I have to agree with Caddies here. Death affects so many aspects of an rp server, without a very stiff death penalty the server can quickly loose a lot of its flair. PvP becomes not a huge issue, exploring is not nearly as exciting, questing doesn't have the danger flair or demand you to really learn how to play your character in combat, and DM quest's can loose a lot of their zest. I guess at the end of the day, dying really really sucks. However, if you don't have a huge consequence then the reward for winning isn't that large either.