Penalty is not to stop abusing /die command. It is to make death somewhat terrifying. Well, id does not. It's boring. The only bad side i see from dieing is i must sit down every 10-15 steps i make for a 30 minutes. Well, sometimes you have to "unburden" yourself. When i've first read it i was thinking i have to drop all my stuff except quest items to the ground, and what? That guardian is BUYING items from me, i.e. the system is sooooo friendly so it almost tells "i'm sorry for your death, i know it could be OOC; it's a pity but i have to take something from you for your own sake. Select something you don't really need and give it to the guard. Don't worry, i will pay you for that, here. Now please go read some books in our library. Enjoy your stay and have good time. Ask someone to get you out of here if you still don't know the path when you will want to go back to Hydlaa. By the way, after you quit you will have a little annoying penalty for 30 mins, but, you know, well... hm... how it says... WELL I AM THAT HORRIBLE DEATH, WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM ME?!". Scary. You can increase penalty time up to 6 or 12 or 24 hours, that only make people to slowly get out from PS. Because, as i said, the penalty is just annoying, it does not terrify anyone. I agree that permadeath could be a solution. I know of OOC deaths, but there are many rogulike games providing that sort of dieing. You can play it for days or even weeks, maybe even trying to RP for it is quite easy there because you are really afraid for that little "@" on the screen, and die in a moment, after what you have to create a new character. And it often happens that you are killed by a bug (not an insect, i mean glitch), or just due to in-game event (you try to open a common door and a huge heavy boulder is falling on you) anyone knows it and no one is against it. Because despite of it's negative sides it brings a special and unique taste to the game. I doubd there ever will be permadeath in PS, and understand it - it's still a risky idea for such a succesfull project. But there could be at least really serious _permanent_ penalties: skills decrease, items loss, and so on. Much worse than in JUST-FOR-FAN-MMORPG's. Death is a thing that is always takes something forever - in our world is anything, but it can be something less vital somewhere. Maybe even there is a need to somehow make people to RP their own penalties, however not anyone are so fair to do that. That is not the same of course, but it's much closer then the current system.
Buy the way, don't want to be annoying, but that part of a setting with DR is a one of very few things i don't appreciate in PS. Because it steals last drops of heroism, sorrow, evil, and some other loud words from the world. Who can fairly mourn for the friend he've lost if that friend is soon to return. And as far as that is an officially part of a setting, one should NOT mourn for him. He should take no care if he is a hardcore roleplayer. That's the worst thing in PS to my mind, really. It's better to leave DR where it is but remove the ability to revive from world description and books (maybe it can be a rumor though). It is not so fair, but makes RP much more interesting and realistic.