Elon Musk hints at buying Hasbro in order to make D&D less woke

[CitizenVectron]

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Hasbro stock surged early Friday after Elon Musk mused about buying the toy making powerhouse for the rights to Dungeons & Dragons. The day prior, Musk announced plans to start his own artificial intelligence video game studio.

 

Telsa (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is an avid video game player, previously touting on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he ranks top 20 in the world for Diablo 4. Now, Musk appears to be adding video games to his production portfolio.

 

Musk seems to want the rights to Dungeons & Dragons for the upcoming game studio. The tabletop role playing game is owned by Hasbro's Wizards of The Coast division and was created by Gary Gygax.

 

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On Nov. 22, Musk responded to a post complaining about the Dungeons & Dragons 40th Anniversary "Making of Dungeons & Dragons" book. The poster alleged the book's forward "slams the original creators and attempts to distance themselves," from examples of sexism, cultural appropriation, and other problematic tropes within the original worldbuilding from the 1970s.

 

"Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons," Musk replied. "What the f*** is wrong with Hasbro and WOTC?? May they burn in hell."

 

Absolute worst Gilded Age: Part 2. At least before the fucking billionaires were building railroads and pumping oil. Now they are waging culture wars to ruin people's enjoyment of things.

[CitizenVectron]

Also, to be clear, I don't think there is any chance of this happening. But it shows how dangerous the ultra-rich can be when they can potentially do things like this out of capriciousness. This guy could very well be the first trillionaire while at the same time launching the Optimus Prime Cybertruck.

[Ominous]

Buying someone else's ideas / brand is very on brand for Elmo.

[chakoo]

[Jason]

Fuck, Hasbro owns Diplomacy.

[TheShader]

3 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Also, to be clear, I don't think there is any chance of this happening

Everyone thought that with Twitter, too. Mind you there were extenuating legal circumstances behind that but I'm still not taking anything for granted in this timeline. 

 

I'll, sadly, be done with D&D if this does come to pass. I've stayed on despite Hasbro's shenanigans because I like and believe in the creative side of the product and all the individuals that do that work. Even though corpo daddy gonna be corpo daddy and I do adjust my spending habits accordingly when stuff happens like the OGL debacle. 

 

But just like Twitter, I don't think I can continue to support it if it ever becomes in Elon's hands and he's doing stupid shit like naming a new edition as D&D X Edition and is demanding WotC revert all of the lore that has been fixed over the last several years to be less problematic. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, TheShader said:

Everyone thought that with Twitter, too. Mind you there were extenuating legal circumstances behind that but I'm still not taking anything for granted in this timeline. 

 

I'll, sadly, be done with D&D if this does come to pass. I've stayed on despite Hasbro's shenanigans because I like and believe in the creative side of the product and all the individuals that do that work. Even though corpo daddy gonna be corpo daddy and I do adjust my spending habits accordingly when stuff happens like the OGL debacle. 

 

But just like Twitter, I don't think I can continue to support it if it ever becomes in Elon's hands and he's doing stupid shit like naming a new edition as D&D X Edition and is demanding WotC revert all of the lore that has been fixed over the last several years to be less problematic. 

 

Pathfinder is right there waiting for you!

[TheShader]

9 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Pathfinder is right there waiting for you!

At minimum I'll definitely buy a few Pathfinder books if this decision goes through. If nothing else to send a message. So they may definitely sit on my shelves, soon! 

 

Not sure, as of now, how much I'm interested in actually abandoning 5e. I've invested more time and energy into it than any other edition. During the 3.x days I just bought the basic books and home brewed everything. During 4e I didn't abandon DnD because of 4e but just hit my burnout phase and focused on further expanding into other games and systems. Then 5e came out and I went all in buying all the books, various modules, and running more 5e sessions than I've ran anything else. I keep wanting to run some CoC but keep getting sucked back into 5e . But if Elon takes over, even if I continue to play 5e, I probably won't openly advertise it as DnD nor will I buy anything new. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

4 minutes ago, TheShader said:

At minimum I'll definitely buy a few Pathfinder books if this decision goes through. If nothing else to send a message. So they may definitely sit on my shelves, soon! 

