Elon Musk Calls for Wizards of the Coast to "Burn in Hell" Over Making of Original D&D Passages

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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.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Huh. That person that musk is responding too talk about Lee Gold but yet never talks about what she actually thought.

I mean.... talking about a woman without actually bothering to care what the woman you are talking about thinks?

It's too easy to spike that. So I will let it pass.

What I will say is that Lee Gold had an amazing and outsized influence on the hobby. I didn't fully comprehend the impact myself until ... yeah, you know .... The Elusive Shift.*

Anyway, it is kind of a "thing" that a lot of people will casually invoke Lee Gold and not realize that she is a woman. Especially older gamers (because Lee Majors ... or, considering some of the people I've heard it from, Robert E. Lee). Eh, don't know, don't want to know.


*Ugh, I hate that I keep mentioning it, but it really does keep popping up.
 

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I'm on BlueSky myself - have been for a while. :giggle:
Bluesky is definitely "where it's at" now. I've been there more or less since it started (early on, anyway), and until recently, it was a slow backwater compared to Twitter/X, but now when I go to Twitter, most of the people I liked have either gone or are barely posting, and it's the slow, empty-feeling place, whereas Bluesky is a lot busier and has a bunch more fun/funny/interesting people posting on it. I still sometimes look at Twitter as there are some holdouts, but even they're posting less. Hell even the people Musk wants on Twitter are posting way less, because they've got so few people to spark off/get into conflicts with, and they all have such conflict-centric personas that backslapping doesn't get them what they want.
What I will say is that Lee Gold had an amazing and outsized influence on the hobby. I didn't fully comprehend the impact myself until ... yeah, you know .... The Elusive Shift.
I really need to read The Elusive Shift but it's going to mean I have to read actual words with my actual eyes! A horrifying prospect given how used to audiobooks I've become!
 





I am not at all surprised that Elon played D&D at some point. Or that he takes issue with WotC. I think both parties will be able to survive this conflict.
 


Anyway, it is kind of a "thing" that a lot of people will casually invoke Lee Gold and not realize that she is a woman. Especially older gamers (because Lee Majors ... or, considering some of the people I've heard it from, Robert E. Lee). Eh, don't know, don't want to know.
I had been playing Cyberpunk 2020 for a few years before I saw a photo of Mike Pondsmith and learned he is Black. I just assumed Tracy Hickman was a woman for many years...though I can't remember why I thought that. It's amazing how easy it was back then not to know much of anything about the people who made the games we love.

I honestly don't know what to say about Musk without risking delving into politics. This is the man who is supposed to be in charge of a whole new federal department dedicated to combating government waste and this is what he wastes his time on? I'm looking forward to all the chaos such thinking will bring my country and the rest of the world over these next few years.
 


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