Between members GroupMe nicknames of ‘The Guild Master’ and ‘Councilor of Creativity’ the FWWG club is an insightful group with an imaginative drive. The club meets every Saturday with dinner at Antonian Hall at 5:30pm before heading down to the JSerra lobby together for their meeting at 7pm. 

Sophomore and founder Peter Mausolf, “The Guild Master,” shared his background with worldbuilding. “Back in Texas when I was in High School” he remarked, “someone started what was called ‘The Guild’. . .It was basically the same sort of layout where we got together, share[d] our worlds [and brainstormed].” Hoping he would have the same opportunity in college, Mausolf gathered a group of friends and carried out what he described as a legacy.  

Mausolf also emphasized the value of creative liberty for the club. When asked about his favorite aspect, he responded: “[I enjoy seeing] how different and unique everyone’s stuff is.  People are doing all sorts of things. They’re doing sci-fi, fantasy, sci-fantasy, post-apocalyptic dystopia; some are even doing more realistic fiction. . .There’s just so much people have brought to the table. . .” 

The club is a mixture of creative writing days and worldbuilding days. Worldbuilding consists of creating expansive fictional worlds involving settings, characters, languages, cultures, rules and even religions. Each meeting begins with a prompt which is either shared or different for each individual.  

Taking a unique approach for assigning prompts, member Joseph Johnson had each worldbuilder roll a D20 die and pick a playing card. Numbers corresponded to his list of prompts which progressively got more chaotic. Prompts ranged from riddles, quotes, concepts like ‘paper bag’ to ‘five-dimensional taco truck’, maps and even created languages. Everyone was also asked to incorporate the card they chose into their world. 

After turning on some lo-fi tunes, the one-hour worldbuilding session began. The room was quiet for the most part, but an atmosphere of typing, pencil sketching, and intense thinking was prominent. In the middle of working, Mausolf made sure to remind everyone that the point wasn’t to finish; it was to brainstorm.  

Everyone got the chance to share their creations with the group and engage in making questions and comments. Each presenter explained their prompt, passed around their drawings, mentioned important details about how their world is run, and shared any background stories.  Although prompts give each member a guideline, there were no strict rules for how one should go about creating their world. 

Member Charles Roberts, Councilor of Creativity, shared his train of thought when he received prompt #20 which was considered the most complicated of the list. He shared: “For my prompt I was given this page full of runes and arcadian looking symbols. I first went for a map [because] I love drawing fantasy maps. . . I spun off [from] that into what was in this city, why it was in ruin. . .and [created] all sorts of lore.”  

Roberts also ended with a friendly invitation to anyone with creative longings: “I would just like to say we’re always open to new members, even if you’re a causal writer or you don’t even write at all, but you want to get into it, we highly encourage you to come!” 

With the progression of Artificial Intelligence today, it’s safe to say that there’s a need for nourishing man’s God-given gift of thinking and the imagination. The FWWG encourages this creative freedom in both a fun and communal way.