 

As an aside, it's definitely "crunchier" than D&D.

 

There's a reason why it's commonly called "Mathfinder"

[sblfilms]

This shows how little I know about D&D, I thought the nerds just make up the games themselves.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

11 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

This shows how little I know about D&D, I thought the nerds just make up the games themselves.

 

That's how it began waaaaaaay back when it was very much a sandbox-type experience where the DM effectively created the adventure. 

 

Over the years, it became a much more directed experience with the prevalence of story-driven adventure modules though there is a growing community known as OSR (Old School Renaissance) which seeks to recapture the mechanics of the early days.

[Paperclyp]

Our culture is so stupid. 

 

D&D is simultaneously too problematic and woke. 

[CitizenVectron]

5 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

Our culture is so stupid. 

 

D&D is simultaneously too problematic and woke. 

 

It's kind of like "hey, it turns out Uncle Cletus is really racist, and he keeps using the n-word. But I convinced him to no longer use it in front of Black people, just in private."

Chuds: "You've ruined Uncle Cletus, he's basically ANTIFA now! If he can only say racist things in private, then he's not the same person!"

 

D&D is most definitely not woke. But it's less problematic than it once was. But being less problematic is in itself a woke thing to the right-wing, apparently. Being polite or getting better at things is insulting to the right-wing.

[TheShader]

28 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

As an aside, it's definitely "crunchier" than D&D.

 

There's a reason why it's commonly called "Mathfinder"

Yeah, which the older I get the more I realized I only tolerated it in 3.x because I thought I had to in order to enjoy role playing . Which I think is why I fell so hard for 5e while getting absolutely burned out on 3.x. I enjoy telling a shared story, not assigning math homework. 5e is a good balance without completely throwing out crunch like a lot of alternative systems do. 

 

Now if there was a Pathfinder equivalent to 5e we might be in business . 

[Siebzehn]

There's enough good alternatives to DnD coming/already out that even if he were to do it if anything it would just reinvigorate the non-DnD games. Might be the best thing to create a competitive ecosystem.

 

I just wish I had people in my life to play TTRPGs with

[DPCyric]

It would kill Magic as well if he bought Hasbro 

[Kal-El814]

39 minutes ago, DPCyric said:

It would kill Magic as well if he bought Hasbro 

 

Don't threaten me with a good time!

[legend]

The only owner worse than Hasbro is probably Musk.

 

Also, I think 5e is crunchy and rule heavy enough. It still takes people a long time to learn all the systems and I'm skeptical that any games crunchier can reach the same level of success.

 

To reach the biggest audience there is a magic balance between having enough variety in mechanics to keep things interesting and not being overly complex. 5e is probably little on the complex side still, but is close to the ideal.

 

Normally I'd say who cares about audience size, but the popularity is really important if you want to get a big enough gang playing.

[TheLeon]

1 hour ago, Siebzehn said:

I just wish I had people in my life to play TTRPGs with

That’s my problem too. Oh well, I’ll just keep watching Dimension 20 on a loop.

[Uaarkson]

[Dawnguard2001]

So they hint at meddling with GTA 6 and now Elon wants to ruin DnD as well. Can they just leave something for me to enjoy in 2025. I sure as hell don’t want to go back to Pathfinder 1E.

[legend]

49 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

That’s my problem too. Oh well, I’ll just keep watching Dimension 20 on a loop.

 

A lot of people play remotely with the advent of virtual table tops. My whole group is remote, for example. One of the up shots is you can find remote groups to join. One of my friends did that for a while. I can ask how he found those groups, but just googling around, maybe this site will work?

 

I realize it's not the same as playing with people you know well already, but you will get to know people that way. I didn't know some of the people in my group when I started and now I do! 

[unogueen]

 

[MarSolo]

I bet Musk hated the Chris Pine movie because there was a female barbarian or something.

