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.

 

[Steampunkette]

I have not read everything she has written on the subject or even her Harry Potter novels but from what I've seen I think she is fighting the good fight. This isn't a political thread though so if you want to discuss in depth send me a personal message. I don't want to make the guardians mad.

No. The intent is not to discuss her very blatantly transphobic ideology in detail.

The point was to draw a parallel that someone who is known, widely known, to be transphobic right now, by people in the same time period, is also roundly excused by lots of folks in this time period.

And how 20 years after she's dead, people will downplay and ignore her very widely known and discussed transphobia because they don't think it was serious or that it was just "How people were" back in 2024, or whatever other nonsense excuses are made.

Gygax was a sexist. Rowling is a transphobe.

And people will -always- bend over backwards and stuff their heads where the sun doesn't shine in order to hide from that kind of truth when they like the person or the product that person made.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I have bought into exactly nothing you've said here. A poor defense of a poor practice.

Echo chambers occur when you are not exposed to viewpoints that you disagree with.

This may shock you, but the pattern of behaviour of cutting people off on this site... is going to carry over into other aspects of their lives.

When you provide a feature that prevents discussion and silos folks... you have not done anyone a service.

@el-remmen Using laugh emojis in a mocking way is frowned upon. Use your words! I won't bite!

 

[Bedrockgames]

1) So, saying something to "get under a person's skin", meaning, to evoke an emotional response, is what we call trolling. Let us not position this as something easily excusable.

Again though, we are talking about evaluating what a person believed. If someone is trolling, whatever one thinks of a troll, I am going to reach different conclusions about their beliefs based on what they say versus what someone says when they aren't trolling for a reaction.

2) There's a guy on the internet who has come up with an incredibly evocative response to such things, but it is also incredibly vulgar. It amounts to - if you are an insincere member of a group, you are still a member of that group.

F'rex: Belittling women, but "only for trolling," is still being willing to belittle women. It is still sexist.

I don't subscribe to this view. It seems overly simplistic. I would still say it is bad if someone is belittling people. But I think there is still a big distinction to be made here. But if someone is saying something soley to provoke a reaction, like the sports example we gave above, then that means these aren't automatically sincerely held beliefs. And that matters.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

....if people are bringing JK Rowling into this now, I am pretty sure we are headed to a end of the thread. (My views on that other issue have already been stated.)

Gygax and the WoTC book and Elon Musk attacking WoTC are at least RPG topics. Anyway, I think I've said what I needed to. The preface is perfectly fair, especially given that they are reprinting the OD&D books (THANK YOU) and so much wonderful material. Gygax was an imperfect person, and it's okay to acknowledge his flaws. Finally, when people like Elon Musk throw chum in the water, don't take the bait.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I suspect some of this difference of opinion here may be a regional thing. South vs Northeast. West vs Midwest. Etc.

How far down the rabbit hole do we need to follow the « man of his time » argument before it becomes an excuse?

Sure, Mr. Smith was more racist than most people in the 1970s, but he was in line with white heterosexual male Calvinist Protestants (Western Convention) from Peoria born in the 1940s. So he was a man of his time?

 

[Bedrockgames]

I don't think McEnroe has ever used a slur in one of his (many) ragequits, has he?

Swearing, sure, but even that isn't usually directed at other people, rather at the situation.

He absolutely has not said "whatever outrageous and provocative thing comes to mind", that's not even arguable.

I have no idea what provocative thoughts he had before he spoke, but I think it is fair to say whatever one says in rage after a bad call, is probably more a reflection of anger than what one believes.

You're proving my point here. There's a vast different between a normal ragequit and someone who decides to bust out a bunch of wild racial slurs and homophobic insults because they're losing. Both come from a place of rage, but one is clearly a more messed-up and deep-seated behaviour.

I am not saying this is a good thing. I am saying if someone is angry in the heat of a discussion and feels cornered and says "Yes I am a sexist" I am going wonder more about the sincerity of the remark than if it had been said in a less emotional state.

 

[Umbran]

Echo chambers occur when you are not exposed to viewpoints that you disagree with.

There are ways to be exposed to viewpoints you don't agree with without having to give the people who espouse those viewpoints a platform, or access to you, personally.

 

[mamba]

If someone is trolling, whatever one thinks of a troll, I am going to reach different conclusions about their beliefs based on what they say versus what someone says when they aren't trolling for a reaction.

and that is where you go wrong, they both believe it, one is just not as open in admitting it

 

[Steampunkette]

Also, it wasn't until I saw the statement isolated in Mamba's post about Rowling "Fighting the Good Fight" that I realized I was talking with someone who thinks that I'm a man trying to sneak into women's spaces rather than a woman.

So one more for the ignore list. WOO!

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

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

I see a step towards me! Bless your heart sir. I have never advocated for completely turning the other cheek. Sometimes turn it, I guess, but that's not the point. The point is to recognise that you are speaking to another person, not a mustache-twirling cartoon villain (in the vast majority of cases at least... the caveat here being when most people think they are against an unthinkable villain, they are wrong... but they act as if they were).