax was sexist and included sexist ideas in D&D and I enjoyed that version of D&D which included those sexist elements, that means people might think I'm also sexist. So if I defend Gygax and make it clear he wasn't sexist, then his work cannot be sexist and I am okay for liking it and those who are criticizing him/it/me are wrong."

I get it. We tie our personalities to things we like. Brands. Sport teams. Places. We take offense when they are criticized, even if the criticism is justified. We feel we need to pick sides and defend ourselves against all other opinions, from as important as politics to as trivial as cola preference. We learn the people we look up to (living and dead) aren't who we thought they were.

You are raising a point worth discussing, but this isn’t what I said. It wasn’t my meaning