 

Speaking of, that movie fucking ruled.

[Siebzehn]

19 minutes ago, MarSolo said:

I bet Musk hated the Chris Pine movie because there was a female barbarian or something.

 

Speaking of, that movie fucking ruled.

I hope they make a sequel so much

[finaljedi]

1 hour ago, Siebzehn said:

I hope they make a sequel so much

 

 

 

[Best]

10 minutes ago, finaljedi said:

 

 

 

 

That has a 9% at rotten tomatoes 😆 

[finaljedi]

3 minutes ago, Best said:

 

That has a 9% at rotten tomatoes 😆 

 

Jeremy Irons knew what kind of a movie he was in.

[Siebzehn]

16 minutes ago, finaljedi said:

 

 

 

They honestly should have had Jeremy Irons in the new one

[TheShader]

55 minutes ago, finaljedi said:

 

 

 

I love this movie and will defend it to my dying day. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I know nothing about D&D except for the new movie I watched recently. What's problematic about it?

[Best]

1 hour ago, finaljedi said:

 

Jeremy Irons knew what kind of a movie he was in.

 

I honestly don't even know who that is. After googling him he's an accomplished actor. But that scene above is pretty funny. 

[Jason]

1 hour ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I know nothing about D&D except for the new movie I watched recently. What's problematic about it?

 

D&D Must Grapple With the Racism in Fantasy | WIRED

WWW.WIRED.COM

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And getting rid of it will take a lot of work.

 

 

[TheShader]

1 hour ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I know nothing about D&D except for the new movie I watched recently. What's problematic about it?

There's just a lot of subtle, and some not to subtle, racism that's been baked into the lore since the beginning. Most probably unintentional but it still exists all the same. 

 

DnD has enough lore to make LOTR lore look quaint and like a small children's book by comparison and it's been built upon continuously since the 60s and 70s. Some of it is just bound to not age as well as others. 

 

One bit of lore that most people point to is the Drow. A race of dark elves who have dark skin color on account of living underground. Which, for decades, has been the only dark skinned representation most prominently displayed in DnD but the race has also constantly written as being evil by nature and almost entirely irredeemable. Which I'm sure wasn't the intention when they were first written but isn't great when you take a step back and realized you've slowly created a race seen as black by many and you've made them the pure embodiment of evil and whose whole society is incapable of good (unless you're 'one of the good ones', aka Drizzt) 

[Kal-El814]

3 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I know nothing about D&D except for the new movie I watched recently. What's problematic about it?

 

1 hour ago, TheShader said:

There's just a lot of subtle, and some not to subtle, racism that's been baked into the lore since the beginning. Most probably unintentional but it still exists all the same. 

 

DnD has enough lore to make LOTR lore look quaint and like a small children's book by comparison and it's been built upon continuously since the 60s and 70s. Some of it is just bound to not age as well as others. 

 

One bit of lore that most people point to is the Drow. A race of dark elves who have dark skin color on account of living underground. Which, for decades, has been the only dark skinned representation most prominently displayed in DnD but the race has also constantly written as being evil by nature and almost entirely irredeemable. Which I'm sure wasn't the intention when they were first written but isn't great when you take a step back and realized you've slowly created a race seen as black by many and you've made them the pure embodiment of evil and whose whole society is incapable of good (unless you're 'one of the good ones', aka Drizzt) 

 

 

In addition to the whole “the species with the darkest skin is literally the most evil race” thing, fantasy generally and D&D specifically have for ages grappled with the notion that “race” is perfectly defined and is with rare exception an indelible trait down to the individual level. Dwarves love digging for gold because they’re born that way. Orcs like to fight because they’re born that way. Elves are near the pinnacle for beauty and craftsmanship because they’re born that way. Hobbits love things that grow and are homebodies who like creature comforts. Take any one of them outside their typical habitat and a longing to return to those things is often built into them. As Shader mentioned, there are of course exceptions to this (Drizzt, Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippin) and while those are often the focus of their respective tales, they exist to show the contrast between them and the typical members of their “race.”

