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]

If you note, I keep saying very hard to overcome. Not impossible to overcome.

and I disagree with it being hard. If the entire pressure is that you are being raised with it, then that is a very small hurdle to overcome.

This is him choosing to be a sexist and doubling down on it when being called out because there was no real pressure for him to change

 

[Chaosmancer]

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.

So my Father grew up in the 70's and 80's. During that time there were people beating other people to death over their differences. So, since my Father is older than me, and since he grew up in a time when people were killing other people for being different, then I should just smile and nod if he spews any hateful speech? Can't criticize him for it after all. I should treat him differently, as a grown adult man, with more care and consideration because he just, he just isn't capable of realizing that hate speech is harmful. Not like a literal child, who I can tell that those things aren't right, and just ignore grandpa, he's allowed to believe those things.

That about right? And I really couldn't do anything about the leaders of my country, they are even older than him! Why this one guy... wait, actually no, that old guy seems like he understands that being hateful is wrong. Weird. Must be the outlier. So, we can't call anyone out for doing something wrong unless they were born in the last 20 years... unless they were raised by someone who was born sooner than that, and they were taught these bad lessons. In which case we can't call them out either... or their children, who would be raised in the same environment...

You know, it almost sounds like you can't ever call anyone out for any hatred ever, because you can always point to a time when that hatred was more prevalent and just say "but it was how they were raised!"

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not all. And those of us who truly value free speech for what it is, can't stand the hypocrites who try(and fail) to use it that way.

But providing vapid justifications in the form of 'product of his time' and 'social pressure' is still okay though, right?

 

[Chaosmancer]

That table gets all of the press, but I still think that the "Good Wife" table was worse.

Goodwife encounters are with a single woman, often indistinguishable from any other type of female (such as a magic-user, harlot, etc.). Any offensive treatment or seeming threat will be likely to cause the woman to scream for help, accusing the offending party of any number of crimes, i.e. assault, rape, theft, or murder. 20% of goodwives know interesting gossip.
AD&D (1e) DMG p. 192.

This is an an example of misogyny in the following ways (and I apologize if I miss any):
a) that a typical married woman is indistinguishable from a prostitute;
b) that women (not men) are the ones to get gossip from;
and worst of all c) women will make up accusations such as rape in response to offensive treatment.

Oh, I completely agree that one is worse

 

[Maxperson]

But providing vapid justifications in the form of 'product of his time' and 'social pressure' is still okay though, right?

Um, sure.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Um, sure.

Roll your eyes all you want, but this is not the kind of discussion that benefits from playing at devil's advocate.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It isn't a joke with a punch line. It is a silly city encounter table where one entry opens up the harlot table (which includes such entries as Saucy Tart, Brazen Strumpet, Cheap Trollop and Haughty Courtesan). It reads like lines from a monty python catalogue of prostitution. It is amusing phrased. I find it pretty witty. Does it belong in the current DMG? Probably not. I think people clearly aren't open to that kind of humor these days. It certainly isn't anything you wouldn't have seen in plenty of comedy from that era.

Ah yes, so witty. Perhaps I should go to the internet and find modern equivalents of those words. That would be a hoot right? So witty and clever to come up with insults for people.

Because, let's not forget what those funny little words MEAN. The same as [] or [*] any number of other words. They are just old-timey. But, you are right, what could be funnier than denigrating women as being sexually promiscuous and unclean? I mean, we sure do love Purity Tests, right?

 

[Vaalingrade]

But, you are right, what could be funnier than denigrating women as being sexually promiscuous and unclean? I mean, we sure do love Purity Tests, right?

That would be using a term in a way that follows its actual meaning and that doesn't sound like speech running wild and free to me.

 

[CleverNickName]

I saw this in imgflip and couldn't resist.

My contribution:

 

[Maxperson]

Roll your eyes all you want, but this is not the kind of discussion that benefits from playing at devil's advocate.

I rolled my eyes because I haven't made a single justification or played devil's advocate. Rather I've said straight up, probably at least 10 times at this point, that I think he was sexist.