You get three lives. Lose them all and you go Hollow: you can still walk around
and talk, but you can't touch anything, for 48 hours. Unless another player
spends one of their own lives to bring you back.

That last part is the whole game. Whether anyone thinks you're worth a life is a
question you find out the answer to.

Beat another player and you take a spare life from them. If they have none
spare, theirs is destroyed and you gain nothing at all, so hunting people with
nothing left costs you and earns you nothing. Dying to the world is free: lava,
creepers, falls, the void. Only another player can take a life from you, so if
you never want to fight anyone, you never have to.

Standing is public. Every kill drops it, and killing the same person repeatedly
drops it far faster, because that's harassment and it's priced like it. Fall far
enough and the world notices: mobs spot you from further away, villagers stop
trading, you keep less XP when you die. It only recovers on days you play
without killing anyone.

New players can't be harmed and can't harm anyone for about three hours of real
playtime. Java and Bedrock both work, land claims are on, proximity voice chat
if you want it, and there is no pay-to-win of any kind.