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.

 

[abirdcall]

It's easy to make funny jokes about difficult stuff or marginalized groups -without- being bigoted.

The punchline just needs to not be "Haha minority!" or "Heeee! Insult!"

What's a Trans woman's favorite candy?

Breast Mints. Or maybe Titty Skittles. Fem&Ms. Tit Tacs. Chicklets. Smartitties. Her/She's Kisses.

How about medicines?

Iboobprofen. Antiboyotics. Anticistamines. Meth-in-Feminines. Chickotine Patches. Femtanyl.

Why did my mom disappear when I came out?

She's trans parent.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Nothing to add, other than I love Nikki Glaser. Her standup special was amazing, and her roast of Tom Brady? chef's kiss

That was a very good set she did

 

[the Jester]

Fun fact: the Frank Mentzer (how curious that he misspelled his name in a way that may make it inconvenient to google him!) mentioned by Now-Banned-Guy is an infamous serial sexual harasser who would wield the fact he was buds with Gygax as a weapon to try and force people to do things and threaten to blacklist them from the industry.

Oh wow, I had no idea. That's... disappointing, to put it very mildly.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Fun fact: the Frank Mentzer (how curious that he misspelled his name in a way that may make it inconvenient to google him!) mentioned by Now-Banned-Guy is an infamous serial sexual harasser who would wield the fact he was buds with Gygax as a weapon to try and force people to do things and threaten to blacklist them from the industry.

So... you know, if that's the kind of person defending Gygax...

I had heard something, but I didn't know what.

That sucks. I hate people.

 

[Remathilis]

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.

That's enough to convince me to not ever watch his videos. I'm also increasingly glad I didn't support Troll Lord Games after this.

 

[OptionalRule]

I mean, Taylor Swift certainly isn't perfect (what with pumping out huge amounts of CO2 travelling all over the place in a private plane to watch her boyfriend play sportsball), but if I had to choose one to keep it'd probably be her.


I see someone didn't grow up watching Fraggle Rock.

So, you're sitting there thinking Taylor Swift is going to show up at your house and let you keep her?


ooooookay.

 

[Steampunkette]

@abirdcall @Gradine

My friend just had top surgery! It was a load off his chest.

Trans women make great football players. We're well practiced with tucking balls.

In America we call the surgery to remove testicles an oriechtomy. I think the Brits have it right. They call it an orchidectomy, because you keep the D.

Why don't robots have brothers? They've only got Trans-Sisters!

Why are trans women good swimmers? We're all boyn't.

Had a guy ask me one time what hurt most about being a trans woman. I said the pay cut.

Why'd the nonbinary prospector head west? There was gold in Them/Their hills!

 

[Remathilis]

I don't know I think people take humor a little too seriously these days. There are things that are just a joke sometimes

Here what I find witty is the use of language. Making a distinction between a saucy tart and a brazen strumpet for the purposes an encounter table

Jokes. I get jokes.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Jokes. I get jokes.

And even that is kind of funny

 

[Gradine]

@abirdcall @Gradine

In America we call the surgery to remove testicles an oriechtomy. I think the Brits have it right. They call it an orchidectomy, because you keep the D.

Now see, I have, multiple times now, heard of the orchiectomy being referred to, alternatively, as a bofaectomy