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.

 

[S'mon]

My favorite professor in college (a former Benedictine monk) tried to use it, mostly successfully. Lots of leading questions and teasing answers out of us.

It's basically how University tutorials always work at least here in UK. And it is pretty effective. Usually the tutor doesn't learn much from the responses, but sometimes we do.

 

[S'mon]

So what is it that, to you, makes the foreword an "attack"?

I think that the strongest-worded part of the foreword is where it describes the "misogyny" as "conscious". Is that it? Do you think that it was "unconscious" or "unintended"? Or "not misogyny at all"? Is it another part?

I'm honestly curious.

Calling someone a misogynist - a hater of women - is certainly an attack in my book. Likewise calling their writing misogynistic.

FWIW I'd say the text, and Gygax himself, is sometimes sexist, but nowhere near misogynistic. If Gygax was actually a misogynist he'd never have hired eg Jean Wells in a creative role. I thought his daughter Heidi's appraisal was fair.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It says Gygax wants us to kill Vishnu and take his +3 sword of demon slaying, doesn't it? That seems pretty insulting.

Does it? I don't remember that part of the foreword. I DO remember it being part of what was it, Deities and Demigods? And in that case, insulting to WHO? Gygax? Because to me, that part seems more like Gygax would have been the one insulting Hindus - not all of whom would care, but some probably would.

(Now I kinda want to ask my Hindu girlfriend what she thinks about Hindu gods having hit points in D&DG. I suspect she wouldn't care, any more than my Heathen friend cares about the Norse gods having hp too.)

Right, so because your friends don't care, no one does. But bringing it up is insulting to Gygax? How does THAT work?

On the second point: I think it's a bad foreword, but of course the author doesn't deserve to burn in Hell. Maybe Hasbro's share price deserves to burn, for all the bad things they've done over the past few years. No individual does ofc. Elon says lots of stupid and hyperbolic stuff, this is one.

He sure does! So you're saying, you don't agree with the hyperbolic part of his comment, but you do agree that the foreword insults Gygax?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

For the record I wasn't agreeing with everything musk said at all

Just that the foreword shouldn't insult Gygax, and that Gygax isn't "much" of a sexist?

 

[S'mon]

He sure does! So you're saying, you don't agree with the hyperbolic part of his comment, but you do agree that the foreword insults Gygax?

Yes. I basically agree with Prof DM/Dungeoncraft's take, or Gygax's daughter's take. I always thought Gygax came across a bit sexist in some of his writings. That doesn't make it appropriate to call him a sexist (& several other things) in the intro to a celebration book. It's not a burn in hell offence. It's not even as bad as the OGL fiasco or the Pinkertons.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Calling someone a misogynist - a hater of women - is certainly an attack in my book. Likewise calling their writing misogynistic.

FWIW I'd say the text, and Gygax himself, is sometimes sexist, but nowhere near misogynistic. If Gygax was actually a misogynist he'd never have hired eg Jean Wells in a creative role. I thought his daughter Heidi's appraisal was fair.

So, to you - to be a misogynist, one can't do anything nice to or for women ever, or they're just a common-variety sexist, which isn't nearly as bad?

I'm seriously just trying to follow your logic. I truly don't mean to be confrontational, and I apologize in advance if I'm coming off that way.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Yes. I basically agree with Prof DM/Dungeoncraft's take, or Gygax's daughter's take. I always thought Gygax came across a bit sexist in some of his writings. That doesn't make it appropriate to call him a sexist (& several other things) in the intro to a celebration book. It's not a burn in hell offence. It's not even as bad as the OGL fiasco or the Pinkertons.

Wow, your argument must be struggling to immediately reach for whattaboutism!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes. I basically agree with Prof DM/Dungeoncraft's take,

I don't know what that is, I'm afraid - I avoid videos like they're the plague.

or Gygax's daughter's take.

She just defended that he's also a good person. I think that there's only a few people here that would refuse to believe that he was also a decent father and okay human being. He can be those things and still be sexist.

I always thought Gygax came across a bit sexist in some of his writings.

He does!

That doesn't make it appropriate to call him a sexist (& several other things)

He called himself sexist, and he wasn't being ironic. But it's not okay to agree with him?

in the intro to a celebration book. It's not a burn in hell offence. It's not even as bad as the OGL fiasco or the Pinkertons.

No, it sure isn't.

 

[S'mon]

So, to you - to be a misogynist, one can't do anything nice to or for women ever, or they're just a common-variety sexist, which isn't nearly as bad?

If you hate women I would not expect you to voluntarily hire one in a non-menial role.

Yes "misogynist" is a much stronger word than "sexist", and I would not use them interchangeably. Gygax did not dislike or hate women, but he wrote some stuff I would call sexist. In particular there's a sort of patronising, even smarmy, tone in some of his work. I remember not liking it much (eg the character Deirdre of Hardby in Artifact of Evil). The post-divorce period seems worse to me than his 1970s work, but there is some stuff in the 1970s. The Gord/Leda romance is quite sweet IMO & definitely not the work of a misogynist. But he could be sexist, including sexist by typical 1980s-1990s standards.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Just that the foreword shouldn't insult Gygax, and that Gygax isn't "much" of a sexist?

Like I said, it is milk toast academic criticism of media. I think it gets some of the stuff wrong, I think there are better ways to handle it, but I wouldn’t reduce criticisms I have of the foreword as insulting Gygax (I can understand though how fans might read it that way, how his colleagues might read it that way). On Gary Gygax and sexism, I feel like I have been very clear in providing my assessment