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A solution for PK. My experience is below followed by the simple solution:

My experience:

I had a player rping a murdering highwayman attack me despite I not speaking to him IC and saying OOC that I was new, had no idea about the commands or combat,and refuse to RP with him. He attacks anyway. So, I was getting attacked, trying not to die, at the same time as speed reading help files...and despite his uber ridiculously high powered looking equipment and knocking out two other newbies, "HE" got knocked out and loses! The murderer keeps trying to wake up, and I naturally assume he will try to finish off the others. So, I finally figure out how to kill him by speeding through help files and bam, he dies! Then all of a sudden someone comes along and gives him a free resurrect with all his magical uber gear intact, because, in my frantic state speed reading help files, I apparently did something wrong, and he was suppose to not be killed. So there he goes on his merry way, to go rob and murder some more newbies!

Bottom line is that these people are vile for newbies if there are no IC consequences. However, it is not actually his fault, because, there will always be people like this! Rather, the issue is the way PK is handled. There is no need for strict rules or any, to be honest, if the below two simple ideas are implemented.

THE SOLUTION: All of this, however, is EASILY remedied with 2 simple steps:

1) Remove the constitution point loss from reincarnation and make the penalty something temporary. For example: For X in-game hours you suffer Y de-buff.

2) Implement a reputation system. Have squads of guards patrol the areas between all cities and frequently used routes who will spot known offenders who perpetrate such acts and either attack, arrest, or fine them, depending on their crimes or reputation.

These two solutions will both lessen the penalty of being Pked to those who are young and give some more realistic IC consequences for people that are far too pk happy, perhaps, even adding an element of fun to try and avoid the authorities. With the above two solutions in place there is no need for strict pk rules.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, was he a murderer, or did he only knock out the two with you?

There are IC consequences, though. You can RP about the attack, tell others what he looked like, put people on their guard. Well RPed villains of the past have been barred from places like Waterdeep(The crier even shouts out their names so newbies know who to avoid). I don't think of the existence of antagonists as a problem that needs to be remedied.

Player Killing (PK) and Player vs Player (PVP) are vastly different in immediate impact.

There are NPCs who respond to player actions, but this is not something I plan on enacting globally in all areas for IC and practical reasons.

Despite that some of my own past experiences make me tend toward sympathy for you, I also know there are at least two sides to every story and so try not to have an opinion on things for which I was not present. That said, I have a few general points in response to your suggestions that will, I hope, make things a little clearer and less scary.

As far as coming back from the dead, we have several options, all accessible to new players and most lacking any penalty lasting past, usually, an hour or so. From levels 1 to 9, PCs who are killed come back immediately to life in their hometown without any debuff or other hinderences to continuation of play other than having to retrieve the corpse if desired. From level 10 onwards, we have...

• Raise dead: Essentially what you suggest, it carries no permanent injury to constitution, and the duration of its penalties is somewhat longer for high-level PCs and somewhat shorter for low-level PCs. There is an experience loss associated with this one, but it is available at any of the myriad NPC healers across the world, so you don't need a PC cleric.
• Resurrection: This one also imposes a temporary, albeit lesser debuff, and no corpse is even necessary to cast it. It also brings you back up without any experience loss.
• Supplicate resurrection: This one is available to the faithful of any deity who has favor at or above liked, which is very easy to obtain for pretty much any class/deity combo. I believe it has the same lesser debuff that the resurrection spell does, but it's been a while. Otherwise, it's painless.
• Reincarnation: Yeah, this exists... not sure why.

So in short, there are several ways to come back to life. In practice, unless you're a high-level, faithless loner who got himself PK'd in a really obscure or tough area without any friends to call upon for help, death by player really tends not to be a huge deal.

As for a renown sort of system, it's a great idea in theory, but judging by how well city guards enforce their justice systems, it's not something that could be relied upon even if it were practical to implement on a larger scale than we have now. Like Alth says, though, that's where RP and player-to-player interaction can come in wonderfully. I've seen people post about their attackers on IC message boards, spread word of them by mouth and Magical Post, etc. Bring it up at your church's next faith event, whatever. It can be a great way to get other players involved and even sometimes, if done well, to play up the villain's scare factor in those cases where you feel he or she deserves a lowkey thumbs-up.

Thank you for the response Areia, and for the information, indeed, very helpful.
I am glad there are some options available. I am not sure I would be able to use any, however. I just started, so do not really know anyone in the game. Over level 10, but no contacts, so if I died, and do not know anyone, I would have to restart ( I wont accept a permanent stat loss). So the dangers of someone assaulting me on the street while I am trying to meet others is enough to end my character. That was why I suggested removing the constitution loss for others in my situation, and just make it an extended temporary debuff.

PK situations are really quite rare in FK, and as someone pointed out above, this was not actually PK since nobody died (I'm assuming that everyone was on killmode stun and the protagonist died accidentally by not being aided in time. It happens). Even in a situation where a player dies as a result of PK, players of this game are not inconsiderate and will usually arrange a way for the dead person to be returned.

Knowing people IC is a major part of playing this game, in fact it's the whole fundamental point of it. If you haven't met people, hang around in popular places, go to events that are held, join a faith. Areia confirmed all of the possible ways that you can return to life if you happen to die (through PK or adventuring), and there are a lot of options there. If you decide that RPing with other people isn't for you, then I don't know what to tell you. It's going to be a hard game to play without friends and for me it wouldn't be much fun.