Set a Palworld death policy without surprising existing players

Write your Palworld death rules in player language before editing the server. “Keep inventory” does not explain whether equipment, team Pals or the character itself survives. Existing players may carry valuable items while they test a changed rule. Use a disposable character on a separate test world whenever your proposed policy includes permanent loss.
Separate the three decisions
The current Pocketpair reference lists 
DeathPenalty options for retaining or dropping items, equipment and team Pals. It also documents 
bPalLost for permanent Pal loss on death and 
bHardcore for the inability to respawn. Read those controls together before assuming that one inventory setting describes the whole death outcome.
Check the version selector in the official documentation and compare the supported keys with your installed build. A newer reference may describe features your server does not yet support. Record the existing values, including 
bCharacterRecreateInHardcore if your build supports it. Do not toggle Hardcore on a valued world to discover what happens to established characters.
Document and test the intended outcome
Make a short policy table covering normal inventory, equipped items, team Pals and respawning. State what players should expect for each category. Share it with the group before the maintenance window.
Back up the active configuration and complete world save. Use your existing configuration guide to locate the authoritative options record; do not replace it with a small fragment containing only death settings.
On the separate test world, apply the proposed supported values while the process is stopped. For a no-drop policy, review 
DeathPenalty=None alongside the permanent-loss and Hardcore switches rather than assuming the first value overrides everything.
Join with expendable items and no valuable Pals. Record the test character's state, perform one controlled death and inspect the resulting respawn, inventory and any dropped bag.
Repeat the relevant test after a clean restart. Compare what happened with every row of your policy table before proposing the live change.
Apply the agreed policy
Schedule the live edit outside a boss attempt or community event. Stop the server, change only the confirmed values, and start it again. Check that the panel preserved them. Tell players the effective time and describe the observed outcome without claiming that a test covers every mod or unusual death circumstance.
Keep temporary event rules distinct from permanent server rules. If you plan to restore the previous policy after an event, record the exact values and the planned time. Ask players to store valuable gear before either transition. Avoid combining the change with difficulty, raid or crossplay adjustments, which would complicate an unexpected result.
Recover from a mismatch
If behaviour differs from the agreement, stop the experiment and restore the recorded settings. Restoring a rule cannot return items or Pals already lost. Preserve the current save before assessing an older checkpoint with support, and consider the progress other players would lose in a world rollback. Do not promise item recovery until someone has checked a suitable archive.
Related help and sources
Edit Palworld server settings safely
Update Palworld while preserving a recoverable save checkpoint
Pocketpair death and Hardcore parameters.