As much as I like the idea of permanent character death.. which I do.. I think it should be pretty darn forgiving. As in, a character will always have some way to get out of a situation that gets them killed around 2-3 posts before hand, and their owner should definitely be made aware of what could be killing them and why. Of course, they can only work with what their character knows though, so this may mean people are more likely to meta-game without meaning to... 

TL;DR

We don't want deaths, but we want the fear of dying.. I'm happy to have it.

And MrD, don't worry about it! RL comes before RP!