The world tends to savour well flavoured characters, while the garish and crude are chewed up and spat out in a single motion. If you want to live, choose flavour and style.
Immortals is unlike the stock dice based roll playing and role playing games. It is not about beating up a long list of numbers, or finding the optimum mix of numbers to describe yourself. Naturally, experienced players are going to choose their numbers with a more educated opinion, but at the same time they are expected to be more educated. In the rare case where experienced players lapse in concentration, the re-education is usually fairly direct.
Immortals is a form of entertainment that is much better enjoyed as a part of the amusement rather than a victim of it.
EditHow to be a Victim
A victim in Immortals is someone who gets acted on in a negative way. Sometimes by other players, but mostly by the world.
EditDo Nothing
Your character is your avatar in the immortals universe and game. But there are times when your characters has to act. Doing nothing is a quick way to earn some kind of character penalty. Sometimes doing nothing will get you killed, or worse.
If it's time to act and you don't know what to do, choose something (anything) and do it. Sometimes there are right answers, but most of the time the right answer is just to do something that isn't nothing. Anything is better than nothing and even if you choose something that is completely wrong, you just learned what not to do (in those cases where there is a next time).
EditTry to Steal the Limelight
The game is about shared camera time. All the main characters get camera time, but not all at the same time and not when it is someone else's turn.
It's definitely useful to be able to save other players from harm. But there are times when other players have to fend for themselves. Once a course of actions has started, it is often fatal to get in the way. In immortals, barging in on Juliet and telling her that Romeo is at the pub with his Franklin is well, ...
There are two common ways a player gets camera time. One is during combat when everyone needs to start explaining why they aren't dying and exactly how they are contributing to the demise of the opponents.
Another is when a player initiates an action on the world or some entity in the world. For example, the door won't open and no one has the key. One of the would be heroes starts picking the lock. Don't interrupt with your disintergration ray. Another player has initiated a potentially dangerous interaction. It's a chance for their story to unfold a little. Save your disintegration ray for invisible silent water that is behind the door.
EditBreak the Suspense
Could be considered a variation on Stealing the Limelight, but you can do it to yourself. Same kind of principle. Basically don't try to destroy the scene, let it play out. It's not about "winning", it's about a story unfolding. Sometimes it's more interesting to loose, or be rebuked in an interesting manner than have the whole scene undone.
Sometimes it's life and death, so you have to use everything you have. But if the choice is between a time altering wish that undoes/erases the entire fight and struggling on, experienced players will struggle on.
More commonly, this occurs in roleplaying situations, especially dealing with NPC's that are no match for a group of immortals. If one player is engaging in conversation, perhaps trying to drop false information or garner useful information, don't decide it's time to crush skulls. If the party is engaged in conversation with NPC's, leave the Klingon quotes at home.
EditBe Stupid
Apparently blocking a sword with your neck is not a good idea. Common sense prevailing, most people would realise this. If you happen to have decided to try blocking a sword with your neck, on your head be it.
There are lots of less obvious things that fall into the category of "Being Stupid". Some classics are: dealing with devils, killing innocents, opening things that have been well shut, pushing buttons, building chaos reactors in the abyss, speaking the names of named creatures (including other, more powerful immortals), trying to prove/disprove the existence of god within the game world, getting too close to prophets, drawing from decks of many things, going to london, choosing starting items that are death stars and playing with solar space/time lenses.
EditThe Spare Tyre
This is a special kind of character. It's good and it's bad. It's good for the party (if they know what they are doing). It's bad for you.
Basically you don't do anything until other people start telling you what to do. This is fine if you are new or if you join in the middle of a story arc that is near completion. If it happens all the time then your input is negligible and you are being used as a back up character.
Some people seem fine in this role, but it's really one you should be working your way out of.
EditHow to Act
Immortals is a series of scenes, with some planning and choices in between. Like a movie or book, a lot of mundane detail is skipped. As your character becomes more capable, more details are skipped. What was a challenge, is now trivial and no longer worthy of attention.
This is a common theme. You cannot get through the game simply repeating the same thing over and over again. You don't figure out the "best" combo and repeat it forever. Once it has been done too many times, it is "common". Contrary to this are "signature" spells or abilities. These are spells you will use for you whole career, your character is identified by them. With the exception of these, everything gets harder to do the more you do it or it fades as a challenge and you stop doing it.
