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.

 

[mamba]

Most people are not bad. Most people are misguided though.

probably true, even though there is an uncomfortably high number of bad people too. My view of mankind certainly went downhill over the last 10 years, and it did not start out all that high to begin with.

It's worth taking the time to treat others, even when it's unpleasant and your back has gotten up and it feels super wrong to do so, with humanity.

if I encounter them, I won’t punch them in the face, sure, but I am under no obligation to engage with them at all.

Someone who is misguided can be reasoned with.

very rarely, and I might not have the patience to chip away at it over years in the hope of someday seeing a little progress.

I am under no obligation to be friends with someone, just so they maybe someday can ‘see the light’

 

[FrogReaver]

saying that a bigot is indeed a bigot is not demonizing that person, it is stating an unfortunate fact


seeing them as less than human, yeah that is problematic, pretending that they are not bigots is a problem too however, that way we never move forward.

All we can do is point it out, explain that it is wrong and why, and hope they change or at least society does. Sweeping it under the rug accomplishes nothing

IMO. I'm making no judgement on whether this should be how things are done, but I don't believe you have to call currently deceased people bigots to move forward. It's enough to say that someone today saying what they said back then, would be a bigot today.

 

[Bedrockgames]

there were plenty of people born that year who were not sexist. There were plenty sexist people born in 2010. How long do we have to wait until being born that year no longer excuses it?

As far as I am concerned it was no excuse in 2010, and it wasn’t one in 1938 either, and it certainly doesn’t mean that you weren’t one.

I've commented on this point and agreed there were plenty of non-sexist people. But I think anyone who grew up around folks born before the war, knows how out of sync with the times many of their views often were by the early 2000s. Sure you would meet the occasional exception. And there were always degrees. But with an elderly person, even in my highly progressive household, you treated them a little different than say a 20 year old, because it was just understood, older people come from a different time where views on men and women are going to be a bit different, and they might have not adapted to the new norms.

 

[Steampunkette]

That is kind of human nature though.
How many people are moving over to BlueSky from X and closing their accounts with X.
That creates the echo chambers for the ones moving and the ones staying.

While I get the thrust of what you're saying, you're utterly wrong. Lemme explain why:

The Algorithms.

See, Twitter has algorithms to determine what kind of material you're interested in seeing based on what you interact with on their website, sure, but also based on absolutely stunning quantities of metadata provided to them by data aggregators following your every movement online (Like Google or Amazon).

While most companies use this to target their advertising, Twitter and Google in particular are looking for Engagement as their primary motivations. So the algorithm isn't -just- trying to sell you stuff, it's trying to get you to stare at the website longer so they have more time to sell you stuff.

That's why Youtube and Tiktok and Twitter can and do create echo chambers. But they can't do it, alone.

You also need external legacy media to play along. To provide a -single- viewpoint that can be "Trusted" while all other media outlets are vilified. Because no one in 2012 was getting all their news from Twitter. And people who get their news from various sources are going to get different perspectives and opinions, even if they desire to click the latest rage-bait the algorithm is shoving into their face.

Bluesky could someday become a massive echo chamber. But the opinions and ideas that are circulating around it, currently, aren't isolated enough from external perspectives to make it into one, yet, if ever.

I think this is just a matter of people not actually knowing what an echo chamber -is- and applying it to a situation where there's a broad consensus and a desire to avoid a rampaging garbage fire of bigotry.

 

[mamba]

There is a lot of different quotes. One of them was a response to a criticism in a Euoprean zine. He would still still have had to type it, but that one struck me as being written in anger and in a tone. So I take that into account in my reading.

he might have exaggerated, but you do not write something like that while actually believing the opposite. If you write it at all, you are a sexist with low impulse control, end of story.

This also is not the only instance, so why focus on this one case and ignore the others.

 

[Steampunkette]

What do you think it would take to shift your perspective? Truly.

You're lecturing her on what to do when faced with discrimination and hate. Do you think you have the most experience here? Do you think you've thought about this more than she has?

