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]

First off, this isn't the lost cause

it isn’t until it is, give it some time. The lost cause did not start out being called that either

 

[Umbran]

I suck at generating likes and retweets on twitter but my impression is starkly stated, emotion inducing posts are what generate clicks on social media and I see a lot of people post that way, when if you talk to them face to face, their take is often much more normal sounding.

Mod Note:
This has very little to do with the topic at hand.

If you are trying to suggest that someone is posting to "farm engagement" on the site... I ask you to stop. If they are within the rules, but you don't like their posting habits, you are free to ignore them. Posting vaguely in ways that might impugn their motives for purposes of dismissing them is not appropriate.

 

[mamba]

Me and the several who have agreed with me and/or liked my posts you mean.

I see barely any likes on your posts and a lot more on mine…

Maybe you get likes from people who blocked me, but then I will disregard their like too

What I don't get is why you are against understanding the whole issue.

as I said, you fail to understand the first thing about what I wrote. If you want to figure it out, go back to what I posted, I am done with this back and forth

 

[S'mon]

without commenting on it? Are you sure they are disagreeing?

Certainly in right wing X I see people repost left wing stuff without comment on the assumption everyone will know they are mocking its stupidity not agreeing with it.

 

[Maxperson]

of course you don’t, yet you have been doing nothing but this and expressing it in various ways

Let me ask you this. Eric and Lyle Menendez. Do you think their sentence should be modified? Is what the father did to them relevant or circumstances surrounding a bad act never matter?

 

[Clint_L]

Edit: never mind - personal curiosity.

 

[Remathilis]

Certainly in right wing X I see people repost left wing stuff without comment on the assumption everyone will know they are mocking its stupidity not agreeing with it.

Presented without comment.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Mod Note:
This has very little to do with the topic at hand.

If you are trying to suggest that someone is posting to "farm engagement" on the site... I ask you to stop. If they are within the rules, but you don't like their posting habits, you are free to ignore them. Posting vaguely in ways that might impugn their motives for purposes of dismissing them is not appropriate.

To be clear I wasn’t posting to impugn anyone. I was just commenting on the musk post and what gets traction on Twitter. It didn’t have to do with anyone here or in the hobby sphere

 

[CellarHeroes]

Haven’t read the book and probably won’t, so I can’t comment on the criticism. But this seems like Musky wanted to cause up some culture war drama as a distraction.

Couldn’t possibly imagine why/s

Yup.
Right away I figured this was just him reacting to a bunch of publishers and RPG-related communities leaving his platform and joining Bluesky.
Essentially, just a slow news day.

 

[Some Dude]

What @Bedrockgames and others may be missing here, is that the disclaimers aren't about "guidance" or telling folks how to feel about or interpret the sexist or racist parts of older products. In fact, there is a tacit assumption that the reader knows that these things are bad, which is giving the reader respect by assuming basic human decency. The disclaimers are about having the respect to acknowledge that these materials contain hurtful elements, and also giving those affected (e.g., not us old white dudes) the respect of acknowledging that. They're worded in the most delicate way possible. This is literally the least they could do.

To these stalwart defenders of Gygax, I ask you: when was the last time you spent this many pages on a forum arguing against sexism? Racism? Have you ever spent as much time arguing against these things as you have defending those accused of them?

Taking offense when racism or sexism are merely acknowledged is the very definition of white fragility.