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]

You don't meet bigotry halfway.

They're not going to agree to put you only halfway back into the kitchen, the closet or in chains.

Even if they did, that's 50% too in the kitchen, in the closet, or in chains.

 

[Libertad]

Well I see you guys are having a good time.

The Prof DM video that came out today was very good & fits my views pretty well.

I just saw that one and he made some good points

I saw the video. It's pretty bad faith and if posted here would run afoul of EN World's rules regarding anti-inclusive content. He more or less presents Grummz and Musk's statements read out loud, and when showing his detractors he shows them briefly in text but doesn't read it in full. For instance, focusing on Gygax saying "damn right I am sexist" and not reading out his creepy views on inserting rape in gaming sessions.

The video is nearly 12 minutes long, and he doesn't come around to y'know, directly addressing Gygax's own words beyond this. But has a lot to criticize about the D&D movie not listing Gygax and Arneson's names in the opening, or WotC's legacy content disclaimer on their Drive-ThruRPG/DM's Guild products.

Content Warning Pedophilia

Spoiler

He then brings up famous figures who were abusive to women and children (Pablo Picasso and Roman Polanski for the latter in particular) and how their movies and artwork don't have similar content warnings. Which is ironic, as I don't know if he realizes this but he's actually comparing Gygax to a pedophile in this analogy, and for all his faults, I don't think Gary did anything near remotely bad as that.

Just 10 minutes in does he actually get to "what did Gary Gygax do again?" but again doesn't directly address it, complaining about people being branded with scarlet letters and judged forever for things they might have said once a long time ago and how "picking on Gygax" is "picking at a scab." He then shouts out his Facebook page where there's "no crapping on Arneson and Gygax." Aka a dogwhistle for "you won't be allowed to criticize him in my community!"

He also has Troll Lord Games as a sponsor, who are more or less fanboying Musk in their tweets. While Professor DM has since gotten rid of his "following on YouTube" section, in the past he was subscribed to bigoted YouTubers who definitely supported sexist views, like Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager.

He's not a good faith arguer.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Back to the Original Post. Perhaps half of what Musk posts (though with some of his recent actions, I'm sure much of it is not) is simply to cause a similar thing...rage bait. His hope would be to get people to interact with comments that are designed to get people upset or enraged so that they respond and interact about it?

Then, again, this is ENworld. We'd argue about the length of a cat's claw and see it as controversial if it came up, and whether or not that could actually kill a commoner (much less a wizard or other) or not.

Honestly, because of this I’d rather give traffic to Morrus’ site than Musk’s.

 

[Chaosmancer]

if you look at her full quote his birth year is a relevant qualifier. She makes it pretty clear I think in her phrasing. So she is saying sexist but qualifying it. Which I think is fair

So, I'll ask for a second time. In what year do you need to be born, for it to no longer be a valid defense against Sexism? If I was born in 1968 am I allowed to be sexist because I was born before people knew better? 1972? Which year is it? There are a lot of people who'd like to know so they can avoid being called sexist because of when they were born.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Read what I said in the quoted post. I think I was pretty clear that something said in anger Doesn’t mean it has no consequence or significance. It certainly doesn’t make violence okay. What it does is change my view on how sincere the belief expressed is (if a frustrated person shouts ‘I hate you’, they may truly be fed up and expressing a sincere belief but it is also likely they just reached for the most hurtful barb in the moment and don’t really mean it. This matters if we are trying to evaluate what a person thought or felt

And if they said "I HATE YOU!" then a few years later said "I really do hate that piece of trash" and then a few years later said "You know, that guy, he was never any good. Always bad to the core.".... at what point does it no longer become about the anger?

Because, generally, an angry declaration like that gets an apology within 2 days. Gygax didn't apologies after 30 years.

 

[Steampunkette]

So, I'll ask for a second time. In what year do you need to be born, for it to no longer be a valid defense against Sexism? If I was born in 1968 am I allowed to be sexist because I was born before people knew better? 1972? Which year is it? There are a lot of people who'd like to know so they can avoid being called sexist because of when they were born.

2028, maybe? We'll have to see what happens, I guess.

 

[Zardnaar]

2028, maybe? We'll have to see what happens, I guess.

You're an optimist I see.

It's a circus playing a game of musical chairs. I'm not sure when the music stops and who misses out on the chair.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I saw the video. It's pretty bad faith and if posted here would run afoul of EN World's rules regarding anti-inclusive content. He more or less presents Grummz and Musk's statements read out loud, and when showing his detractors he shows them briefly in text but doesn't read it in full. For instance, focusing on Gygax saying "damn right I am sexist" and not reading out his creepy views on inserting rape in gaming sessions.

The video is nearly 12 minutes long, and he doesn't come around to y'know, directly addressing Gygax's own words beyond this. But has a lot to criticize about the D&D movie not listing Gygax and Arneson's names in the opening, or WotC's legacy content disclaimer on their Drive-ThruRPG/DM's Guild products.

Content Warning Pedophilia

Spoiler

He then brings up famous figures who were abusive to women and children (Pablo Picasso and Roman Polanski for the latter in particular) and how their movies and artwork don't have similar content warnings. Which is ironic, as I don't know if he realizes this but he's actually comparing Gygax to a pedophile in this analogy, and for all his faults, I don't think Gary did anything near remotely bad as that.

Just 10 minutes in does he actually get to "what did Gary Gygax do again?" but again doesn't directly address it, complaining about people being branded with scarlet letters and judged forever for things they might have said once a long time ago and how "picking on Gygax" is "picking at a scab." He then shouts out his Facebook page where there's "no crapping on Arneson and Gygax." Aka a dogwhistle for "you won't be allowed to criticize him in my community!"

He also has Troll Lord Games as a sponsor, who are more or less fanboying Musk in their tweets. While Professor DM has since gotten rid of his "following on YouTube" section, in the past he was subscribed to bigoted YouTubers who definitely supported sexist views, like Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager.

He's not a good faith arguer.

I would have got watch the video again to take it point by point, but my reading was he basically signs off on what Heidi Gygax said (which I think is a very reasonable acknowledgement of her father being a product of his times, while defending his character and rejecting the more extreme labels of racism and misogyny). And then he talks about how he doesn't think content warnings are needed to inform us about problems with an artists life or the content of their work. I tend to agree with his sentiment on content warnings. Which isn't to say I don't think older art isn't going to have things that might strike modern peopel as outdated. I just think that is part and parcel of reading things that were put out in the past. His point about scarlet lettering I think is pretty sound. He is talking about how people have a tendency to dredge up everything a person ever said and hold them to account to it forever, which is kind of what is happening here.

 

[Steampunkette]

You're an optimist I see.

The bottom half of the glass is empty. Pure vacuum.

 

[Bedrockgames]

So, I'll ask for a second time. In what year do you need to be born, for it to no longer be a valid defense against Sexism? If I was born in 1968 am I allowed to be sexist because I was born before people knew better? 1972? Which year is it? There are a lot of people who'd like to know so they can avoid being called sexist because of when they were born.

Again, all I am saying is something that I think anyone who has dealt at any length with elders knows, you treat older people who grew in different times with different expectations than you do people your own age.