Planescape Torment springs to mind: a game in which the mystery of respawning is a crucial part of plot. In other words, it may be said that it has to be worked into the world, lest the game becomes a wet dream of either the GM or the players.*
You know, I thought of something like this, but since this isn't a campaign I'll be running anytime soon, I'll put the idea up here for adoption and/or co-option.
The PCs are on board a colony ship that's hurtling out towards a distant star system, and spend most of their time in hibernation- but to put all that spare time to good use (while keeping the colonists' bodies resting and preventing brain atrophy), they are divided into groups, then brain-linked to one another and the ship's computer, which puts them in various dream-scenarios- some mundane, some wonderful- that draw upon their memories and are designed to test them as individuals and as a team. If everyone dies, the dream emulation "red-outs" (named for the becoming aware of the light shining through one's eyelids in the hibernation pods) and restarts from the most recent critical juncture. If any one character dies in-dream, then the dream destabilizes a bit (as it ceases to draw on that character's memories, but there's nothing to fill the gap), and that character reconnects with the others and "respawns" at the next critical juncture reached.
The starting scenario that I came up with is that everyone is on board an old-fashioned locomotive going along some seaside cliffs. The party will lollygag a good deal, conversing amongst themselves, and if they discover that nobody else is on-board the train, they'll likely just explore aimlessly a bit. Then the train hits the end of the track, derails off a cliff, and kills everyone in a few seconds of screeching metal and screaming flesh. When everyone respawns a moment later, they'll know to run to the engine and put on the brakes, narrowly saving themselves and the train.
Off in the distance behind them, they see a town. Do they want to put the train in reverse? Climb down the cliff and investigate the ocean? Check the cars for clues as to where everyone else went?
There's a whole world in here.
edited 21st May '12 8:25:32 PM by Muramasan13
Smile for me!Ask and ye shall receive: I give you Comfortably Grim. Unfortunately, it's not out yet, but what I've seen of the pre-release material for it seems to be right up your alley. The players are called Operatives, and they each get a set of cloned cyborg bodies. Each time they die, they come back stronger, smarter, and faster, but also less and less organic. In other words, it's a Deconstruction of Paranoia by way of Doomsday. Quite the concept.
Also, it gives you an excuse to run Legend, which is a fantastic system that everyone should try.
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That sounds rather like a trilogy called the Wonderland Gambit - except that the networked people transition to a different VR world, determined by the subconscious of the first person to get there.

I've been playing far too much Dark Souls lately, and I got to thinking: what would a campaign where the players regenerate if they die be like?
I mean, hard as hell, of course. It would be any Killer Dungeon Master's wet dream. But other than that. Ideas?
Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-