 

“Race” gets tossed in quotes because in genre it’s often conflated and blended with “species” in ways that aren’t always perfectly mapped to the way those words are used academically or scientifically which makes the affair more confusing.

 

Apologists, well intentioned and otherwise (the latter group tends to be louder and more outspoken as always, but the former absolutely exist) tend to gloss over this to varying degrees of success. Yes it’s a fantasy setting and the conflicts often do boil down to good vs. evil. Yes some of these species are literally created by literally evil aligned characters and their creations have no say in the matter.

 

Buuuut it’s also difficult to split these things from reality as cleanly as said apologists occasionally claim. Again, it’s probably not a coincidence that the “races” most often associated with goodness and virtue are white / European / Western coded and the “races” most often associated with barbarity, evil, and oftentimes literal ugliness are darker skinned / African / Asian / Eastern-or-Southern hemisphere coded. It is probably not a coincidence that we hear way more about how something like black elves are “immersion breaking” because they “don’t belong in something inspired by Middle Ages Europe” but rarely hear about how things like references to crops, foods, pigments, language, etc., that come from the Americas break immersion. People will lament the existence of wheelchairs in a D&D setting, claiming that they’re anachronistic and immersion breaking despite some historical evidence suggesting that something akin to them has existed since well before the end of the first millennium. One of the modules for D&D that came out in 1985 was called Oriental Adventures. It has aged about as well as you’d expect given the name.

 

Some of the attempts to make the scene more inclusive have stumbled; analog gaming isn’t immune from lousy manifestations of good intentions. And it’s generally those attempts that are thrown under electron microscopes by bad faith actors and grifters like Musk who’s far from the first person to do this. In recent years Wizards has even employed… gasp… CULTURAL CONSULTANTS, which as people here likely know is like turning on Bat Signal except it’s fuckin losers and grievance grifters that show up in your DMs telling you to kill yourself instead of Bruce Wayne.

 

Also if anyone’s watched Stranger Things, the satanic panic concern about D&D was absolutely real. D&D is like the analog DOOM, people got big worried about it because it was gonna make their kids devil worshippers or some bullshit.

 

Anyway the TLDR is that D&D is like any nerdy property started by some white guys several decades ago that’s endured and gotten more popular than anyone could have guessed. Kinda problematic in origin which is occasionally used as justification for ongoing shiftiness, gatekeeping by assholes masquerading as well intentioned concern.

 

The good news is that RPGs in general right now have experienced an enormous boom and if you’re curious about them there are so many cool ones! People have mentioned Pathfinder which hey, some people like! There’s also Burning Wheel if you feel like Captain Crunch is for pussies. If you want something pretty cool that would only take a couple hours for the whole thing and you don’t actually SPEAK at all, Alice is Missing is awesome if the theme doesn’t seem like it would be too much. If a one shot where you talk gender roles seems cool, Women are Werewolves is cool if you’ve got the right crowd. If you want to kick the tires on something new-ish that has some good guardrails for your first time running an RPG and has some physical components and maps so your first go isn’t solely a theater of the mind thing, the Arkham Horror RPG Starter Set is a lot of fun and Edge just came out with the core rulebook if you end up liking that and wanna make up your own bullshit (Edge’s Star Wars Roleplaying beginner sets are also a nice way to ease into the narrative dice system which I like a lot, and fuck around in Star Wars, which I also like a lot). Blades in the Dark just came out with a digital supplement that seems awesome and I wanna run. Chances are if there’s a big game property you like, someone’s made an RPG version of it by now. Witcher, Fallout, Aliens (didn’t start as a videogame, I know  ) Cyberpunk (same comment as Aliens) and other obvious ones I’m sure I’m forgetting.

 

So yeah, play RPGs, they’re rad. I could run one online for folks here if they don’t mind me sucking shit as a DM (I’ve done it like 3 times) and we could agree on a system.