Player Killing and Permadeath.

[Mackrels]

A small but fanatical group believe that without the possiblity of Player Killing and the result of that PK being permadeath that there can be no real Role Playing.

Strictly speaking that is not true.

Right now, every character in TEC is essentially a Greek God.

The various Gods represent different things, and some Gods are higher up in the Divine Scheme of things, but Gods we are, from the newest newbie to the most seasoned veteran.

The Gods fight and bicker, scheme and plot, wreak havoc upon the mortals (NPCs, PNPCs, and purchased NPCs like dogs/guards etc.), and ocassionally deal injuries to one another.

But the fact remains they just can't kill each other.

The Gods can allow themselves to fade away, if they wish it upon themselves, and there is an arcane, somewhat unreliable, ritual to bring a God to his unwilling end (Death decided by Trial).

But for the most part the Gods live on, and the longer they live the more their pettiness grows, and with pettiness, frustration. And out of frustration, spite. And from spite are born the griefers.

The previously suggested GM 'solution' of making a PK system with luckable death, does nothing to address the 'God' problem.
Since it's not really killing the only thing it does is allow you to take another 250 role points from someone on top of whatever the items they were carrying cost them. It will only add another lever for griefers and compound the frustrations of most of the player base.

Admittedly to some people the 'God' problem is not a problem at all, personally I'm tired of playing the role of an impotent deity, I want to play a mortal, and a mortal among mortals, not a mortal among Gods.

The solution is PK with permadeath.

Those two things, both of them, equal importance.