Well, having gotten PKed 5 times in 24 RL hours (perhaps 8 online?) has given me inspiration to make suggestions. (And no, the RP never seemed to go beyond, evil alignment+available target=PK attempt, though of course I'm not psychic.)

1. Balancing classes at low to mid-level would indeed help a lot. Despite playing a shapeshifter, none of my dozen or so PK losses had anything to do with ragers - they had to do with me being a pretty safe target at that level, given the right spell or prep to pierce invisibility. If there were more risk that a PK attempt would end in the initiator's death, there'd be far fewer attacks with low RP motivation.

2. How about a log that tracks one's killed targets (race/class/alignment), and the first three tells the PKer makes afterwards? This is reviewed at the immortals' whim, so a level 40 character could get punished for silly kills made at level 20. I think this would have value as a deterrent.

Examining target choice, role, and post-kill RP should make it reasonably clear what kills flow from RP. Immortals have to make their own judgements, of course. Personally, the difference between hack n' slash and (evil alignment+available target=PK attempt) isn't obvious.

3. With all the PKs, the community's interest in newbies seems more a desire for fresh meat rather than desire for roleplay partners. Giving the opposite impression would be useful, even if nothing could be done about low-RP PKs.

It may be worthwhile to give modest incentives to socially involve newbies/lowbies. Just to toss out some crude ideas: Perhaps a faction's guardian gets five extra HP for every active faction member under level 25. Perhaps socializing in the inn could give experience points similar to observation XP. Perhaps giving Heralds an impressive cabal power dependent on spending lots of time in the Inn would encourage them to be there and lead converstaions.