Does this have a real material effect on your life? Or is this just a philosophical/intellectual exercise for you?

People aren't upset because someone said a mean thing. They're upset because it is a threat. Even if it is a "joke."

Harassment wears on a person. It's probably very difficult to understand what that is in practice without experiencing it throughout your life.

What should be easier are things like being denied employment, or apartment rental, or being assaulted (or worse), or literally having laws enacted to bar you from public life.

We're not upset that someone once said a mean thing. We have our own friends. What we want is to prevent them from hurting us. Actually hurting us.

These are threats.

Do you understand?

We can't make an echo chamber for ourselves because we are under threat. What we can do is unplug from that threat in some spaces and take refuge in our chosen communities. But the threats are always there. We are much too aware of them.

Instead of lecturing people who have much more experience than you, please try compassion. Try listening. Be open to learning and realizing that your perspective is just that, your perspective, and there is a whole world of people out there with vastly different experiences. And they have needed to think about this sort of thing their entire lives because they have been under threat for their entire lives.

Thank you.

 

[mamba]

That is kind of human nature though.
How many people are moving over to BlueSky from X and closing their accounts with X.

why would a sane person be on X in the first place. Musk turned that into a shitshow and there is no reason to support Elon or his venture.

That creates the echo chambers for the ones moving and the ones staying.

eh, the trolls will move to Bluesky too, they need an audience

 

[Parmandur]

Loved your post, disagreed with this part. Ignore is the worst feature of this site (which is lovely in all other ways frankly); shuts down discussion and is often used as a passive-aggressive weapon. But more importantly and unfortunately, it creates echo chambers, and puts the power to create an echo chamber in the hands of a single, angry person. In the real world, it's good for you to hear things you don't like.

On the contrary, the Ignore feature is a wonderful way to improve the experience of this site. This thread is a perfect use case, in fact.

 

[Steampunkette]

why would a sane person be on X in the first place. Musk turned that into a shitshow and there is no reason to support Elon or his venture.


eh, the trolls will move to Bluesky too, they need an audience

That is a GREAT point.

It's also why a bunch of family members are so upset about their family cutting them off:

Who do they get to abuse at Thanksgiving if all their favorite victims refuse to speak with them? People whose whole personality revolves around drinking other people's tears are in a sore spot if there's no one around they can make cry.

 

[Bedrockgames]

The debate looks to actually be about if a history book was right to talk about some sexist things D&D's creator did, and to accurately label them as sexist.

It's not about Gary's moral character, it's about if a history book should have said something accurate but unflattering about him. Like, in public. Where everyone can see. It's about shame, embarrassment, criticism, accountability, legacy, reputation, history. And not wanting to have to deal with that.

* If you are reading this post and you are, in fact, Literally Anubis, I'm sorry for assuming that the ancient Egyptian god of the Dead, the Black Jackal of the Underworld, who judges the hearts of mortals against the feather of truth, does not spend idle time reading D&D message boards, but I just kind of figured you'd be more of a TikTok girlie. See you at the scales, buddy, and make sure to give Ammit head pats for me.

If the subject is what I think a history book should do, my point from the beginning has been: They should be allowed to do it how they want, people should be allowed to respond, people are going to disagree over whether this or that feature of the game is sexist. If I were the one calling the shots, I would have done it differently because I take a different view on media criticism than the foreword writers I believe, and I wouldn't have asserted whether something was sexist, I would have simply tried to describe what the range of views are about it. Again this was just a foreword we are talking about. But if I would probably want more oral history elements for a history book covering this subject (especially thoughts of people who knew him, including both people who have called him sexist and defended him: and I get the foreword doesn't directly say Gygax's name in that respect, this is just my answer to the above post)

I don't have the book, though I have read the relevant portion of the foreword (for the record I want the book, but the 50 dollar price tag is keeping me at bay for the time being). So obviously my above comments may not apply to everything this book is trying to do.