[silvarilon]

... except permadeath during the bedroom roleplay can land the player in jail.

But seriously, I'd want to recognize two broad "types" of roleplaying.

Some players basically roleplay "themselves" with some quirks. They may roleplay a character that is an elven ranger and hates dwarves, but otherwise they are "playing themselves" - much like you'd "play yourself" while playing Halo. The player is making decisions like "Alright, I love to use the sniper rifle!" even if the story nominally tells them that their character is named "Master-Chief." - when roleplaying in the bedroom, people would (presumably) be taking this sort of role.

Other players roleplay a personality quite distinct from their own, much like an author of a book is writing "someone else" - they may decide that, in their books, Master-Chief uses knives, even if they would prefer a sniper rifle. These players are also much more likely to handicap their characters in various roleplayed ways - for example, they may know there is a trap, but be playing an optimistic and naive character, and walk into that trap.

So, the permadeath decision will effect those two general types of players very differently. If you're "playing yourself" then your character can die, and you can pick up a new one. Sure, you've lost items, story, contacts, skills, etc. but you can still have "that same sort of fun" with your next character. Maybe your next character is a dwarven axeman rather than an elven ranger, but essentially you're still able to jump in and enjoy the game.

The second type of player *may* benefit from their character dying. Some players find the story gets stale, but can't let go of their characters. And a dramatic end is better than a story just trailing off into nothing. But they also have a lot more to loose. If I'm writing the Lord of the Rings, and I'm halfway through book 2 and someone tells me "Frodo has to die now. Introduce a new character instead." then that is going to throw me. Either the new character is going to have to take up Frodo's role (which is bad for believability in a strong RP mud) or they're going to have to follow some other story.
And if I was enjoying the game because of my character's role in that story, I might not be able to switch to a new character and continue the game with a similar amount of enjoyment. If they kill of Spiderman in the comics, I might not be able to continue reading my Spiderman comics with the same enjoyment, even if they introduce a new character. Maybe they'll start telling a story about Wolverine. But I was buying and following the story of Spiderman, not Wolverine. Yeah, Wolverine is cool. Just not what I was after.

I'm certainly not saying I'm against death for those "tell a story about a character" players. But I do think it's worth recognizing those two types of players, and recognizing that the costs are different.

And then, yeah, I agree with Milawe. There are excellent players who prefer both types of roleplaying. There are excellent players who both prefer or dislike permadeath. As long as the game admin sets a good tone and enforces the game properly, it'll attract the players who prefer that setup. Neither is "better" or "worse" than the other.

But it's still worth discussing the pros and cons. That helps us target our games. And there are certainly many levels of "in between" (e.g. permadeath, but only at great cost to the killer. Or permadeath with consent. Or permadeath, but only if they victim takes specific risks, etc.)