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.

 

[Dire Bare]

They responded to Musk's Tweet with:


Hope that clears up the confusion.

If the guys at Troll Lord Games think Elon's post "WotC can burn in Hell" is awesome . . . well, that tells me all I need to know about the dudes at Troll Lord Games. Will not be purchasing any more of their products from here on out.

Gary was a complicated man who did good things and bad things. He was most definitely sexist and racist, but not a misogynist, white supremacist, or monster. Then again, nobody (of note) has actually accused Gygax of monstrosity. To deny his failings is to deny recorded facts. It's silly. To complain when others point out Gygax's sexism and racism is to complain about truth and to insist our heroes must be mythologized rather than evaluated. No thanks.

 

[Dire Bare]

Seed the wind, reap the whirlwind as they say. I'm not convincing anyone so I'm out of this thread, because this isn't really my problem,WotC did this to themselves, it's their problem as are the consequences.

Just Tondo PLEASE DON'T SCREW UP ON DOING THE FR BOOKS, I care more that he learns from his mistakes. I'm an FR fan first, D&D fan second, so for me these are more important then the Core Books or this "history" book.

"Reap the whirlwind"?

Okay. That made me giggle. I don't think WotC needs to even worry about a slight breeze over this "raging controversy" . . .

 

[EzekielRaiden]

not sure, do you find Musk’s post to be tolerant?

Exactly this.

This thread--from start to finish--is driven by Elon Musk saying that anyone who criticizes Gary Gygax should "burn in hell".

Anyone asking for "tolerance" or "compassion" etc., etc. has rather a burden of proof for showing why this spark of blatant, hostile intolerance should be given full respect, when it is not a respectful act itself. The so-called "Paradox of intolerance" vanishes as soon as you recognize that intolerant actions are, themselves, overt, disruptive, harmful acts. Tolerance means promoting non-harmful acts and opposing harmful ones. Intolerance is a harmful act when it is expressed. If it's never expressed in a way that ever affects other people...who gives an aerial coitus?

 

[Umbran]

WotC & Tondo should apologize to the Fandom of Gygax and make better choices in the future. Try to make peace.

Nobody should have to apologize for simply reporting the truth.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Who is suggesting that? Quote the post. Otherwise, you’re just strawmanning and concern trolling.

I am not going to single out posters like I said. But I am not concern trolling and am not trying to build a straw man. To be clear I wasn't saying this was the predominant position in the thread. Just that it is present in some of the posts I have seen.

 

[Umbran]

I am not going to single out posters like I said. But I am not concern trolling and am not trying to build a straw man. To be clear I wasn't saying this was the predominant position in the thread. Just that it is present in some of the posts I have seen.

Mod Note:
That makes this a pretty passive-aggressive approach - you are claiming bad behavior, but people need to guess what you are talking about. That's not appropriate.

If you see behavior that breaks the rules, you should REPORT IT, not make vague, indirect public accusations. If it doesn't break the rules, please stop trying to police it.

 

[Umbran]

You can take the lessons to heart and still be kind to family who don't. And I think in the end love is more powerful in changing people than rejection.

Rejection isn't about changing people. It isn't about punishing the wrongdoing. It is about protecting oneself.

If a member of the family has become toxic, there is no onus on anyone else in the family to put up with it, or try to fix it. If they want to try to help people to learn better, that's great. But simply not allowing that into their homes and lives is a perfectly reasonable choice.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yeah, I think it's mostly an American thing. The near-deification of our country's founders is pretty disturbing in certain places on the Internet. It's like Bioshock Infinite, except not satire.

It's only gotten worse since that term was coopted by a certain brand of Nationalists, who use it as shorthand for the ideal "kind of person" suited for leadership. After all, our Founding Fathers all fit a certain mold (they were all white, they were all male, they were all wealthy landowners, I'll let you extrapolate from there.)

It's not just an American thing . . . the deification of our heroes . . . but we really like doing it, and have gotten rather good at it.

As a public school teacher I can tell you, it makes teaching history, literature, and science a lot harder than it needs to be.

 

[Steampunkette]

Rejection isn't about changing people. It isn't about punishing the wrongdoing. It is about protecting oneself.

If a member of the family has become toxic, there is no onus on anyone else in the family to put up with it, or try to fix it. If they want to try to help people to learn better, that's great. But simply not allowing that into their homes and lives is a perfectly reasonable choice.

You are -exactly- right, Umbran, thank you.

It doesn't matter if they're family, friends, neighbors, or strangers. I let them know they're being bigoted and give them the opportunity to adjust their perspectives and attitudes. Ff they double down, they're gone from my life. I gave them the chance to change and they made the choice not to.

What they do after that is neither my concern nor my problem.

If they later change their positions and come back we can talk about mending fences and rebuilding bridges. 'Cause I'm only intolerant of their intolerance. Not them as people.

 

[MGibster]

I feel like it's a very foreign thing to me and those around me--I assume UK generally, but I can't speak for anybody else. The concept of venerating 'founders' or 'fathers' is very alien; the very words feel alien. I wonder if it's more an American phenomenon, but I kinda cringe whenever I see terms like that.

It's very much an American thing. For much of our history, to criticize the Founding Fathers was to criticize America itself. I took a graduate course on the Civil Rights Movement, and the professor asked us what we thought of Martin Luther King, Junior's decision to allow children to march in one of their protests even knowing violence was likely to follow. At first nobody was willing to even offer the mildest of criticisms and then a few students moved on to halfhearted criticisms. "Oh, it was really important." To many Americans, MLK was the Civil Rights Movement and you couldn't criticize one without criticizing the other.

So it is with Gygax. To some people, criticism of Gygax or even older products is a criticism of D&D itself.