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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

I don't think that's universally true at all.

When I was in high school, my parents said they knew a joke was racist when I wasn't laughing at it. And they stopped making those jokes.

 

[mamba]

I think people need humor as a form of catharsis, even around sensitive issues like this.

what sensitive issue was this humor of the harlot table helping to cope with?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He also finished his fantasy series, has a mountain, is not GRR Martin, nor as likeable as neil gaiman

Ooh boy, you've missed a few news cycles.

 

[Steampunkette]

what sensitive issue was this humor of the harlot table helping to cope with?

The plight of sex workers, I guess?

Which you cope with by insulting sex workers to a group of nerds who don't face those problems, somehow?

It's the whole issue of "Gallows Humor" where people don't realize that if they're not the one in the dock waiting for the axe, their jokes aren't gallows humor.

They're part of the execution.

 

[Zardnaar]

what sensitive issue was this humor of the harlot table helping to cope with?

It's basically a joke these days.

I read it out about a month ago and everyone basically cracked up.

ContextI was using the DMG for magic items in a 1E adventure I was running. Not all of the magic items were converted.

Sone of them didn't understand all of the words. One of the players rolled on it and she got a number between 68 and 70. More hilarity ensued.

It's sobad they found it funny or missed the meaning of sone of the words.

 

[Gradine]

The guy who started the Sad Puppies? LOL.

Hey, Larry suffered the great indignity of never being nominated for a Hugo for his books about shooting monsters with guns. Think of the suffering he endured.

ROFLMAO in the all the hubbub I missed this juicy little nugget, yes, Lorry Correia, the Angry Puppy who owned a gun store and wrote books about how cool guns are and shooting monsters with cool guns is cool, who wanted politics out of science fiction ...

Yeah, no....

 

[Voadam]

It's the whole issue of "Gallows Humor" where people don't realize that if they're not the one in the dock waiting for the axe, their jokes aren't gallows humor.

It's part of the execution.

Oh the pun.

 

[FrogReaver]

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.

Gygax invented Karens?

 

[overgeeked]

ROFLMAO in the all the hubbub I missed this juicy little nugget, yes, Lorry Correia, the Angry Puppy who owned a gun store and wrote books about how cool guns are and shooting monsters with cool guns is cool, who wanted politics out of science fiction ...

Yeah, no....

Yeah. That guy. Who organized slate voting because too many Hugos were going to “the wrong kind of people writing the wrong kind of sci-fi” or some such nonsense.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well, that was a bit odd and nihilistic.

~ Ulorian

Odd maybe.

But if I can pretend to be a better person than I really am, and end up becoming a better person, that is hopeful. And if I have that power, then I should be very careful about pretending to be a worse person than who I really am... because then I will end up a worse person.