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Does Pathfinder Society Play require 'outside' group memberships to participate?
Example: I show up to a convention (or preregister) and they have a spot on the registry form for InsertYourGameAssociationHere. Do I need to be a member of that association to participate in those events, even if they are under the Pathfinder Society banner?
Thank you very much for your time!
I went to the Ontario Toronto Fan Expo last year with my boyfriend and we pretty much spent most of the time playing Pathfinder. We were not and are still not part of any organization and I was one of two Americans there!
In my experience it's a first come first serve kind of deal in which you come early and sign up with your character/level and person. Not sure about Paizo Con though.
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You can't force anybody to let you play. If, for example, the RPG club at your university or whatever wants to host PFS you can't force them to let you play without becoming a member, if that's what you mean.
But I have never seen anything like this in a convention. Do you mean something like "We have tables only for 'New York Dice Rollers United' members and one of it happens to be a PFS table"?
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University clubs can be touchy subjects, since alot of these types of clubs have a budget of some kind as well as an expected curriculum of activities that the club is supposed to adhere to in order to continue to receive funding from the school. Under such circumstances, I don't see why they couldn't let a non-club member try it at least once before requiring membership. Each school has their own policies concerning that, however.
Officially from a PFS standpoint, if you have a core rulebook and some dice, you can play. Even if that means you'll need to use a pregen. The only reasons I can think of that would bar you from participating:
1) You have a reputation and not a very good one at that.
2) The table/group is already at capacity for the event and has no choice but to turn people away.
Number 2 can happen frequently, depending on your area. Alot of areas have "Lodges", which is really a cover word for regional organization. Some Lodges cover major cities and surrounding nearby areas. Others cover the whole state/country. Typically, the VOs of the Lodge are responsible for maintaining organizational structure within the region as well as coordinating all the places in which PFS games occur on a regular basis. Typically you'll find that lodges of this size will have a sign-up system in place (like Warhorn) where people can register and sign up for games on a first come, first served basis.
Conventions often work similarly in the same regards of sign-ups, but they're open to anyone who's paid a fee to participate in the event. Conventions are great not only because it gives the chance to show off at a broad spectrum, but it also gives the opportunity to add new players to the community.
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Tsriel, our cultures might have clashed there. At my university (I'm from Germany) the student-organized clubs won't receive money from the university, though they can apply for money at the Fachschaftsrat, a board elected by students among themselves. These could of course say "We meet at X in room Y, but you have to be a member to play" and refuse someone just showing up with no connections to the club (or the university itself) just as you can refuse someone in front of your house who wants to enter your living room to participate.
So yes, of course it'd be unusual. Just not impossible.
I'm kinda worried however that we speculated and asked for clarification and Wei just commented with "This is what I needed to know" - maybe we told him total bogus because it doesn't apply to his situation...