So, how do you stay on top of the "doing stuff" curve? Be prepared for your spells to stop working. Maybe you'll be facing NPC's who are immune to all or a part of the effect and you need to come up with something new or use the old stuff in a new way. Be adaptable. Try something different and see if it works. Basically, you need to start "pinging" the new world to see what you have available that might be useful. Typically, this needs to be done at speed tho.
EditHot Divinations
Sometimes the rules change or your are facing something completely unknown. Often at an inconvenient time, like the start of combat. It is time to figure out what is good and what is bad against this new foe. Hit it with a range of attacks. See what works and use that.
This is something you get better at. It's always a balance between using something you have found that seems to work okay versus trying a different attack type that might be better, but might also be a waste of an action.
EditImmunities
You're a blast mage and they don't care about your favourite attack, or even all your attacks. Well, time to get your skinny butt up there into melee range, you didn't put 3 points into staff for nothing. You could even try using strange magic items to see what happens. Go support for another mage or for the tank if you can.
Maybe you're the tank and you can't touch your enemy. Annoy them, taunt them, get under their feet, disrupt their movement, make them attack you and not someone else. You're (supposed to be) hardest to kill and you've probably got all the best healing consumables.
EditBe Prepared
This is dubious advice. You can be over prepared and under prepared. A large part of Immortals is about knowing what's available to you (being prepared) and being able to act on the spur of the moment (which means not being over prepared).
For a lot of people, being over prepared means you've figured out lots of things you can do and then you sit there waiting for one of the situations to come up. It's a kind of player "freeze up". The exact situations don't come up and you don't act.
A bit less preparation and rather than waiting for situations, you're waiting for particular situational triggers and you know which items match which triggers. You hear fire and think: "fire breathing potion, red dragon scale", you hear tower and think: "pass wall, climbing, and lightning bolt". Then it's a matter of filtering out the useful item/spell's triggered in each situation and having the confidence (or over confidence) to use them.
EditGreat Deeds
As the ambient temperature of the universe rises, so does the dynamic and fluidic nature of magic. By the time it is so hot that the ventilation systems are pumping the brown stuff, your magic will be able to do things it never could before.
Call in dramatic something or other, heroic tension, or ambient temperature of the universe. Something happens at the apex of story lines and magic can do things it normally can't. When everyone is about to die, try anything, no matter how crazy it might seem to use. Perhaps it will work, just then, just in that micro second of the universe.
EditTake Advice
Sometimes other players can have brilliant idea's for you character. Or maybe they just know more about the game and can point you in the right direction. Sometimes there are things that you *should* be doing, but don't like, no matter how firmly it is within your power, so don't do it, it's your character. But don't hesitate to use a good idea just because someone else suggests it.
EditKnow your Strengths
The one thing that is unavoidable is the tension of combat. For some it is an opportunity to loose things they worked hard to gain. For others, it is an opportunity to visit death upon who ever stands before them. Regardless of how it looks, winning is always better than losing.
If you hate combat and play immortals for the adventure and story, you are in for pain. No one escapes combat, so find something useful you can do and do it. You can't hide from the camera so make sure you have something to do when it's pointing in your direction.
If you love combat immortals style, then you already know what to do.
EditSo, you want to Fight
First rule, beating guys who are tougher than you is all that counts.
Second rule, a simple plan is the fastest to execute and most likely to succeed. If you are doing complicated shit, you are going to get confused.
Third rule, over defend so you can act. Someone tougher than you is usually faster as well. They go first. They hit you first. If you have to buy off damage, make sure you buy it off. If you only just buy it off, you'll likely end up tapped for the current round (unable to act).
For tanks, you have to engage and hold the opponent for long enough that you or someone on your side can beat the enemy down. If you are fighting someone tougher than you, the only way you can survive their direct attention is through burning power and defences. If they are tougher than you and hitting you, the longer the fight the worse it is. If they are not hitting you, they are hitting your support and/or damage dealers. If it is tactically in their favour to kill you last, you need to convince them otherwise through raw damage or continuously interrupting their planned actions (if you can). Either way, you are buying time for you side, hopefully while doing some serious damage.
For support (rogues, dex based fighters, etc), keep the rest of the party (especially the tank) alive, preferably by interrupting and damaging the bad guy. Blow your one off killing shots and instant dodges as soon as possible. Unless you can do sustained long term damage there is no reason you aren't the first pile of blood on the floor.
For blast mages and other ranged characters. Well, the tank and support players are there to soak damage for you. If you don't kill the bad guy, you're not pulling your weight and why should the other players be closer to the danger than you. Figure out how it is you kill and make sure you are good at it.