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.

 

[Zardnaar]

I've definitely seen it backfire among people I know, who have moved in the opposite direction of where the people would want them to be in reaction to purity tests

Yup.

Reality physics. Happened in 70s happening again.

It's not what you say it's how you say it.

Facts don't matter it's about emotion. Get them angry drive engagement.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Which of the infinite pits of Twitter or Reddit invented 'purity tests' for 'expecting basic human decency'?

 

[Velderan]

Purity testing which some here are doing has totally backfired out in the real world. Keep doing it if it makes you feel better but it's flow on effects resonate around the world. Eg my country is getting worse and we're about 30 years ahead of USA.

Wait.. are you the person who has said you refuse to buy from Amazon or am I confusing you for someone else..? No, it was definitely you. I assume you're going to start ordering things from Amazon again since them failing to meet your purity test doesn't accomplish anything anyhow.

 

[mamba]

Facts don't matter it's about emotion. Get them angry drive engagement.

it doesn’t matter what we say or how we say it, there is a whole industry to get the outrage going with lies and distortions, so I might as well say it the way I see it

 

[Bill Zebub]

I've definitely seen it backfire among people I know, who have moved in the opposite direction of where the people would want them to be in reaction to purity tests

It's almost like both purity tests and people have polarity, like magnets, and in one combination the people are strongly attracted, but other way around they are repulsed. You see it on both ends of the political spectrum. Some are mindless zealots, others try to distance themselves from the idiocy.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Wait.. are you the person who has said you refuse to buy from Amazon or am I confusing you for someone else..? No, it was definitely you. I assume you're going to start ordering things from Amazon again since them failing to meet your purity test doesn't accomplish anything anyhow.

My beef with Amazon is the adds on prime movies. But I am still a member because Amazon is simply too convenient

 

[Zardnaar]

Which of the infinite pits of Twitter or Reddit invented 'purity tests' for 'expecting basic human decency'?

People here have been doing it. You're with us or against us.

As I said I know Older generations. They don't match up 100% on various things. More politically incorrect vs American BS.

But they broadly support the right side as such where it matters.

According to some posters thoughl....


They were born 1930s maybe early 40s.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It's almost like both purity tests and people have polarity, like magnets, and in one combination the people are strongly attracted, but other way around they are repulsed. You see it on both ends of the political spectrum. Some are mindless zealots, others try to distance themselves from the idiocy.

I think with purity tests people just start to feel unwelcome after a while and switch sides. I don't personally get this. Maybe I am just stubborn, but I don't see why I'd change my opinions on things simply because people with whom I share those opinions are kind of jerks about it

 

[Clint_L]

I will always love Gary Gygax. And Dave Arneson.

I didn't know them personally, as some in this thread did. And it is pretty obvious that some of the beliefs and attitudes that they expressed and that made their way into their work are antithetical to my own world view. From what I've learned about EGG, specifically, I likely would not have enjoyed working for him, and he likely would have fired me. I wish I'd had the chance to meet "gregarious Gary" at a con or something, but that never happened.

I can't comment on what was in his head and heart, or Dave Arneson's. I only have opinions on what they published or said and did publicly. I disagree so strongly with many of the social views that both, and particularly EGG, frequently expressed.

But I know how TTRPGS changed my life. I run the D&D Club at my school and see the incredibly positive impact it has on some of our most vulnerable students. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were flawed human beings. But the main thing they wrought is so much bigger than their personal strengths and weaknesses. The world is a much better place because of them.

You can be critical of the things and even people that you love. You should be. Love, like true greatness, can withstand the truth. I will suggest that if your love for someone or something can't withstand the truth, then you don't really love them. You just love your own idea of them.

Edit: Elon Musk clearly doesn't know much about Gary Gygax. He just knows that his own idea of EGG is being challenged. And he can't abide that. It's not about Gygax. It's about him. Musk is one of those people that needs to have an opinion about everything, regardless of what he knows. He thrives off that. We shouldn't take him seriously when he is obviously out of his depth.

From Harry G. Frankfurt's classic essay "On [BS]":

"The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-value of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor to conceal it. This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guiding and controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he speaks truly are."

 

[Bill Zebub]

Which of the infinite pits of Twitter or Reddit invented 'purity tests' for 'expecting basic human decency'?

I think to deny that both exist, and can be hard to disentangle, is to be willfully blind. I can't name specific examples without summoning the Red Text, but wherever you sit politically, if you think some members of your tribe don't impose purity tests, you're not seeing it.