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.

 

[polyhedral man]

I dunno, feels like you shouldn't be tossing those words about so casually if you get offended when they get pushed back on you.

Looks like you carefully edited the part where I highlighted the difference. Luckily people can go back and read it, and also they will see the part that you chose to omit. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Looks like you carefully edited the part where I highlighted the difference. Luckily people can go back and read it, and also they will see the part that you chose to omit. I'll leave it at that.

I didn't carefully edit any part out, but if that allows you to duck the debate, I suppose you can use that as an excuse!

 

[polyhedral man]

View attachment 387316

You got me there. Highschool tactics is my weakness.

 

[Justice and Rule]

You got me there. Highschool tactics is my weakness.

Eh, high school is a bit late for "analogies" and "comparison". I know we go over that stuff in 6th Grade and I'm sure elementary school probably does a bit with them as well.

 

[Mannahnin]

Because of context - like I said, there is a time & place for everything.

Still if the foreword had
(a) only called him sexist, not misogynist and
(b) not accused him of normalising slavery and wanting players to kill Vishnu,
then I probably wouldn't really have that much of a problem with it. Maybe I'd still have rolled my eyes a bit at the ignorance of "Tiamat being female = sexism". But I'd certainly think Grummz & co were over reacting and (naughty word) stirring.

It did none of those things. It called him ZERO names. It characterized the TEXT.

On the subject of Tiamat, she didn't get that name until two years later. And the only reason people this discussion (and the one back in January) cite it as an example of sexism or misogyny is because Gary CHOSE to put a potshot at "women's libbers" into her rules entry. No one made him do that. He chose to do that, and chose to leave it in through whatever editorial stages Supp I: Greyhawk got. That completely unnecessary and off-topic potshot was consistent, however, with his firm declaration of contempt in Europa, particularly where he opposed equal pay, which is one of the main things women's liberation activists had been working for, with the ERA.

Apart from Internet discussion boards... A biography of Gygax. A book about TSR like The Game Wizards, and similar scholarly works. I would prefer a nuanced discussion rather than poo-slinging though. Gygax to me seems a rather complex character, and I would like to see discussion of his attitudes acknowledge that.

This seems indicative that you simply haven't read any of the texts involved.

Game Wizards is a history of TSR as a business, up until the point when Gygax was forced out. It does not reproduce any sexist texts from original game materials.

The place to put a content warning and statement of disagreement with sexist material in game materials is IN the big prestige format coffee table book you're publishing reproducing and celebrating those game materials!

You're being honest when you say it's your personal opinion. What distinguishes you from WotC is that they are positioning their interpretation as some absolute truth. And not only that, but on the 50th anniversary of the man's legacy...

Have you really not read it? That's the only way I can make any sense of this "positioning their interpretation as absolute truth" claim. What on Earth are you talking about?

Is this like one of those times where someone on a message board accuses another poster of asserting "ABSOLUTE TRUTH" because they didn't include the words "in my opinion"?

 

[polyhedral man]

They do not say that Gygax, personally, was sexist. You take what they wrote, and infer from that evidence that they are actually making the claim.

I think they are saying it, but indirectly. I don't infer it from the evidence. Rather by what they said. Passive voice or otherwise.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Have you really not read it? That's the only way I can make any sense of this "positioning their interpretation as absolute truth" claim. What on Earth are you talking about?

I mean, we're at a point where it's too difficult to argue with what is actually written, so just avoiding it and creating something out of thin air to argue against is far easier... just like last time.

 

[Parmandur]

It is fiction. Scorates-the-character is depicted as not knowing. But the author does know, and arranges both question and answer to suit the ends they want.

It is like saying that a comic book "proves" that Spider-Man can beat the Hulk. The depiction is not a simulation. It turns out exactly as the authors want, no matter what.

That said, this is a tangent, and I'm going to limit it from here on.

Well, but that's just the thing...Plato doesn't actually gear the Dualogues to reach his actual preferred conclusions, such as his goofing in The Republic (which we know from other sources, such as Aristotle's more straight-shooting writings). He sets up premises and logical puzzles that can lead there....but not necessarily.

 

[polyhedral man]

I didn't carefully edit any part out, but if that allows you to duck the debate, I suppose you can use that an excuse!

I bolded the part you edited out, below.

Am I right to think that what you did there was to insinuate that I am being morally bankrupt and cowardly?

Even if you were a WotC shareholder, I wouldn't think that's warranted.

Anyway, I'm not interested in continuing the conversation with you until you clarify who you meant. I was very clear in my case, I said WotC was, if (emphasis on if) they acted like that to appease their perceived audience. But that doesn't give you the right to casually sling insults.

 

[Azzy]

This is the man we're meant to believe thinks revealing that Gary Gygax wrote something misogynistic is worthy of hell.

It's ironic that he says others should burn in hell when there haven't been any camels passing through a needle's eye.